The 'Towards a Sugar-Free Future' Challenge

leftatthetrafficlights

I'll be doing my first sugar free day today - I've resisted my usual morning latte and swapped it for a bottle of water😊 I've got short-grain brown rice, aubergine baked with tomatoes and pesto and salad leaves for lunch which I'll dress with a lime, coriander and olive oil dressing and for dinner I'll have ginger lentils, green beans, broccoli and salad leaves. 

I worked out yesterday that my DAILY sugar intake from drinks alone is between 250 - 300g!!!😨 Horrifying! 🙈 Another really good reason to stop the alcohol and full sugar cola 😉 

I'm expecting a pretty harsh sugar and caffine withdrawal headache but it's worth it to get off this toxic roundabout I'm on! 

Honey_Bear

Well, I've sugared today and I'm not going to have an issue with it at all.  I've had two homemade brownies and they were fab.  One at lunchtime and one at tea time, but each time I stopped at one so I'm making progress, plus which it's Thursday so it's absolutely fine to be having sugar.

The chiropractor I saw on Tuesday said I should up my water-drinking so like you Fayolle I've been tackling that.  Each time I go to the bathroom for pee I have a small glass of water when I wash my hands, in the hope that I can start a new habit, cut down on my (decaff) coffee intake and be healthier as a result.  She said that people who don't drink water are like a dried out plant pot - if you chuck a load of water down it'll simply pass straight through, the trick is to start slowly and build up to two litres a day.  We'll see.  I'm not measuring how much extra water I'm drinking overall, just getting the habit of thinking about it and doing something about it. 

Delta13, six biscuits with a cup of tea would be about normal these days, let's be honest.  How have you managed to find a recipe for no sugar crumble?  Or were you talking about the filling and not the topping?  Cranberry-flavoured cordial probably has some in it, but a great deal less than fizzy drinks I'd assume, and it's a change of drinking pop without thinking about alternatives, so excellent progress. 

Fayolle, how's it going today?  I'm with you on the water thing, and the Award for the Most Boring Biscuit goes to ... there are so many!  I stopped buying the normal types years and years ago because they were so tedious.  There are, however, some chocolate-covered ginger biscuits I can't have in the house because once opened I eat the whole packet.  In one sitting.  And I can't resist a Twinks with chopped up crystalized ginger, either, so they're on hold at the moment because I have a tendency to stand over the biscuit tin and eat until I can't face any more. That takes quite a while. 

Left at the Traffic Lights, I'm guessing that 250 - 300g of sugar a day probably isn't that unusual any more for quite a few people.   Having been through caffeine withdrawal once several years ago I'm going to 'fess up and say I know I couldn't hack both caffeine and sugar withdrawal together, so if you can you're a lot stronger than I am!  I drink decaff, and it took me well over three weeks to switch from full bore caffeine to decaff but the good news is that didn't cause a single headache.  Having been advised by the chiropractor to now cut down on the decaff I'm trying to halve my intake but there are days like today when that just isn't possible.  However, I am aware that last Saturday I drank much less than normal and felt amazing on Sunday, which may or may not be related to that, so I'm kind of with you in spirit if not the flesh at this particular juncture.

The reason I'm spreading cutting out sugar over several months and doing it very, very gradually, is that I don't want to go through any kind of withdrawal at all.  I've done nicotine withdrawal and that was bad enough, and giving up the booze was straightforward but again, it wasn't a pleasure at the time.  I'm not good at adversity, so I'm just trying to make this as easy as possible and I don't want to fail.  I'm incredibly aware that I've eaten a lot less sugar in the past four days than I normally do, with none on Monday and very little on Tuesday so I'm taking that as a huge win because in addition to achieving it, it hasn't hurt a bit either.  This is all about building successes, not struggling with feeling grim.

delta13

Honey_Bear said:

Delta13, six biscuits with a cup of tea would be about normal these days, let's be honest.  How have you managed to find a recipe for no sugar crumble?  Or were you talking about the filling and not the topping?  Cranberry-flavoured cordial probably has some in it, but a great deal less than fizzy drinks I'd assume, and it's a change of drinking pop without thinking about alternatives, so excellent progress. 

