The 'Towards a Sugar-Free Future' Challenge

cookie02

Sorry you haven't been feeling well, @Its_time.  Well done on reducing your sugar today - you're already making progress I hope you feel better soon  .  For what it's worth, my personal experience is that worrying about the long-term and willpower just makes me stressed.  Now, I just tackle each day (right now, each meal or snack time) and, if I eat something sugary, I enjoy it and then I re-start.  Don't beat yourself up if you indulge and don't think that a blip means you can't do this - you definitely can!  We're all at different stages.  Personally, I don't count fruit due to its health benefits.  My focus is on added / processed sugary foods - others are more strict.  What works for one of us isn't always going to work for all of us but we're all trying to reduce sugar and there are lots of great ideas here so hopefully this thread will help you too.  Good luck

Today, I've had a mince pie and two lovely chocolates from a new box that we opened.  That is all my sugar for the day and I'm happy with that (especially given how much sugar I'm surrounded by right now!).  

How is everyone? 

Honey_Bear

I'm sorry you're feeling under the weather @Its_time but if you eat less sugar because of it at least you can feel virtuous, which is a lot more positive than feeling guilty for over-indulging.  *Healing vibes* heading your way.  As Cookie says, sugar in fruit isn't something to worry about because of the health benefits of eating fruit - the vitamins, the fibre, the fact that there really is only so much of it one can eat in a day, as opposed to sloshing down orange juice which is just basically sugar water with no health benefits at all, no matter what people say. 

Cookie is also absolutely right about taking it one meal, or morning, afternoon and evening at a time.  If I can get past 3.30pm without feeding myself an entire packet of biscuits I count that as a victory because for years I've been unable to do that.  They were expensive only-seven/eight/nine-in a packet biscuits but just the same, I was eating the whole packet, totally unable to stop myself once I started on them, thinking I'd only have one or two.  Every Single Afternoon.  I had to stop buying them it happened so often.  I'm delighted to say that I haven't done that since I started this Challenge and I'm incredibly relieved that I can resist more now.  Having said that, I said I'd let myself off the leash over the Twelve Days of Christmas and I've been having chocolate every day and thoroughly enjoying it, but it's been three chocolate biscuits which feels like a binge now if I have any at all at 3.30 or 4.00 pm with a mug of tea, or a few chocolates after dinner. 

Tonight I did something outrageous though, so it just goes to show old habits die hard.  I haven't been eating any paté over the past week or so and got a real yen for tiramasu today having popped into the Co-0p for bread and happened to notice it in the cold cabinet.  I sliced it up and we had a quarter of it each for dessert after dinner which was absolutely fine (why not treat oneself occasionally?) and then like the greedy piglet I can be at times - I raided the fridge and ended eating the other half straight out of the box while watching Succession.  Sorry not sorry, but it is a bit like eating those packets of biscuits, isn't it?

Being totally realistic I don't think I'll be able to go straight back to four and a half days a week sugar-free after this Christmas / New Year / Belovéd's birthday on 6 January.  I think I'm going to go back to one day a week for the rest of January as my basic, and if I can get a few extra days in here and there as well I'll count that as a job well done.  I'm going to ease myself back into it because there's no point in setting myself up for failure by being over-strict.  I'm hoping to build back up again to a few days a week now that I know I can do it and have found some strategies that work for me. 

Thank you so much for keeping posting Cookie while I've been AWOL for the past few days, indulging myself.  I find it helps a lot to be in a group of like-minded people when doing something difficult and breaking the sugar habit is difficult. 

Jazee

Morning. 

I agree that sugar reduction rather than cutting it out completely is a more manageable way to go.  

We have so many treats in the house!  I'm allowing myself one item/portion a day and mostly keep to this.
My long term plan is just not to buy any more so when the stash is gone it's gone, although that's going to take a while.
Last night's treat was a small handful of shrimps and bananas.
Once the treats are gone, I'll revert to making sure I have as many main meals as possible in the middle of the day, and have fruit salad prepped for snacking.

try_harder

Could i join in with this challenge too please? I am extremely overweight and it is so frustrating as i eat very healthy meals all day then spoil it with my sugar addiction eating between meals ..Thank you

Its_time

Thank you @cookie02 and @Honey_Bear it's really nice to have such a warm welcome
I always have 1 tsp of sugar in my coffee at 11am the last two days I have had half a tsp, so on the right track with that.
I have almost just caved and had a biscuit because I was a bit late home and starving for my dinner, I made a salad sandwich a nanospeed, I absolutely stuffed it with salad and had some roast chicken with it, possibly sugar in the salad cream that is my saviour when dieting.
I could eat a whole packet of jaffa cakes dunked in my tea and fit a whole one in my mouth, the trouble is I don't even wait before mouthfuls, I eat them one after another, I don't savour them or hardly taste them and the more I have the more I want.
I absolutely adore mince pies and I am the only one in the house who likes them, I have 3 left in my box but I am going to put them in the freezer and maybe have them on a special occasion.
I too really need like minded people to egg me on and be there to support my moaning because it is way too easy for me to just give up and justify why I have.  
I am on a mission.

Honey_Bear

It's Time - your habits sound just like mine!  We may not be tempted by the same things but the way we knock back biscuits is identical.  As for sugar in coffee - I used to take two teaspoons of sugar in tea and coffee but in those days I didn't have a weight problem.  Eventually I went completely sugar-free for three months so I had to cut it out then, and also realised that there was sugar in coffee mate, which I used at the office because there was no fridge.  I've drunk them black and without ever since, and I don't miss it all. 

Any reduction AT ALL is a HUGE victory and you should pat yourself on the back.  We all do the best we can, but we're human and we weaken sometimes.  Forgot about the mistakes and celebrate the victories - the smallest of changes to a habit are really important and that's where the progress is. 

Honey_Bear

Welcome @try_harder - the more the merrier!  My mealtimes aren't too much of a worry either, although after dinner is often a moment of great weakness, as The Great Greedy Tiramasu Event of 30 December 2021 shows.  It's tea time that does for me most days, particularly when I'm at my desk. 

try_harder

Thank you .HB ..Day one over and no sugar today yay !

Honey_Bear

Well done, Try Harder!  You've obviously totally got this, managing a full day at the first attempt.  I'm impressed.

I did something last night I've never done before, even if the day wasn't sugar-free which I'm not aiming for at this stage.  I had a half-eaten box of chocolates someone had given me.  I'd tried them before Christmas, but they were something and nothing, apparently chocolate but they didn't float my boat at all.  I tried them again yesterday, had four or so and then chucked the rest in the bin.  I've never done that before, but my new reality is that if I don't really enjoy something sweet, what's the point of eating it.  (They were also quite nutty, which I like but Beolvéd doesn't, so there was no point keeping them for him.)

Its_time

Another good day yesterday, a few sneaky maltesers in the evening with a cuppa and my usual half tsp in coffee,  still so much less than it has been.  Its making a difference in the right direction weight wise also 👌