So far, I’m doing great with this goal, and it’s been really fun to try different sugar alternatives and snacks. It has given shopping a whole new twist as I scan the ingredients of every box to see what might be inside!

On Monday I went to Walmart and discovered a new drink mix that tastes wonderful and doesn’t contain sugar or aspartame. It’s called Aqua Fusion and it comes in Cranberry (which I love!), Raspberry, Strawberry, Orange, and Lemon flavors. They actually taste just like Crystal Light! And the price is comparable to their On the Go packets. I wish they made this in those 2 quart 6-packs that Crystal Light has, though. We recently purchased a Reverse Osmosis water system and it’s so convenient to fill my water bottles with that and pour a packet in before I go to work out or when I need a sweet pick-me-up.

Another snack I have enjoyed is Mariani Dried Apricots (No Sugar Added) from Costco. A big bas was about $7.50, and let me tell you…these things are delicious! “Dried” is not really the right term, because these are so moist and delicious! I could eat them all day! I also enjoy sugar-free fruity yogurt for breakfast, lunch, or a snack. However, I found out that Yoplait Light is sweetened with Aspartame, so go with the generic Kroger brand at Smith’s. They use Splenda (sucralose).

Finally, I made myself some sugar-free oatmeal cookies yesterday! They are actually quite good! I used brown sugar and Altern (generic Splenda). Altern doesn’t melt like sugar does, so the cookies turned out a little dry and didn’t spread out like regular ones do, but the flavor was almost the same. Here are some pictures:

Above you can see the sweetener I used, along with the cookies before and after baking. The first batch turned out smaller and taller because I didn’t realize they wouldn’t melt and spread. I used a glass to flatten the following batches, and that made the shape more cookie-like.

Above you can see Anya (the girl I babysit) and Kaisa enjoying the cookies!