Two large, black dogs. Avoid fries. The high-voltage power line

July 31, 2023. After the flatmate casting with a twenty-year-old journalism student named Stella, who was the only one who didn't cancel today's viewing appointment, I went back to Borsum. The Conti canteen was closed today due to renovation work, and I didn't feel like cooking. I was a bit disappointed that Jule had entered the wrong date for the flat viewing and thus missed the originally planned appointment. Jule studied fine arts and philosophy and had fascinated me with her acting video, which I discovered on the internet.

Before taking the train to Hildesheim, I got a honey-sweetened and salted cashew and peanut mix at Netto. Since I no longer bought sweets, I thought I would get something healthy. In Hildesheim, I met my sister Laura, who was just about to take the bus home from work. She worked as a waitress in a café and regularly took the bus. She gave me the tip to simply show my semester ticket, which was not actually valid on this bus, to the bus driver. "The bus driver won't notice anyway," she said. Her trick worked, and I saved five euros. I used this money to buy kidney beans, green beans, canned tomatoes, and zucchini in Borsum, and then made a rice pan for us.

But before I cooked, hunger prompted me to finish the remaining nuts. Shortly afterward, I got a stomach ache. Out of curiosity, I looked at the back of the nut mix package and found that I had consumed sixty grams of sugar in a short time and had significantly exceeded the WHO's recommended maximum sugar intake. I hadn't been aware that these nuts contained so much sugar. This surprise prompted me to establish a habit of always checking the nutritional table whenever I bought unknown foods. I resolved not to buy any food with more than 40% sugar per hundred grams. This specifically meant no jams, no chocolate spreads, no dried fruits, not even this nut mix, and the hardest part: no American cookies from the discount store and no blueberry or OREO muffins from the canteen.

To motivate myself for this habit, I googled the health disadvantages associated with high sugar consumption. I watched a YouTube video about sugar and learned about the carcinogenic "AGE molecules" that form whenever sugar is strongly heated with protein, as in the case of roasted nuts that I recently devoured. They also form in fried foods.

"Well, no more fries in the canteen from today," I thought.

Caramelized foods like popcorn or sweet pastries also contain many AGEs.

"I'm not ready to give up popcorn and sweet pastries from my mom yet," I whispered to myself.

The heating of foods brought me to the topic of raw veganism, which I then occupied myself with for the rest of the day.

Tonight I slept on the duvet, which I spread out on the carpet in the living room. I wanted to continue practicing sleeping on a harder surface. I was by no means ready for the final boss "The Yoga Mat."

The next morning I didn't feel any pain, but I did feel like I'd had a workout. I was proud that I didn't switch to the sofa that night. I was awakened around ten o'clock by Lauri, who knocked on the living room door. She had baked wheat rolls in the oven. It was difficult, but I managed not to spread chocolate spread with over 40% sugar on my roll. I opted for the reduced-sugar blueberry jam with "only" 30% sugar per 100 grams and spread it on just one half of the roll.

Throughout the day, I had a great craving for sweets, especially since chocolate spread and all the jams and cookies caught my eye whenever I entered the kitchen. Later, when my mother returned from the North Sea, she was in a good mood. Apparently, the short vacation with Julien went without arguments. This prompted me to tell her about my new findings on the health effects of sugar. Shocked and excited, she decided not to buy chocolate spreads and jams from next week.

Not wanting to diminish her determination, I knew my mother too well. This decision would likely be forgotten after a few days, just like my decision not to drink coffee anymore was always forgotten as soon as I smelled delicious coffee. But I was still hopeful that she would stop during the next shopping trip, remember my words, and maybe pick up a reduced-sugar chocolate spread.

After a spelt coffee with Mom, I took a walk. I actually wanted to take my favorite route, but when I reached the dirt road, I reconsidered my plan. On the dirt road, a hundred meters away from me, stood two women talking. Around them played two large, black dogs without leashes. My fear of dogs rose, and my heart began to race. Should I take the dirt road or walk along the street? "No way," I thought, took a deep breath, "The two dogs will surely not stop me on my way."

I gathered all my courage and walked towards the women and their dogs. My body was slightly tense as I reached them. The two dogs stopped playing and stared at me. Despite the terrifying appearance of the Rottweilers, they did not bark. I tried not to think about the fear of dogs but to be in the here and now and instead look at the nettles by the field edge.

"Hello," I said to the two women as I reached their proximity. As soon as the two women greeted me back, the dogs started jumping around again as if I wasn't there. Finally, I could relax again.

I continued along the dirt road and then turned left onto the gravel path at the second crossroads. A few hundred meters further stretched the high-voltage power line, probably hanging about five meters above the path. As I stood under the line and closed my eyes, I remembered standing under these lines with Jule once. I held her hand, looked meticulously at her hair, and said, "Oh Jule, your hair is standing on end." She believed me, then stroked her hair with the other hand and found that it wasn't the case. "You joker!" I heard Jule say. A smile spread across my face, and I continued walking.

1. I try not to buy foods that contain more than 40g of sugar per 100g, to reduce the health disadvantages that can result from excessive sugar consumption.
2. I no longer eat fries in the canteen or roasted nuts, as these likely contain many carcinogenic amino acid-glucose end products.