The 'Towards a Sugar-Free Future' Challenge

Honey_Bear

I wasn't particularly abstemious yesterday and the scales certainly showed that this morning.  Hey ho.  Back to it again then, with Cookie!

cookie02

I managed my sugar-free day yesterday!  I'm so relieved and I'd like to get through today sugar-free as well.  I've been thinking about cake for at least an hour but I managed to stop myself from eating any.  I'm going to try the 'bigger lunch' strategy to keep me away from the cake this afternoon.  I have several deadlines today and I'm hoping they'll also help keep me out of trouble.  

How did your day go, Honey_Bear?  The scales only tell one side of the story and this is a long game . 

Hope everyone is having a great day and making progress.  

Honey_Bear

Well done Cookie!  It's hard getting back into the swing of things but once the ice is broken it gets easier.  Yes, I long to be allowed to eat anything I want whenever I want it but I just don't like being addicted to sugar so this is worth it - as you say - in the long run.

I managed yesterday without very much trouble and was planning on one of those cashew, orange and cacao bars with my tea, but had two figs instead.  They did the trick completely, so I was chuffed as nuts about that (see what I did there?).  I spied a N@ked bar at the checkout in a supermarket last week and read the ingredients - they're exactly the same as the cheap ones I buy in L!dl.  They work, anyway, when the cravings get to be too much.

My large lunch yesterday was all the week's leftover veg with eggs in a kind of tortilla thing.  That did the trick and cleared a few boxes of bits and pieces out of the fridge, with enough left over for lunch today. 

Good luck with your deadlines.  I hope work goes smoothly.

Honey_Bear

By and large I managed yesterday but I'd made Seville orange marmalade the day before and completely forgot it had sugar in it at breakfast yesterday!  I was so anxious to taste it I shared a slice of toast and marmalade with Belovéd so that was a mistake but never mind.  The scales today told me it didn't matter as much as it could have done.  The fact that I'd had a bowl of porridge before the toast meant I didn't actually need the toast at all, so it really wasn't because I desparately wanted the marmalade, it really was because I just needed to taste it before I made the second batch later yesterday. 

I'm coming to the conclusion that most jam and marmalade recipes just have too much sugar in them - I cut it by 200g in the first batch and 300g in the second batch and the second batch is even nicer.  The same thing happened with apricot jam I made in the summer.  With slightly under-ripe apricots any recipe that is more than a 50:50 ratio is just too much sugar and it sets just fine at 50:50 anyway. 

So, I may taste the second batch just to satisfy myself but it won't be a full half slice and other than that I'm aiming for Day 3 today.  I give quite a lot of the jam, marmalade, jelly and chutney I make away and I can't do that if I haven't tasted it.

How did your deadlines go Cookie, and did they help?

cookie02

I'm glad I'm not the only one that has those 'accidental sugar' moments, Honey_Bear!  The Seville orange marmalade sounds delicious. I have never made marmalade as I have this fear that it won't set and I'll be left with a vat of syrup 🙈.  

You are right about the sugar amounts in recipes being very high.  I make a courgette chocolate cake and the original recipe requires either 350 or 400g of sugar.  It is a delicious cake but I've found that cutting this to 50g of sugar plus 1 teaspoon of maple syrup or vanilla extract gets the same result!  Thanks for the tip about the date and cashew bars.  I love L1dl and will definitely be trying them next time I'm there.  

Honey_Bear said:

It's hard getting back into the swing of things but once the ice is broken it gets easier.  Yes, I long to be allowed to eat anything I want whenever I want it but I just don't like being addicted to sugar so this is worth it - as you say - in the long run.

I met my deadlines yesterday, thank you .  I also stayed out of trouble long enough to achieve another sugar-free day.  You're right - it's funny how a couple of days makes such a difference.  Today, I am going to try to get my 3rd day in a row.  If I make it, it will be the first time I've had three days in a row since the end of November and I will be really pleased with that.  

Have you tested the second batch of marmalade yet?  

