The 'Towards a Sugar-Free Future' Challenge

Jazee

Ooh, I forgot about the 8 chocolates I ate yesterday from a box of milk tray.

Honey_Bear

@delta13 I *love* the idea of hitting the probllem over over-doing the problem where it happens, as opposed to someone else's timetable (ie mine!). 

My afternoon chocolate habit started at work 30 years ago and is still with me today.  I'd be at my desk in the hospital and at pretty much exactly 3.30pm every day I'd be hit with sugar cravings and trot down to the shop and get myself a bar of chocolate.  Just one, but daily.  I still love the particular make I used to buy and came across it in Lidl just before Christmas for the first time in over 20 years and got a hefty supply of them in, unfortunately.  And at 3.30pm every day, sitting at my desk in my home office, I'd crack one out and start eating it - those habits are a real problem because they become almost a ritual to look forward to and therefore even more firmly embedded. 

Good on you for spotting the problem and going straight for it.  Good luck.

Honey_Bear

What I've been thinking since I posted this yesterday is that sugar is one of those things that the more you have, the more you want - well, I do, and it seems that a lot of other people have the same reaction to it.  I want to break the habit so that I don't eat as much sugar as I have been today, so I won't eat as much tomorrow and the next day and the day after that ad infinitum. 

My trigger is definitely 3.30pm and sitting at my desk guarantees I will get the urge to scoff chocolate, and consider myself virtuous if I only eat half a bar because the habit / ritual is so deeply embedded.  I actually had to check how many years this has been a feature in my life and was really, really shocked it was 30.  No wonder self-discipline alone isn't enough.

So, today's decision is that if I get the cravings at 3.30pm instead of pretending self-discipline is all I need I'm changing my behaviour to a more rewarding one.  I'm going to stop work, leave the desk and go and do something I want to do, whether it be reading a novel, watching YouTube videos or whatever - the key is that's it's something I will enjoy rather than something I don't want to have to do, such as wash the kitchen floor.  What I'm not going to do is stay at my desk and try to tough it out because that doesn't work and goodness knows I've tried it often enough to know that. 

I also get the urge to eat biscuits at teatime if I'm not at my desk at 4.00pm, so clearly I'm going to need to keep reading and watching those videos past that danger time as well. 

Anything to take my mind off what I can't have by keeping it on what I can have.

We never used to eat desserts at dinner but for some reason I've been making them for months so they've got to go but that's fairly easily doable most days because it's the most recent habit. 

The toughest one today will be the handmade chocolate(s) after dinner.  There's no alternative behaviour for that one but if I allow myself 'just one' that'll become three and before I know it I'll be making excuses for myself rather than progress. 

I weighed myself this morning.  I'm 68.8kgs/151lbs, and have been trying to get back to 63.5kgs/140lbs for years.  Ideally I'd like to get back to 60kgs/132lbs but none of that is my first concern and I'm hoping that it happens naturally when I get to grips with the sugar issue.  It's just where I'm at, at the beginning of this Challange.

Honey_Bear

@Jazee - easy enough to forget when you're enjoying yourself!

For what it's worth, I managed to down an almond croissant with both butter and marmalade, apricots in a sugar syrup with cream and three handmade chocolates.  Still, it was Sunday so it didn't count!

Narc0lepsy

"luckily" I have a potato intolerance so can't be tempted by crisps; I'm intolerant to a few other things such as wheat, but they aren't as instantly painful as potato so sometimes I weaken.
Anyway my sole area of restraint today was that I didn't touch the After 8 mints.   I did, however, have a piece of Freefrom cake at lunch, I made blueberry friandes as I wanted my brother to try them, and I had some dates. Coupled with that, I didn't go to the gym.  Oh well it could have been worse. 

Jazee

I finished the bag of chocolate peanuts and started on a bag of wine gums.  The plan is no crisps, biscuits, cake or sweets today.

delta13

I had a can of diet coke yesterday. Contemplated full fat (I really don't like the taste of diet) but I only wanted the energy from one, so thought I'd go caffeine over sugar. That's how I'm justifying it!
To be fair my plan at work yesterday was to have a cup of tea during breaks, so I still get a break from my desk, a little caffeine, and something to drink that I enjoy. 1st break = success. 2nd break = canteen closed due to electric issue. No tea for me, just stuff from the break area's vending machine. I've slept terribly the last few days so I was crashing badly around 2pm, so it was either go home early or have a different caffeine hit. At least my boss got it for me rather than spending from my own purse!
Didn't sleep particularly well last night either and have been awake since about 5am. Because work is flexible I'm going to be working from home today and see how I get on. No fizzy drinks in the flat at least! There are some chocolate digestives with my name on them and whilst my "no sugar days" at the minute are weekends, I still want to have some restraint! So going to limit myself (we'll see how that goes).

Fayolle

Good luck, HB. I will follow your progress and thoughts with interest. 

I like your gradual plan, and it looks doable. Until yesterday afternoon at work, I stood up, took 2 biscuits (why 2?) just because it was the afternoon and I was flagging. Add to that the spoonful of jam on my morning oats, and the square of chocolate in the evening (just to finish off the packet..) and suddenly it’s not so easy, is it?

Honey_Bear

@Narc0lepsy - well done on resisting After 8s.  I find them sickeningly sweet but still manage to scoff a big handful once the box is opened, so if they were open in front of you and others were indulging - fantastic.  On the home baking front, if you've made something special for guests and you want them to eat and enjoy them, but you don't allow yourself to have one at the same time, what message does that send out to your brother / other guests?  Sounds like a Highday and Holiday to me, so it didn't count anyway.

@Jazee, I believe you're on holiday, which doesn't count in my book.  However, if you're allowing yourself a treat or two but not going the full 'I'm on holiday, I can have everything I want' mode - that's progress, isn't it?

@Delta13 - We're all easing our way into this, and you gave it a lot of thought rather than just glugging something back, and with the canteen closed it seems like the universe was determined to thwart your good intentions.  I hope working from home goes well, and that you catch up on the lost sleep.  I find waking up feeling bloggy means I spend the whole of the rest of the day trying to get my act together and it's rarely fully successful.  I love my sleep!

@Fayolle - well done on stopping at two biscuits!  Do we all flag mid-afternoon?  And if so, has anyone found strategies that counteract it?

Yesterday we had beans on cheese on toast for lunch and that definitely helped me not feel hungry half way through the afternoon but I don't  want to get into the habit of eating that much every day.

I managed to resist added sugar all day and the handmade chocolate after dinner.  I think Belovéd is quietly going along with this idea but he's not overweight and he did eat that after dinner chocolate I managed to resist.  I was rather chuffed with myself, but I need to be realistic with myself.  I went a single day without added sugar - most people manage that every day without making a song and dance about it. 

Today, it's so far so good but that's pretty normal for me; the mornings aren't the problem.  I'd like, ideally, to manage to get through this afternoon without indulging, so taking the lesson from yesterday I'm going to share a can of tuna, some mayo and toast with Belovéd and see if that has the same effect as the beans on cheese on toast did. 

Someone wiser than me said that the mid-afternoon hungries are partly because some of us don't have enough protein for breakfast and lunch, and then overload with carbohydrates at lunchtime and then just feel like going to sleep, so we grab sugary things for the burst of energy it gives us.  I'm hoping to find out if that's true by changing things up a bit on my sugar-free days.  I know myself well enough to know that when I weaken it will be carnage - empty biscuit tins, empty chocolate wrappers, full on extremely wonderful ice cream ....  And I need to point out that if it were any one of those three that would be bad enough but it's usually all three.

Jazee

Eating an apple.  Nuff said!