The 'Towards a Sugar-Free Future' Challenge

Honey_Bear

Well done and I'm so glad you're getting instant feedback on the weight front, It's Time.  There's no doubt it's a great motivator as soon as you can see that the changes you're making are having an effect.  At the moment I'm not gaining, so that's good enough for me. 

I need to lose all the extra weight I'm carrying around my middle but in order to do that without dieting I need to start eating more of the right things and less of the wrong things, and just dealing with the excess sugar consumption is first step in that direction.  It seems to be working rather better than I thought it would initially - I thought that allowing myself carte blanche over the 12 Days of Christmas would be a free for all in my mind but it's not.  I'm not a fan of the overuse of the word Mindful but that's exactly what happened with this Challenge.  Without meaning to I've become a lot more mindful about my sugar consumption and just cut back on it without thinking about it very much any more.  I have NEVER binned chocolate because I didn't enjoy it before!

cookie02

Happy New Year!  I hope 2022 will be a good year for everyone .  

Welcome try_harder and well done on your sugar-free day!  

Its_time - that is great that you are having less sugar.  I had another mince pie and a brownie yesterday so I wasn't sugar-free but it also less than I would have had before so I'm counting it as progress. 

Honey_Bear - That is a great result.  I've noticed that I used to eat a lot of sugary things because they were there (either at home or eating out) vs because I really enjoy them.  Over the last year, I have become more ruthless about saying no but I don't think I'd be determined enough to throw something out...  My family will eat most things though, so it hasn't been an issue yet!  

I hope all of you are well and that you are having a great start to the New Year . 

Jazee

Still low sugar consumption here.  Just one chocolate biscuit yesterday.
Last week I threw out most of a chocolate cheesecake from Mr T because the slice i
I had was awful.

Honey_Bear

Well done on keeping the the intake low, Jazee.  I'm relieved someone else has found something so inedible they made the decision to bin it. 

How are you doing, Cookie?

The one main thing I'm conscious of today is that having a decent lunch, rather than something that looks more like a snack, is the only way I can avoid getting the munchies at about 3.30 / 4.00 pm.  I really wanted chocolate immediately after I'd eaten, resisted, and now just feel so full I don't think I could manage anything more.  If I can resist until after I've eaten my evening meal I always feel slightly less concerned about indulging then.  The mistake I've made for years is to eat too little at lunch.  Not doing that any more.

cookie02

Good morning!  Great to hear that you're managing to keep your sugar consumption low, Jazee  .  

Thank you for checking-in, Honey_Bear.  I am struggling a bit with getting back to good habits.  I've decided that I'm going to try and have just one sugary thing today.  

Honey_Bear said:

The one main thing I'm conscious of today is that having a decent lunch, rather than something that looks more like a snack, is the only way I can avoid getting the munchies at about 3.30 / 4.00 pm.  I really wanted chocolate immediately after I'd eaten, resisted, and now just feel so full I don't think I could manage anything more.  If I can resist until after I've eaten my evening meal I always feel slightly less concerned about indulging then.  The mistake I've made for years is to eat too little at lunch.  Not doing that any more.

I think you are right about lunch being key and I hope you will continue to see results.  I have also found that being busy makes me less likely to reach for the sugar in the afternoons.  I'm hoping that will work for me today .  

How is everyone?  

Honey_Bear

For sure, Cookie, keeping busy mid-afternoon and keeping my mind occupied makes it far less likely I'll reach for sugary things.  I'm struggling not to indulge when I technically can because I said I wasn't going to restart after Christmas until Belovéd's birthday was over and done with, but I quite like the fact that I've lost a kilo since the start of this challenge - not much, but enough to motivate me - and I don't want to put it all back on because I've been scoffing sugar.  Or excessive amounts of cheese, which I absolutely love and we've got a fair amount in the fridge.  We also have a freezer full of healthier things that need to be eaten like dahl, so I can always pull something out of there for lunch. 

Belovéd's birthday is Thurday, we have guests coming to join us on Friday for a celebration meal (he's 75, so it had to be marked) which means rich food of some sort and definitely a dessert.  I've got four cooking apples that I didn't use to make something else in early December so it's going to be apple crumble, which very fortunately for me I don't particularly like so I won't be too tempted.  Then, of course, it's the weekend so limits don't technically apply and by Monday I think I'll be ready to just go added sugar-free for one day.  If I make it through a few more days without indulging I'll be very happy indeed but Monday is absolutely going to be sugar-free. 

I am absolutely NOT setting myself up for failure because it doesn't achieve anything.  I can do one day. 

cookie02

Honey_Bear said:

I am absolutely NOT setting myself up for failure because it doesn't achieve anything.  I can do one day. 

I need to take a leaf out of your book, Honey_Bear.  Yesterday, having set my goal of one sugary thing, I ended up enjoying all kinds of sugary treats.  Today, I'm just going to see how things go.  My original plan for this week was to try and be sugar-free today and/or tomorrow.  Instead, I will try to minimise the amount of sugar I have but I'm not going to set a target for the day.  

I am back at work (from home) so I'm hoping that will bring back some structure and keep me on the straight and narrow(ish!).  

Hope everyone is having a good week. 

Honey_Bear

Good luck with today Cookie.  I'm very conscious that this is a difficult challenge, so I'm doing what I can to minimise the damage when I come back to it, so would it be worthwhile considering that kind of strategy?

My date bars are not a cheat because they are just cacao, cashews and orange, no added sugar although the dates are supersweet so it satisfies my need for something sweet but is one of my fruit and veg a day.  That works for me some days.  As an alternative I've found that 0pti0ns hot chocolate only has 40kcals per mug and if I were absolutely desperate I'd have one of those, even though I know it's got sugar in.  Either way the damage isn't as great as eating a whole packet of my favourite biscuits and feeling I'd let myself down. 

I genuinely think we've trained ourselves to eat too much sugar and anything at all that cuts down on it is a winner as far as I'm concerned.  Indulging less is a success.  The reason I'm aiming at sugar free days is that I'm 100% sure that the earlier I eat sugar in the day the more likely I am to eat more later. 

Don't beat yourself up for being less successful than you were intending.  It's still a win when we eat less of the pure white and deadly stuff.

cookie02

Good morning .

Honey_Bear said:

Indulging less is a success as far as I'm concerned, but the reason I'm aiming at sugar free days is that I'm 100% sure that the earlier I eat sugar in the day the more likely I am to eat more later.  

Don't beat yourself up for being less successful than you were intending. 

Thank you, Honey_Bear - this is exactly what happened to me on Tuesday and I did try not to beat myself up over it but I was frustrated with myself.  I was more focused on Wednesday and Thursday with just two sugary things each day.  Today, I'm going to try and stay sugar-free until this evening.  I'm not sure if I'll make it -I'm still surrounded by temptation- but that is my goal...

I hope you and your family have been having a lovely birthday celebration and that you have a wonderful weekend.  

How is everyone doing?  

Jazee

Morning.
I have just had two sugar free days just because I didn't fancy anything sweet and when DH asked if I wanted a biscuit with my afternoon cuppa, I said no, so that was that.
This morning however, I needed to grab something quick for breakfast while working a morning shift so I had four biscuits with my cuppa.