The 'Towards a Sugar-Free Future' Challenge

cookie02

Hello!  I'm going to declare today as sugar-free as I've made it this far and I don't intend to have any sugar now .  

Morning_walker, that's a really good idea about switching to 85% dark chocolate as a starting point.  I've also read that it is good for you .  I'm guessing that the dark chocolate will also change your tastebuds over time so that might help too.  I'm also using dates for those moments when I really want a cake or cookie.  What are your goals for this week? 

Honey_Bear, well done on stopping with the chocolate bar and that is great about you having the daily walk with your dog.  I have been failing miserably when it comes to exercise.  I'm fine on dry or sunny days but when it rains, I just want to hibernate.  How did today go for you?  

This week, I'm aiming for four sugar-free days and I hope to get through most of Friday sugar-free as well.  I hope all of you are having a great start to the week  .

Honey_Bear

Well done for today, Cookie.  I was sugar-free too, but it was a struggle because I binged on Sunday.  Not as much as I used to but more than I have in a while.  I put the biscuit tin back in the cupboard after getting one out for Belovéd to go with his tea this afternoon, but it was an extremely close call. 

As for exercise, it's a mile walking round a scheduled ancient monument we live very close to, so that's my morning dog walk.  The last two mornings the dog has made it very clear she has no intention of going anywhere near that far, so we've turned back.  She's allowed to dictate the pace and distance and she occasionally has a rest but makes it the whole way, but she's so not up for it at the moment!  It's not raining, but it is a bit cold and windy so that's probably it.

cookie02

How is everyone today?  So far, I've been sugar-free but it's that time of day and I'm very, very tempted to have some chocolate so I thought I'd pop here and do a quick update instead.  I have run out of dates!  That's thanks to using them during my experiment on Friday so I will have to go out and get some tomorrow, otherwise, I'll need to find a new snack for this week.  

Honey_Bear said:

Well done for today, Cookie.  I was sugar-free too, but it was a struggle because I binged on Sunday.  Not as much as I used to but more than I have in a while.  I put the biscuit tin back in the cupboard after getting one out for Belovéd to go with his tea this afternoon, but it was an extremely close call.  

Thank you, Honey_Bear and well done to you too.  I find that sugary Sundays always make Monday much harder -extra well done for persisting!  Your dog has very good judgement .

Morning_walker

Well done on your sugar-free days so far this week cookie02 and Honey_Bear. I was craving a pick-me up to get me through the late afternoon til now - I almost nipped in to a shop to get myself some small tiramisus when I was doing another errand (picking up my Veg box!), but I did think of the sugar-free challenge, and managed not to. So I'm proud of that. I'd already finished off a bar of 85% chocolate in the morning, so I made a deal with myself that that was enough for today. 

The alternative snacks I've now got in for mid-morning and late afternoon are: cottage cheese, avocado, peanut butter... all to have on toast. 

Re. the palm oil, Honey_Bear, yes I'd much prefer to avoid it too. Thanks so much for reminding me about it - it's something I used to look out for, and realise I've forgotten about recently. 

Honey_Bear

Well done on resisting temptation Morning Walker.  The afternoons are the toughest as far as I'm concerned, so I admire you for being so strong.

I'd forgotten about cottage cheese and peanut butter on toast so thank you for that reminder.  I might try peanut butter after lunch tomorrow to see if I can forgo the date bar.  I'm having one every day and ideally I'd like to do without it every day.  At the moment I just can't quite seem to manage that.  Whenever we have ripe avacodos we have them for lunch on toast  which is fairly often thanks to Morribund's Wonky range.

How did it go, Cookie?  Running out of dates, that could be serious.

So far so good for today with me but I'm not counting my chickens yet. 

cookie02

Morning_walker said:

Well done on your sugar-free days so far this week cookie02 and Honey_Bear. I was craving a pick-me up to get me through the late afternoon til now - I almost nipped in to a shop to get myself some small tiramisus when I was doing another errand (picking up my Veg box!), but I did think of the sugar-free challenge, and managed not to. So I'm proud of that. I'd already finished off a bar of 85% chocolate in the morning, so I made a deal with myself that that was enough for today. 

Thank you, Morning_walker, and well done for resisting yesterday.  I'm not a fan of cottage cheese but I will definitely be trying the peanut butter as an alternative snack this week.  Unlike the dates, we have plenty of peanut butter and it's a peanut butter that I really like (just the peanuts, nothing else).  Thank you for the idea .  How is today going?  

Honey_Bear, how did it go yesterday?  I haven't had time to replace the dates but we have a ton of seeds so I diluted some maple, added cinnamon and cayenne and brushed it over the seeds before toasting them.  The seeds taste great but my family has been eating them so I'm not sure how long they'll last.  Still, it's nice when everyone likes the healthier options.  I won't have time to shop today so the date crisis ( 😂  ) will continue for a little longer.  With your date and cashew bars, have you thought about chopping them up?  I have chopped and boxed them before and I've found they keep well but I haven't tried the L3d1 ones yet.  I think you tend to prefer to just switch or cut things out, don't you?  I'm not good at doing that and normally need to cut back slowly (one of the reasons this challenge works for me).  This talk of the date and cashew bars has reminded me that I still have those, even if the dates have run out!  

Today, I've had the spicy maple seeds and I have a handful of cashews for later.  Hopefully those will tide me over as I'd love to stay sugar-free today and tomorrow.  

Hope everyone is well and having a good week!

Honey_Bear

Your seed idea sounds like a winner, Cookie.  If your family are scoffing them instead of sugar - wow!  That's a huge change but it will probably only work as long as you don't tell them! 

I'm hopeless at trying to cut back or cut down.  The stuff's there, I know it is, and once I start I don't want to stop.  I've tried cutting back all sorts of things over the years but it just doesn't work for me at all.  No Stop button, no willpower.  I can however fool myself into believing that if I don't have one now I am allowed one later, or in the case of this Challenge - tomorrow, tomorrow and tomorrow as Shakespeare would say.  If I chopped up the date bars that would mean I could sneak an extra lump or three, whereas opening a second one would be absolutely out of the question. 

So far so good today.

Morning_walker

Hello, Wednesday is a challenging day in my schedule, and I ended up having quite a large millionaire's shortbread as a reward! Oops! No chocolate as well though - my new challenge is to stick to a weekly budget of £1.50 for chocolate - and that all went by yesterday.

Well done to you cookie02 and Honey_Bear. 

Honey_Bear

Trial and error Morning Walker and you'll get there with a system that works for you.  We're all different and we're all struggling with finding ways of making a big change in our diets without causing ourselves huge discomfort.  Sugar is such an insidious substance that we can't know how well-trained our tastebuds are any more to eat masses of sugar because it's in virtually everything.  That means cutting it out is harder than we first anticipate for all of us.  I was surprised at how straight forward going back to this Challenge was after the Christmas festivities, but I'm struggling with it this week all the time.  Hey ho.  

Limiting oneself to a weekly spend is an excellent way forward.  Good luck with it.

Honey_Bear

I caved.  There is one less m@gnum in the freezer than there was two hours ago.  See what I mean?  Absolutely no willpower.