The topping is oats, almond flakes, dried cranberries (only a small amount, maybe 15g?) and orange juice and orange zest. So all sugars found in the ingredients naturally rather than anything added.

The cranberry cordial did its job! I saved ££, my waist, and my teeth. I've checked the packaging and the amount of water I add to dilute it means it has less than a third of the amount of sugar of a fizzy can of coke. I'll have a look when next doing our grocery shopping to see what else I can get, maybe sugar-free options.

Today I have a packed "dinner" ready to take into work (as I'm working the later shift). I'm also taking some belvita biscuits as an alternative to buying something sweet/ chocolatey in the canteen with my cup of tea.

The real test comes after today - the dreaded weekend in work!

Honey_Bear

I might try that crumble topping, Delta13.  It sounds lovely.

I caved last night and had two profiteroles in chocolate sauce, followed by two handmade chocolates.  Other than that I've been resisting sugar since, but then it is danger time of day now so I can't get complacent.

Fayolle

Ah yes, the ginger biscuits with dark chocolate covering - irresistible!
After resisting temptation for the past couple of days, even on my day off which is sometimes harder, I full on sugared today. I am taking in a small pot of raisins as well as my refillable water bottle for mid afternoon, to resist the (boring, but still tempting) biscuit barrel. But they are no competition it seems for when somebody brings in a fresh lardy cake to share! Sugar and more sugar, but so good. To those addicts of us in the west of the country, anyway.
The rest of the day was a total success, so tomorrow is another day.

Honey_Bear

Lardy cake!  I absolutely love it and haven't had any for years and years.  I really must find some at some point, now you've mentioned it. 

Once more, I had a very small brownie at tea time and then the profiteroles needed finishing.  All things considered it wasn't a heavy day sugar-wise, but it just goes to show how difficult it is to avoid the stuff. 

leftatthetrafficlights

Surprisingly, I'm onto my third day of no/low sugar now - the first day was sugar free intentionally but yesterday and today have been 'accidental' wins! 😂 I honestly thought that I would have withdrawals from sugar and caffeine due to eliminating alcohol and the 2 litres of coke I drank as a mixer daily but so far, I've been fine! 🤔 
I'm still only going to do one intentional day a week but I'm pleased that overall I'm more conscious of the sugar I have 😊

Honey_Bear

Well done, Left. It's really very surprising how our minds work.  Now that I have given myself permission to eat sugar six days a week with a clear conscience I find the cravings aren't as frequent or as strong, so I'm in a win:win situation as well. 

Coupled with that, I said in an earlier post that I couldn't give up sugar and caffeine at the same time, and I absolutely know that's true.  However, I was told on Tuesday I should probably cut down on even the decaff coffee I drink because I drink a lot of it, and minded terribly.  However, on Thursday/Friday I signed up to something that may involve me having to give up all caffeine for three and a half months, so I've halved my consumption now, to see if I can and to make life easier if the time comes.  In the meantime, I do absolutely have to do a 48 hour caffeine-free stint in a couple of weeks so I know I'll be more able to do that when the time comes.

I'd dearly love to be swigging my decaff back as normal but I'm not craving it, and missing the habit is the only effect so far. 

Pretty happy with how the sugar and caffeine thing are going, to be honest.  Much more smoothly than I would have anticipated.

Thank you one and all for joining in - the thread helps me stay accountable and focus on the effects doing this is having which I find interesting.

Honey_Bear

I've just spent two hours trying to update Google Play on my mobile phone and ending up punching it.   Suffice it to say the wretched message that Play needs to be updated is still showing and I've just eaten two fudge brownies.

Note to Self:  Frustration = chocolate/sugar binge.

Jazee

We have visitors.  My sugar free day this week will be Friday.