Hope everyone is having a good week.  The big lunch strategy seems to be working for me today.  It's nearly 2pm and, instead of dreaming of chocolate or cake, I just caught myself thinking that I'm really not hungry.  I hope that holds for another few hours!

Honey_Bear

Not yet with the marmalade, and I may not test it at all because I know it's slightly less sweet than the first batch so we're going to keep them to ourselves - greedy I know but what a waste it would be if anyone didn't find it sweet enough!  The key to making jam and marmalade set is to have an accurate food probe like a Therm0p3n.  I used to have real problems with that but decided in the end after a chef cooked us Christmas lunch (he was a guest of a paying guest we had here one year) that his never probe practically never left his hand.  I use it for all sorts of things, but testing for setting point (105°) is the most frequent.  I used to use those ones that stand up in the pan but shouldn't touch the bottom - utterly useless imho.  Never once got an accurate reading from any of them and I tried several over the years.

Today, so far so good.  I'm just about to have lunch and need to try some paté I made yesterday that I very much fear I'm not going to like (worth making it to find out) and leftover tortilla thing.  And maybe a date bar, but possibly two figs instead.  (I had a handful of hazel nuts this morning and they were lovely.)  The weight is coming off again because I've been eating less cheese, too.

jackieblack

jackieblack said:

Good luck to you
I’m posting this to provide some motivation. I was very similar to you regarding sweets and chocolate and have struggled with my weight my whole adult life. I’d lose some and put it all back on again, and more.
Then, in October, a routine blood test (to rule out something completely unconnected) showed that I was massively diabetic, and it had happened so quickly, with a measurement so high, that I was immediately put on medication and told to eliminate all carbs possible from my diet (as all carbs turn to sugar in the body). That means no bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, cereals or grains. Nothing made with flour. No vegetables that are grown underground. Basically, I’m allowed to eat white meat, fish, eggs, cheese (limited dairy) nuts, veg grown above ground and a limited amount of fruit, but nothing tropical and definitely no bananas or grapes. Anything else is basically poisoning my body at this point. I apparently also have Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and gallstones. I had no clue and had felt absolutely fine. I have to weigh and log everything I eat.

The first week I felt like I’d been hit by a truck and had terrible flu like symptoms. But I’ve lost 40lb.
Hopefully, when my numbers have fallen enough to be in the ‘normal’ stable diabetic range I might be able to reintroduce small amounts of complex carbs.
If I’d developed more self control over my cravings for chocolate etc this might not have happened, but this is my life now. I don’t have a choice.

 I wish anyone who is trying to eat more healthily great success.

Hi all, I hope Christmas and New Year didn’t derail you too badly.

Just thought I’d update. I had another blood test a few days ago and the diabetes nurse rang me yesterday to tell me that my HbA1c level has dropped by 2/3 and is now well under the threshold for diabetes. So my diabetes is officially in remission, and the last 3 months of misery and feeling rubbish were apparently all worth the sacrifice. She’s halved my dose of medication (so hopefully the constant nausea will reduce or go completely)  and I can start reintroducing small amounts of complex carbs into my diet - not every meal and not every day, it’d be too easy to slip back into bad habits and undo it all again, and it’ll be rechecked in 8 weeks. Sugar and sugary foods are still out (and will be forever) as this is still effectively poison to someone with diabetes. And I will always be diabetic, whether my diabetes is in remission or not, once that switch is triggered it can’t be switched off again.

I wish you all success in your journeys to be sugar free - it’s not easy, but being healthy is something not to take for granted and it’ll be so worth the sacrifice for those of you who can do it.

cookie02

@jackieblack Jackie, thank you so much for the update, this is wonderful news!  . I can't even imagine how much relief you are feeling right now and am very glad to hear that you are seeing positive results after having such a tough time.  I hope you will feel better now that your medication is being reduced.  By weird coincidence, I re-read your original post yesterday.  I save posts, tips, quotes and comments that I refer back to on days when I'm tempted to give in.  Thank you for sharing your latest news and for motivating us to keep going.  I hope you continue to see positive results .  

cookie02

I meant to report that I managed my sugar-free day so I've finally had three days in a row.  This is my longest sugar-free period since late November!  I'm hoping to be sugar-free again today.  

