The 'Towards a Sugar-Free Future' Challenge

cookie02

Sorry you received a message that threw you off track, Honey_Bear, well done on only having the marzipan and chocolate and not raiding all the cupboards (which is what I usually do  ).  Personally, I'd vote for you you getting your favourite chocolates.  That way, your treat is an actual treat for you.  I think you would also be having less sugar with your chocolates than with marzipan.  If you thought it might help, you could try getting yourself the 'fun size' multipacks so if you finish a pack, at least it is a smaller size pack...  I know the fun-size ones aren't very MSE but I do this with cheese and it has definitely helped me to reduce how much cheese I eat.  

On the sugar front, I have some lovely chocolates which I'll be sharing with the family this evening and I'm really looking forward to it   I hope all of you have a lovely evening 

in_need_of_direction

I agree with cookie2. Better to have access to small amounts of what you really want than eating everything in sight to satisfy a craving 

Honey_Bear

Genius suggestion, Cookie.  The MSE thing works with the fun size if I buy them instead of shedloads of chocolate because I'm greedy.  I need to go to Morribunds today to get dog chicken, so I'll see what they've got because I'm pretty sure I've seen at least funsize Ma1t3z3r$ there, although with supply lines being what they are the moment nothing is guaranteed.  Thank you for that suggestion, and also for echoing my thoughts that these stressy days are bound to happen so I may just as well manage my way through them rather than pretending I'll be self-disciplined enough to resist temptation - if I were I wouldn't be where I am! 

My weight's not going down at the moment, but I can't deal with that jjust yet; getting through this week without wanting to strangle someone in particular is enough of a challenge.  She'll be out of my life on Friday and I can't wait.  

Weekends are always going to be my weak point, my Achilles heel.  On Saturday I took a neighbour out to coffee and lunch and surprised myself by not eating the Bis0ff biscuits I was given with both coffees, which I brought home for Belovéd and have managed to 'forget' to give to him for 48 hours so far.  They're still lurking in the bottom of my bag, because let's face it, we all love the intense sugary rush of them.  He'll get them when I rememeber when my bag's to hand, which it isn't right now.  He is, but it's not!

Yesterday I was on a one day sewing course and was rather looking forward to having the 30 minute allocated lunch break in the café downstairs, only to discover that the sole savory offering was a vegan 'sausage' roll.  Nothing against vegans, obviously, and I'd go for the vegetarian option when out and about anyway, but that's 100% not what I regard as a treat.  However, it was the only thing available so that's what I had, and it was a darn sight more interesting and well-flavoured than the Victoria sponge, which wasn't vegan but was almost nasty.  Seriously, I never, ever go out for lunch and to do so twice in one weekend is unheard of and I was really looking forward to it so it's always disappointing when a treat meal tastes like eating straw.  *sigh*  Lesson learned.  Back to making my own packed lunches for those days, but yesterday I couldn't think beyond cheese and I'm really trying to stay off animal fat at the moment so it didn't seem like the right option.  I think I may have to cut my losses on that kind of thing, although now I think about it I could have just bought a pot of hummus and chopped up a few carrots.  I had too much on my mind to figure that out in time.

Back to a no sugar day today, and I can honestly say I don't mind it any more.  Yes, I might get cravings mid-afternoon if I don't eat the right breakfast and lunch but it's only one day and I know I can do it.

How's everyone finding it?

Jazee

Morning.  Last week was a write off for me, too many temptations.  I couldn't cope knowing there were even treat size snacks in the cupboard.  No willpower.  Although biscoff wouldn't interest me.  DD had a biscoff birthday cake at the weekend.

This week, I'm going to see how it goes.  Have already had HM plum jam on my toast.

Honey_Bear

Commiserations, Jazee.  We all get days, weeks, months and in my case years like that, when temptation is irresistible.  I shouldn't eat a lot of things I eat which is why I'm where I'm at the moment, but I really want to get my weight, and now my blood pressure and cholesterol down, and I'm aiming for early December to get another blood test to see if I've managed the cholesterol.  So I figure I have three months to start dealing with all three things, doing this sugar thing in particular.  My Sod It Days are the problem because that's when I can't seem to stop eating things I know I shouldn't.  I share your *meh*.

cookie02

Yesterday, I forgot that it was meant to be a sugar-free day and I ate a cookie  It was great!  Today, I've been good so far and I've put a note on the cupboard to (hopefully) stop me from doing that again...  

Jazee, good luck with your goals for this week!

Honey_Bear, did you find the fun-size chocolates?  I hope this works for you 

Hope everyone's having a good week.

