The 'Towards a Sugar-Free Future' Challenge

cookie02

Honey_Bear said:

I've actually had a reasonably good day in terms of energy, for the first time since I went down with the plague, so things are on the up. I think I'm just sick and tired of feeling under the weather.

Tomorrow's another day.

This definitely sounds like the time to focus on your win of having more energy, Honey_Bear .  Of course you don't want to return to old habits but the chocolate is helping you right now.  You've done this before so you KNOW you'll be able to get past the binge-eating later.  You're right that feeling better is more important that the sugar/chocolate right now.  I hope it won't be another 10 days but 

Yesterday, I didn't eat sugar (on a Friday!).  I wish I could say this was some new-found willpower.  In truth, I didn't eat sugar as we shared a massive pizza and, while it was delicious, I was just too full to eat anything else afterwards.  We got the pizza from a little place that opened up a few months ago.  It seems like an odd time to open a restaurant but the owners had been looking for some time and decided to just go for it.  Based on yesterday's experience, I'd say they've got a winner!

Morning_walker, how did this week go for you?  

Work was so busy, I'm just glad the weekend is here now.  We're going for a walk this morning so we can try and make the most of the sun.  I hope everyone has a relaxing weekend!  ☀️ 

Honey_Bear

Thanks Cookie.  You're a brick.  The C19 thing hanging around for more than five days was a bit of a facer for both of us - Belovéd was still testing faintly positive nine days after he first tested positive, and as I'm on Day 10 today I'm going to test later, but even if I'm not still infectious it doesn't make me feel 100%. 

I was doing my weight charts this morning and it appears that February was not brillinat - I steadily put it on despite some days losing some, and when I relate it to the weekends there is a definite link between Saturdays and Sundays indulgence and gain.  I'm going to have to think about how I tackle that because yes, sugar is a part of that but it's not the whole story, something else I'm doing is contributing to it and I need to get my head around that.  I need a steadily reducing plan without it being a diet because I'm of an age where this is going to have to be managed.  I honestly didn't have to think about my weight at all until I hit 40 and the situation has been gradually getting worse ever since, slowly but surely.  Giving up smoking 16 years ago meant I put on a stone and giving up booze hasn't changed anything for th better.  *curses*  The occasional loss of half a kilo here and there doesn't happen often enough for me to be on a a downward tragectory and I thought I'd be heading that way by now. 

Pizza.  I love the stuff - if you've found a wonderful new local outlet I can understand why you would want to support them and eat until you're fit to pop!  We've taken to buying a mini pizza for Saturday night and making up the volume with salads which has worked suprisingly well for us, but we only have Co-0p or Morribunds to tempt us here, nothing artisanal which would be catestrophic for me because I'd sneak in when Belovéd wasn't looking!

Calling Morning Walker!  How you doing this week?

I hope you both have a lovely weekend and the sun shines for you the whole time.  Life's so much more cheerful when the sun's out, isn't it.

 

cookie02

Good morning!  I hope everyone had a relaxing weekend ☀️.  This one was a mixed bag for me sugar-wise.  On Saturday, I managed to consume a hot cross bun, a very small (finger-width!) slice of cheesecake, a ginger biscuit and a couple of pieces of lovely chocolate (M0nt3zum@s, which I love).  It is more than I'd usually have, even at the weekend, but far less than I'd have consumed in one sitting in the past so it is still progress.  In more progress, I realised I didn't want to repeat that on Sunday, even though I have sugary weekends.  On Sunday, I had 2 Ginger Nuts and then I ate a couple of dates later.  Overall, I'm ok with that.  

Honey_Bear said:

I was doing my weight charts this morning and it appears that February was not brillinat - I steadily put it on despite some days losing some, and when I relate it to the weekends there is a definite link between Saturdays and Sundays indulgence and gain.  I'm going to have to think about how I tackle that because yes, sugar is a part of that but it's not the whole story, something else I'm doing is contributing to it and I need to get my head around that.  I need a steadily reducing plan without it being a diet because I'm of an age where this is going to have to be managed.  I honestly didn't have to think about my weight at all until I hit 40 and the situation has been gradually getting worse ever since, slowly but surely.  Giving up smoking 16 years ago meant I put on a stone and giving up booze hasn't changed anything for th better.  *curses*  The occasional loss of half a kilo here and there doesn't happen often enough for me to be on a a downward tragectory and I thought I'd be heading that way by now.  

