The 'Towards a Sugar-Free Future' Challenge

Honey_Bear

What a find, FlowerPot!  That's exactly how to cut down on sugar - by taking advantage of fruit sugars instead.  Well done.

The weekend was a total write off, terrible in every way, and it's entirely down to my own shopping choices.  It was always going to be an exhausting one, with coffee with a neighbour first thing Saturday, a friend coming to stay so treats, a late night, and another friend popping around for a coffee on Sunday.  There was nothing I could do to change any of that so I decided to get cream cakes - less sugar, right?  Sainsbobs was the closest supermarket to where I happened to need to go in town so that choice was made, but their ready made salads were just too dull, and all the pharmacies were shut other than B00ts in the mall so I ended up passing through M&S where the salads aren't dull, and neither are the cream cakes, so I ended up with two lots.  Today and tomorrow will not be creamcake free because we all hate waste, don't we.

On top of all of that, Belovéd had thoughtfully bought some lovely cheese for a quick Thursday night supper and Saturday lunch, and we ended up eating some after the theatre on Saturday night, so I'm now the size of a double-decker bus. 

I was so exhausted by all the peopling, excess dairy and late night that I didn't even do my exercises yesterday and was pretty lacklustre with them this morning, but they are at least done today. 

I only bought food I love, other than the apple turnovers which are for Belovéd but I don't like cooked apple and he really does, so I can resist them easily.  The trouble with jaffa cakes is that I actually don't like them at all, but when someone puts them in front of you and you feel you should be grateful for the effort they've made to be hospitable, honestly, it turns out they're just as nasty as you remember, but moreish none the less.

I'm not having a happy, healthy phase and it feels like it in my soul.

Makingabobor2

Ooh I typed a reply and then it vanished.....Anyway, what I was saying was that we all do these silly things @Honey_Bear, and we just have to move on from it.  I'm sure you enjoyed the cream cakes and in the great scheme of things, 1 weekend with a couple of cakes is not the end of the world.  The fact that we have this group where we can come on and recount our successes and failures, is helping us no end and we can all see what we need to do to improve.  I beat myself up no end recently about the chocolate, but am now slowly moving on. I realise I am never going to be completely sugar free, so just going low sugar will have to suffice and feeling guilty is a waste of energy and emotion.   Just move on one step at a time, that's all we can do.x

FlowerPot, the granola sounds a great idea. Odd combination, pear and beetroot, but wouldn't mind giving it a try. I'd not thought of looking for low sugar granolas. Might have a look. Although I do like my Oatibix, but they are not cheap!! 

Honey_Bear

All cream cake temptation has left the building.

'Nuff said.

~FlowerPot~

Honey_Bear said:

All cream cake temptation has left the building.

'Nuff said.

dont come here then we have muffins !!!!

~FlowerPot~

Not having a good time lately, feeling really rough with an awful cold and comfort eating. Even know Im doing it!! so stupid. Will attmept ti rein it in today my planning my food and hiding the muffins!!!!

Honey_Bear

We all do it FlowerPot.  Hang in there, do the best you can, enjoy whatever you find yourself eating when you slip up and move on tomorrow.

Makingabobor2

Ooh FlowerPot, I know exactly how you feel. When I was feeling poorly with the dreaded cold virus, I ate far too much comfort food. Don't worry, your body needs a treat when you are ill and you will soon recover and be able to get back on the straight and narrow. 

I've been good today, mainly because I am still finding my digestive IBS a bit up and down, so am trying to be extra good to get that totally back to normal. I thought it was ok and did end up having some chocolate and biscuits the other day, so I think I can see a pattern emerging here that the sugar is definitely upsetting my system more.  Hoping that by having to be strict with myself now, I will be able to stay on track even when my insides are sorted out.  Had no cakes, biscuits or chocolate today and even when I nipped in the local Co-op for ginger teabags, I didn't feel the need to buy chocolate.  Dinner is a nice chicken casserole done in the SC and then another cup of ginger tea later....I'll see if I can resist a biscuit with it. We only have Rich Tea in the house, so think not the end of the world if I do have one, but will see how I feel. 

Hope everyone else is doing ok. 

Honey_Bear

How are you feeling now @~FlowerPot~ ?  I hope you're a lot better and getting enough rest to fully recover.  I'm pretty sure one of the reasons we find viruses so debilitating is that as soon as we're over the worst we think we're beter, but it seems to me that we need to take it a bit easier for a few more days to get back to completely normal.   When anyone is feeling grim I've found a little of what you like is great medicine, so if you over-indulged while you felt under the weather I wouldn't worry about it.