Honey_Bear

Yes Cookie, I did!  Thank you so much for that suggestion.  After taking the dog to the vet yesterday (routine blood test) I stopped by the A$d@ nearby and they do their own brand of a mixed bag of fun sized things so I got one of those.  I also go a few of the other things I particuarly like although not fun size, on the basis that when things are grim, and they sometimes are, I tend towards sugar, chocolate and cheese so having something I actually like is not a bad idea.  I don't like marzipan!   That's how desperate I was that night and why Belovéd has a stash that hasn't been raided by me - his favourites are plain chocolate which I can take or leave, liquorice allsorts which give me indigestion and marzipan which as I say, I don't even like.  I buy him shedloads for Christmas and his birthday because I know I won't be tempted to eat them and he can have treats whenever he wants them.  He's much more self-disciplined than I am and frugal with his treats.  If I buy him biscuits I'll get things I don't like for the same reason and the system works very well, under normal circumstances - just not when I'm superstressed with no stocks of my own.  Lesson learned.  I've stashed them where I can't see them without opening a drawer I seldom open so I won't be tempted by them.  I honestly forget I've got things at times, which is useful.

So, yesterday's no sugar thing went absolutely fine, all things considered.  I didn't eat enough lunch with the result that I finished off some leftover pizza when I got the urge to eat something sweet which wasn't clever of me but it's not the end of the world. 

I also had a little thing about my hugely fluctuating blood pressure numbers and for once did what the instructions said.  Instead of just taking my BP both lying down on the bed, which I always do, I then sat at my desk, sitting up with my feet on the floor as it says to do.  That made a difference of 20 points on the systolic pressure, which means the wild fluctuations are down to operator error, and not a Stage 2 BP problem.  I am a complete idiot.  Once again I've learned a valuable lesson - the instructions are there for a good reason, and it turns out I don't have anything like the problem I thought I had, although it's still higher than it should be but within Stage 1.  As I'm back on track losing a bit of weight by not scoffing sugar every day now that should take care of itself gradually over the next few weeks. 

My heavy duty stretchy jeans aren't quite as tight in one area as they were a few weeks ago.  That'll do for starters.

Honey_Bear

Any more random reaching into the cookie jar, Cookie?

I was thwarted yesterday while in town and my instant reaction was to want sugar.  I decided that as it was a sugar allowed day I'd buy Belovéd and myself a cream cake and trotted off to M&S.  Nothing appealled except their Tiramasu so we had that for both tea and dessert.  I can live with that.

I had real cravings just now, basically 3.30 pm, so I'm munching on a slice of toast with peanut butter and salt.  Lovely.

cookie02

Honey_Bear said:

Any more random reaching into the cookie jar, Cookie?

Hmmm...  well, on Tuesday, I made it through the day without sugar but I really wanted dessert and ended up having a shot-glass sized praline chocolate pot which I thoroughly enjoyed.  Yesterday, I had a sugar-free day almost by accident thanks to being distracted by other things.  We'll see how today turns out... I'm currently in the danger zone and today is meant to be a normal day so I'll be happy even if I have sugar, as long as I don't go too crazy with it!

Honey_Bear, toast and peanut butter sounds like a good back-up plan, thank you for the idea . I might try peanut butter now as a change from my usual spicy dates.  How is your day going? 

Honey_Bear

Aaaahhhh Cookie, you've done so much better than me!  Up until about 9.30 last night I was doing absolutely fine and then it sort of fell apart.  I've had 10 days of stress, and it sort of ended yesterday with the result that I needed to celebrate and couldn't stop thinking about chocolate.  I had five funsize bits of chocolatey rubbish and that was enough.  I just couldn't get past it without feeding the chocolate/sugar addiction but I found the Stop Button so I was disappointed in myself but I didn't feel I'd let myself down that much. 

Today was a different matter.  I had to respond to a text connected with last week's stress and just about as soon as I pressed Send I went into a sort of exhausted tailspin, which was a bit unfortunate as I was out and about.  Got home and did everything I had to do, had soup for a late lunch, finished up an inch of cheese that had been hanging around for a few weeks, then finished off a bit of beef and mushroom thing that had been hanging around for a while and then the tiramasu and then a bar of chocolate.  In other words, a full on stress response.  I've hardly  moved since.  Just as well it's Belovéd's turn to cook tonight.  I think I'll be okay tomorrow after a proper night's sleep, and then it's back on the wagon of as little sugar as possible and as little animal fat as possible.  I'm  not going to beat myself up because that kind of binge wasn't unusual before I embarked on this sugar-freeish journey and the fact that it's only happened once in about five or six weeks is surprising!