I hope both of you are starting to feel better, Honey_Bear.  When you eat at the weekend, do you tend to eat more in general (forgetting the sugar/chocolate specifically)?  Or do you tend to eat richer foods at the weekend?  I'm asking based on our own habits .  We definitely eat more in general from Friday night through to Sunday lunchtime and that's something we're trying to work on reducing.  

I'm sure you've already done this but one thing that helped us a lot was switching to smaller plates.  If you have those 'fits dinner for three people' plates, it could be worth a try.  I remember you were doing more Buddha bowls so you're already doing this, in a way, regardless of plate sizes!

The sun is out today and you're right that everything's definitely better for it!  

This week, my goal is to stay sugar-free for four days (Monday to Thursday).  With Easter coming up, I debated whether to give myself a free pass for Good Friday and Easter Monday.  I've decided to stick with my original plan and try to stay sugar-free until Friday evening.  For Easter Monday, I will wait and see how the weekend goes.  Ideally, I'd like to be back to sugar-free but I might allow myself one sugary meal, depending on how things work out. 

Good luck with your goals and wishing everyone a great week ahead! 🍀 

Morning_walker

Hello hello, I have been away this weekend visiting a family member in a care home and relied on some fairly low quality chocolate - Kit-kat chunkies featured! Didn't go overboard on the chocolate though as I did during my last visits, so that was good.
I'm back now and planning some healthy recipes for this week - plenty of veg to use from my veg box. I have some kiwi fruits in too and a desert I've been having is kiwi fruit with yoghurt and cacao nibs. They're expensive so I just have a small amount. Previously I was having some maple syrup on it too, which softens the cacao nibs - that is now used up so I'm having it without and it's still pretty nice. 

Good luck with your goals!

Honey_Bear

Hi Both! 

So, Cookie, yes we do use dinner plates that are bigger than they need to be.  We bought them without realising they were a good couple of inches bigger in a French supermarket a few years ago and the temptation is to make the plate look full which is a disaster.  However, we've also got those bowls I use for things like pasta, couscous and so on and they're just as likely to be used for our evening meal.  I think I've just got a huge appetite that's never gone back to normal after giving up smoking about 16 years ago.  Well done on not going overboard over the weekend - I find it easier to stop than I used to most of the time and I think that is making a big difference overall. 

The plan this week is to go vegetarian and cut down on carbohydrates a bit.  I've got some roast veggies in the oven with feta, which I love, and I've toasted some sunflower and pumpkin seeds to go over it, along with a dollop of pesto.  Tomorrow night Belovéd will make his stir fry with cashews and then it's the sweet potato with goat's cheese and roasted grapes, followed by a cheese and onion flan I make.  I'm hoping that's all going to add up to less fat overall, because I'm absolutely determined to see if this makes a difference.  Carbs are fine but unless they've got a load of roughage I'm skipping them for a week or three to see if that helps.  I love root veggies but I can live without potatoes most of the time.

The weekend wasn't too awful in the end and I'm past the needing-to-gorge-on-chocolate stage thank goodness.  This weekend, as well as being Easter, happens to include my birthday so all bets are off - chocolate will be consumed and I'm not going to stint on it, either.  Until the weekend however I will be as careful as I can.

Morning Walker, for some reason I used to be a bit partial to kitk@ts even though they're a dry wafer topped with very mediocre chocolate.  I now try to avoid them because I can easily go a bit mad with them.  Since they started going a bit exotic I've managed to avoid them completely, a bit like m@ltezers.  I'm iwth you on the fruit thing.

There will be a lot of grapes and tangerines eaten here this week. 

cookie02

Hello 👋, I hope you are having a good week!

Morning_walker, well done for not going overboard with the chocolate.  Your kiwi and yoghurt sounds good.  If you have a L1dl near you, I can recommend trying their maple syrup whenever you next get one.  Their syrup is much cheaper than elsewhere but it is proper maple syrup, not 'maple flavoured'.  I always try and get a couple as I tend to use maple quite a bit for healthy snacks and desserts (like my pecan-stuffed dates).  That reminds me, I now do the dates and the pecans separately as I've found the the date is sweet enough by itself, I don't need the maple-covered pecan at the same time.  By splitting them up, I feel like I have two snacks .  I hope this week goes well for you and that you meet all of your goals! 🍀 

Honey_Bear said:

So, Cookie, yes we do use dinner plates that are bigger than they need to be.  We bought them without realising they were a good couple of inches bigger in a French supermarket a few years ago and the temptation is to make the plate look full which is a disaster.  