Honey_Bear said:

Today, so far so good.  I'm just about to have lunch and need to try some paté I made yesterday that I very much fear I'm not going to like (worth making it to find out) and leftover tortilla thing.  And maybe a date bar, but possibly two figs instead.  (I had a handful of hazel nuts this morning and they were lovely.)  The weight is coming off again because I've been eating less cheese, too.

Thank you for the tip about the food thermometer, I will have to look into that and see if I'm brave enough to give it a try!

How did yesterday go, Honey_Bear?  I hope you enjoyed the pate!  Well done on reducing your cheese consumption, that is tough.  I love cheese!  I know I've said that before.  Why are all these delicious foods ones that we need to cut back on?🧐  I am still using mini cheeses to try keep my cheese cravings under control.  It works but I really enjoyed having a broader selection of cheese over Christmas and New Year.  My family thinks I should just portion up regular cheese but I've found that they don't last as long.  

Hope everyone is well.  Good luck meeting your goals for the day! 

Honey_Bear

Hi @jackieblack and thank you for coming back and updating us on your own personal struggle with irresistible foods like sugar and carbohydrates.  I had no idea that diabetes was effectively for life - I have always assumed that once it was under control you'd be able to enjoy the same freedoms to choose whatever you wanted, but in moderation.  That's really sad for you but a massive motivator for me just knowing that, so thank you so, so much.  I'm so glad your last three months of full on effort have paid off for you and that your health is seriously improved.  I hope you feel a lot better really soon, so that it feels as though your determination pays off.  It all sounds really unpleasant; not something I'd ever really given any thought to, so a big wake up call.

Sadly, Cookie, the paté was far too livery for me.  I can enjoy chicken liver paté but that's because the recipe is effectively half butter, and I think that a slice of sweet pickled cucumbers or tomatoes and regular cucumber improves it no end.  I thought the lambs liver paté recipe might be too full on and it was, so now that I've made it I can make a note on the recipe and not bother with it for myself at all.  If I find anyone who likes it they can have the rest, otherwise I regret to say it will be in the bin.

Well done on making it to the full three days this week and I hope you're not struggling with it again today, that you sail through a fourth day without any trouble at all. 

The very idea of knowing that there's cheese in the fridge portioned up to the right sized miniscule but nonetheless maximum daily amount we should eat would mean that I'd just tell myself I'm only going to eat one piece, and then I'd say I wouldn't eat any tomorrow and 'borrow' from my allowance, so to speak, and then the next day's allowance and so on.  Once I start I just don't want to stop - I think we both have the same problem with it. 

I'm pretty sure the reason we love sugar and fat (ie butter and cheese) is that they're the most difficult foods to find in the natural world and are amazingly good for you in small doses, packed with energy and various nutrients that we really need. 

The enjoyment of it spurs animals (and so therefore humans) to go to great lengths to find it in the natural world because that enjoyment pre-programmes us to make huge efforts to get hold of them, fine if you're living in the jungle or on the savannah but not so fine if you've got a corner shop or a supermarket five minutes away.  If we ate the diet we're designed to eat - mostly plants, lots of veg, some fruit (but not that much, it's seasonal) and some protein we'd be a lot healthier.  We have very ready access to that diet but we find the richer diet of sugar and fat really easy to get hold of and very, very affordable nowadays.  We eat so much sugar that fruit no longer even tastes sweet to a lot of us which has to be danger warning, surely, that we're eating too much sugar but most people seem to ignore that and load on even more.  It's a law of diminishing returns and as @jackieblack says, one that leads us down a dangerous road if we don't learn a little self-discipline early on.  It's hard!

I didn't try the second batch of marmalade yesterday and have got through today so far without much trouble so I'm aiming for the full four days again this week.  Four and most of a fifth is looking like a possibility, and without the pull of the m@gnums in the freezer I might be able to resist that Friday night treat.  We'll see.  I'm not promising anything or setting myself up for failure - four would be much better than I thought I'd be able to do at this stage.