There's an artist called Boynton whose work I've loved for decades.  One of my favourite cards of hers said 'Sender is depressed.  Administer chocolate immediately.'  That works for me.

Well done @Makingabobor2 on doing a bit better and feeling the positive changes in yourself as a result.  Knowing what triggers us into eating things we can eat in moderation but tend to eat more than we should, and then knowing exactly how those binges make us feel grim, is really important.  Useful to know you've found a link between your sugar consumption and IBS.  Excellent news.

I feel sluggish if I eat too much in the way of carbs, particularly first thing, and I'm pretty sure sandwiches for lunch are partially responsible for my mid-afternoon slump.  Excessive sugar does the same but I've been much more disciplined about not eating sugary things until at least mid-afternoon for decades.  I don't mind feeling sluggish in the evenings and later if I'm not doing anything other than watching TV and going to bed which means there have been times when I've over-indulged and not really thought about any other aspect of what that's doing to me.  I'm much more on it now, having done this sugarfree thing for 18 months. 

So, it appears Belovéd and I had our minds on other things and we both missed knowing it was Pancake Day this week, which means we're now in Lent and I didn't realise it!  That, as it turns out is a good thing - I finished the last of the cream cakes on Tuesday so I now consider them my 'pancake moment' of finishing up stuff I shouldn't be eating.  It also means I have been almost accidentally sugarfree since the start of Lent and this year, right at this point in time, I'm feeling pretty okay about the idea of giving up chocolate for Lent and donating the money saved to a charity, yet to be decided which one, but I've got a few weeks to work out which one.  I've got some ideas, obviously, but there are so many organisations that do good work my problem is always where best to donate. 

So, sugarfree Monday to Friday, back on that, chocolate-free until Easter Sunday and that includes my weekend m@gnums etc.  For me.  No-one else should feel they have to join in, just making myself accountable here.

I've saved the best till last.  This isn't a brag but it's such a huge change and I need to share it.  I volunteer at the Foodbank on Thursdays and although I eat breakfast before I leave the house I need something mid-morning.  It's usually something a bit carby because that's the easiest and quickest thing to prepare like a pasta salade but because we've got some very old Stilton that's too strong to eat neat, so to speak, I mixed it with cheapo supermarket own brand cream cheese and used a couple of carrots as dippers - which was absolutely lovely.  I normally follow my Foodbank snack with one of my favoured L!dl date bars, and I'd got one with me, but I also took the last apple out of the fruitbowl because apples have been on my mind this week and had that after the cheese dip thing.  The apple tasted sweet!  It's the first apple I've eaten for years and years and years that's tasted wonderfully sweet, and that is a HUGE change for me!  I was so delighted that while I was in Sainsbobs doing the shopping later I bought a couple of bags of British Coxes, which I used to love but haven't really bothered with apples generally for years so it's lovely to have them back in my life. 

How are you getting on Cookie and PollyBear - and anyone else who reads along?

Don't forget - February is a grim time of year weather-wise, a grind until Easter when we can have a bit of a break and we're all feeling a bit deflated after the excesses of Christmas.  If anyone's been comfort eating, that's normal and not the end of the world.

Makingabobor2

Interesting what you are saying about the apples @Honey_Bear. I had a similar experience with melon yesterday. Not had any for ages and bought one of those little pots with the 3 types of melon in and it was so nice and certainly stopped me wanting biscuits or anything.  Think it might be something I buy more of.  Only trouble is it comes in plastic tubs which I am trying to avoid, but buying a whole melon seems to create such a lot of waste as we don't eat it quick enough and it has soooooo many seeds to scoop out. Can't win really whatever we do.....lol

Pollybear

I'm still here!   Some good days and some really bad ones but I'm trying to just pick myself up again and carry on the following day.  I have it in mind to give up chocolate for Lent but really just as a way to fool my brain into doing it.     Just need to keep out of the shops now!  I wish I could just enjoy a bit of chocolate now and then without going crazy but that doesn't seem to be possible for me.  Or maybe I just have no willpower .......

I eat a couple of apples everyday HB.   I like them but I don't love them, but I can eat one apple and not crave more whereas eating one biscuit more often than not leads to eating six.   Funny how apples don't work the same way