This is what we used to do too, Honey_Bear!  The bowls/smaller plates definitely make a difference.  I've also cut back a lot on carbs but not cut them out altogether.  I love, love, LOVE potatoes but I have put them on the 'treats' list and we tend to have them far less often now.  Potatoes and rice were my downfall (outside of sugar!).  The rebels amongst us won't eat 'diet food' so we've been really trying to find and cook meals that all of us enjoy and where no-one is wishing they had something else instead.  It is interesting as most of our food now is much tastier than before - it's just that it requires more thought and we definitely shop differently now.  

Yesterday, I was sugar-free!  I'm so pleased as I really wasn't sure if I would make it.  I was hungrier than usual but I kept snacks to lentils and a couple of small oatcakes.  I've managed to stay sugar-free so far today.  I had quite a big lunch and I hope that will keep me from being tempted later.  

Hope everyone is having a good week .  

Honey_Bear

Well done for yesterday Cookie.  I'm very wary of allowing myself to get hungry outside of meal times because my go to solution has always always always been chocolate or cake, so - sugar, even if I knew that eating anything sugary wouldn't help for more than about 30 minutes.  You're brave letting temptation get that close and I'm full of admiration for you getting through the day without giving in.

I think I've been overdoing the carbs for a long time and now that I had time to think about it, I'm not sure how much good they've been doing me.  I'm hoping that I can get on to Prof Tim Spector's gut research programme to find out if I, like him, don't do well with carbs but do do well with something else.  He's had to give up his morning toast and go for fruit and yoghurt, unlike his wife who's fine with the carby stuff first thing.  I'm laying off the porridge for the moment too because I'm not entirely sure it fills me up in the way I need it to.  I'd love to think that what we crave is what we need, nutritionally, but as I'm addicted to chocolate and crave it most of the time I just know that isn't the case.

You're absolutely right about snacks.  They keep me on the straight and narrow and I have two I fall back on nearly every day - a couple of figs, and one of those date bars.  If I didn't have them I'm not at all sure I'd ever manage a sugar-free day at all.  How do you do your lentils as a snack?   I love them but I'm not sure how to have them for a snack.

The rice and brown lentils recipe that I've totally fallen in love with is tricky to post links for because it's a Middle Eastern one that's spelt a great many different ways.  YouTube uploaders spell it variously: Mujaddara, Mujadara, Mejadara, and Mjadara - there are other variations but that's enough to be going on with!  I like it because it's a vegan meal I actually like, it freezes amazingly well, it's not fat-free but olive oil is fine by me, and it can be jazzed up with yoghurt or quark as I'm a non-vegan, and any herb you happen to have knocking around in the fridge and lemon juice to taste.   The method doesn't change much but again there are variations to spices and the way the onions are cooked - I cook it as straightforwardly as I can but add all the spices anyone and everyone has mentioned on all of their videos because I've got a well-stocked spice cupboard and I love them all.  The other thing I've discovered is that if I weigh out the lentils and shove them in the fridge to soak for 48 hours they cook really quickly, so that instead of it taking 30 minutes on the hob it only takes 15 which reduces the chance of it sticking to the bottom of the pan and burning.  It is now my go-to lunch.  Onions are really really good for us and apparently it's one of the veg we should be eating every day.  I don't have any problem with that if I've got a box of this in the fridge or the freezer.  Now that I come to think of it, it also has tomato in it, so that's three of your fruit and veg a day right there - onions, lentils and tomatoes - in one meal.  Fab.

Good luck with the rest of today and for tomorrow too. 

cookie02

Well, I ate cake yesterday.  It was only a tiny piece but it still happened...  I will try harder today 🍀. 

Honey_Bear said:

Well done for yesterday Cookie.  I'm very wary of allowing myself to get hungry outside of meal times because my go to solution has always always always been chocolate or cake, so - sugar, even if I knew that eating anything sugary wouldn't help for more than about 30 minutes.  You're brave letting temptation get that close and I'm full of admiration for you getting through the day without giving in.

I think you're right to be wary, Honey_Bear - hunger really is when the sugar monster strikes!  I get odd days like Monday where I'm suddenly hungrier than usual, despite having proper meals.  I read somewhere that what we think is hunger can sometimes be due to dehydration and to try and drink something before eating, if you're not sure.  I tried that but I was definitely hungry so I had some lentils and oatcakes.  

