Thursday, February 12, 2009

artificial me


i tried the pc blue menu frozen steel cut oatmeal that i bought. it is $2.99 and comes in a box with two bowls. i only got the blueberry flavour but it also comes in vanilla almond. it's about 150 calories per bowl, with 4 or 5g of fibre and 4 or 5g of protein - only 2 ww points. not bad at all. unfortunately i found the flavour to be really bland. i don't know what i was expecting but i thought it would be instantly tasty without adding any sugar.

without thinking i ripped open a package of equal sweetener and dumped it on, and then was a little disgusted with myself. i think my use of artificial sweetener is getting out of control. i use it in oatmeal, in coffee, in tea, on my grapefruits... and why? because i have a giant box of it from costco? i don't even own a bag of regular sugar. isn't that sick? it's pretty strange. a lot of people who want to stop eating artificial sweetener have to ween themselves off of diet pop. i don't really drink diet pop... i just head straight to the hard stuff. i need some sort of plan. maybe if i take it slow i can eventually drink my coffee black. ah, the sweet dark bitterness... in theory that sounds delicious.

this morning for breakfast (in the car), i tried a mint chocolate clif bar. 250 calories, 3g fibre, 10g protein, 5 ww points. the verdict: WAY better than the carrot cake flavour. still a little artificial tasting, but not bad. kind of like a protein-y girl guide cookie. i don't know if i'd buy it again. i still want to try the chocolate chip flavour.

today it's incredibly windy outside. it's shaking the building! my cat is terrified of the wind. he's meowing and running around like a chicken with no head. up on the couch, down, into the bedroom, on the bed, down, into the bathroom, into the tub. what a strange little man.

12 comments:

Jen said...

I stopped using artificial sweeteners out of the packet...BUT, I drink diet pop on a regular basis...I use sugar free syrup in my coffee...blah blah blah...so really, all I did was stop using the powdered stuff!!!

When I used to live in southern alberta we used to get winds like that ALL the time! It was ridiculous!!! I hated feeling the apartment shake (and my cat hated it too!)

SeaBreeze said...

You should try the "Toffee Peanut Butter" Cliff bars when they get back on the shelf. Just like a sKor bar but with less sugar, more protein, and it'll sustain you. They're my FAVORITE

Anne said...

I'll look out for the oatmeal...I wonder if it's good with maple syrup?

HC said...

Girl Guides? Is this the Canadian Girl Scout?

I like the sound of yours better -- they sound more knowledgable, like they could really get me out of the woods.

Amanda said...

Oh, cats. Mine was a bit nutty last night and today too. The apartment makes all sorts of noises when it's rainy and windy and she did not like it at all.

I've never been a fan of artificial sweetener, but I did cut sugar out of my coffee, etc. recently. I used to have 3 sugars in my Americano, cut it down to 1, then realized that I was barely tasting it anyway, so now I don't need any. So, if you gradually cut down on the amount of sweetener, you'll probably notice that you don't even need it. Or even switch to regular sugar for awhile. Isn't the fake stuff more sweet than the regular?

Julie said...

I used Splenda for a long time. At some point I realized that every time I used it, I'd get bad headaches. I decided to cut it out completely for a few days, and guess what: no Splenda, no headaches. (Apparently, I'm not the only one who has had this problem with Splenda.) I then moved on to stevia, a natural no-calorie sweetener made from an herb, but it just didn't taste right to me, especially in my coffee (which I prefer to be quite sweet). So I'm back to sugar full force, my first love and a hard habit to break. *sigh*

Sarah said...

I am a splenda and diet coke junkie.. I know it's wrong.. and not good for me.. but I'm nowhere near ready to give it up yet!!

Cat said...

I'm lucky 'cause I never really have had any artificial sweetners. I drink my coffee and tea just with milk, and always have. I don't really add sugar to anything, except oatmeal (brown sugar...yumm!)

I LOVED the wind storms we had in 2007. They knocked down trees in Stanley Park though that were hundreds of years old.

I eat these bars called "Genisoy" and they come in a chocolate mint flavour, as well as peanut butter and chocolate fudge and I luurrve them!

fittingbackin said...

"straight to the hard stuff" hehe Awww your cat sounds like my dog when it comes to ANYTHING, water dropping, a sunbeam, you name it! I am a diet pepsi junkie- but i'm not really in to splenda - probably because i don't bake or drink coffee??

fittingbackin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
♥ Dee ♥ said...

I rarely use sweetener anymore. I've "trained my tastebuds". Now if only I could train my family's taste buds! The amount of brown sugar that I have seen dumped on a bowl of oatmeal... it's enough to send you into a diabetic coma!

healthy ashley said...

I can totally relate. I was hooked on Splenda and after a while I ended up putting it on EVERYTHING. I cut the artificial stuff cold turkey and switched to sugar.. then I worked on learning to live off less sugar. But never again will I go back to the chemicals in a packet!