For the lentils, this might sound weird but I have them on oatcakes sometimes.  I also do what my family call lentil biscuits - I stir cooked lentils with oat bran, add onions or sweetcorn (frozen is fine), add some chilli flakes (or your preferred spices), optional cheese and a beaten egg and then drop the mixture in tablespoons into a hot pan.  Fry for a few minutes, flip like a pancake and do the other side and then they're ready.  They are lovely and they also taste good cold.  The texture is closer to a chewy pancake than a biscuit.  I know that description probably isn't selling it but they taste better than they look or sound.  For me, if I can have a snack that's relatively healthy and tastes good, I count that as a win.  If you try them, you may have to experiment with the lentil:oat proportions as this tends to depend on the texture of the cooked lentils.  All of the above are with red lentils, not the green ones like in the Mujaddara which sounds delicious. I will definitely try it - thank you 😊.  

I've managed to be sugar-free so far today and I'm in a meeting for the whole afternoon so I hope this will keep me away from sugar.  It will be great to get back on track today.  

Good luck for everyone with meeting their goals this week🤞.  

JanetOCall

Just been reading your blog as a new member and can well sympathise with your daily struggle.  I was diagnosed as pre-diabetic 12 months ago and was offered a place on a support group by my GP to get my sugar intake under control.  Didn't fancy this at the time with all the COVID issues, so decided to go it alone but promised my GP that if I failed, I would take up his offer. I did lots of research online and put a plan together to substitute bad eating habits.  I was surprised to find out how much non-wholegrain cereals and bread, pasta, etc turn into sugar once consumed, so I changed to porridge and reduced bread intake.  After 12 months, my taste buds have changed so much, that I find I dislike even the slightest taste of puddings, sweets, biscuits, Ice Cream, cream etc.  I've lost over a stone in weight and feel so much better.  I have the occasional bit of chocolate, and moderate amount of alcohol which I tend to reward myself with if I've been good all week.  This morning I've had a blood test so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I've reversed my sugar intolerance.  Good luck with your diet!

Honey_Bear

Thanks Janet O Call.  I find it helpful when other people post about what they're doing or have done to reduce their sugar intake.  I think most food turns to sugars in the digestive system to be used as energy, and it seems simple carbohydrates do so very quickly in comparison to complex carbohydrates, so I've cut down this week to see how it goes.  Belovéd offered me cheese and beans on toast for lunch which was what he was making for himself - I just skipped the toast and was absolutely astounded to realise it was even nicer than with toast, plus which I skipped the butter as a bonus.  As I make all of our own bread so it's a lot nicer than the shop versions, that was really surprising.  I bought some really good wholemeal flour yesterday so I can make some 50:50 bread to see if I like it enough to have as toast with my boiled eggs on Sunday mornings.  If not, I'm not sure how I'll be able to eat the eggs!

Good luck with your blood test result, and I hope your new style of eating has worked wonders.  It sounds as though it agrees with you which is always a briliant start, and I'm really hoping that my taste buds realign themselves as well.  The fact that I've gone off jelly babies indicates they have, so I do think it's possible to achieve quite a bit by being a bit more self-disciplined that I've been over the past few years. 

Tonight we have two vegetarian poverty-stricken students coming for supper which will probably be the last time we'll have the opportunity to spend time with them as they're not local and the one that lives here has finished his dissertation and will be leaving the city.  I've made a cheese and onion flan for us, and baked nine little versions in muffin cups without the pastry for those that would prefer to avoid the pastry/carbs.  We'll see how that works - I just did a taste test and they seemed fine to me.  Having said that, my cheese pastry is rather nice so I may indulge - I rolled it really thin so I may be tempted ....

Thank you so much for the lentil biscuit / drop scone / pancake recipe Cookie.  I'm going to need to get hold of some oat bran to follow your recipe but I think I may try it with just plain old porridge oats if you think that might work.  I like oats even if they are carboyhdrates.  It sounds like a 'splodge and go' recipe so I'll need to work out what quantities bring it together but it sounds lovely.

Cake.  It's so wretchedly tempting, isn't it.  I daren't have it in the house because if it's here I'll eat it.  Fortunately we're not going out much at the moment, well, for the last two years really, so we haven't been side-swiped by it being around as I know you are.  If it was even a tad smaller than you would have had before you started this challenge, then you're doing absolutely fine as far as I'm concerned.  I hope today's going well.