The 'Towards a Sugar-Free Future' Challenge

Honey_Bear

Good call, Jazee.

Magnum last night after pizza - a normal Saturday evening meal.  Strenuous morning here, so I'm now having half a bar of choclate with my fruit tea.  I.am.not.sorry.

delta13

Well I did it! No added sugar all weekend, no fizzy drinks, not even a chocolate digestive with a cup of tea. 
I think the key to my success was avoiding the work canteen so I couldn't be tempted, so this week I'm going to order a thermos flask to take in my own tea and see if that helps.

Honey_Bear

I'm so impressed Delta13!  Hugely well done, and brilliant that you've got a strategy other than denial of temptation for the future.

I'm on a sugar-free day today so I need to be stern with myself.  It doesn't help that I defrosted a box of brownies yesterday, forgetting that it would be a better idea to leave that until tomorrow.  I won't see them in the fridge unless I go looking for them but I know they're there, unfortunately.

Honey_Bear

So, that took a bit of determination on my part yesterday.  For various reasons I was very tempted in the late afternoon but I resisted once I found some food that needed finishing up while ignoring the brownies.  Later on after dinner I was hankering after some homemade chocolates that Belovéd was having but I managed to curb my longings.  I was rather chuffed with myself, but the lessons learned are:

1.  Eat a decent sized lunch.

2.  Have something lovely to eat available instead of chocolate mid-afternoon.

Jazee

I had a sugar free day yesterday just by chance and am still having my planned sugar free day today.
 I agree about having a substantial lunch to ease those afternoon cravings.  I am making sure there is fresh fruit to deal with those cravings.

Honey_Bear

Very tardy of me, not posting for a few days.  I'm dealing with the sugar-allowed days slightly better by making sure there is chocolate that I really want to eat available, but making sure I don't chow down on a whole bar of chocolate every day, which is what I used to do.  On days I feel stressed I eat double the amount I would in an ideal world, but at least I now know that it's stress or boredom with what I'm doing at 3.30pm that leads to excess.  I'm pleased that I now know when and why I resort to sugar because I can do something about it.

I'm also, much against my better judgement, cutting down significantly on coffee and if all goes to plan I'll be cutting it out entirely for a few months from next week.  I've already more than halved my consumption because I really, really don't want to go through caffeine withdrawal so I'm doing it gradually, and I'm down to one mug a day now - it was at least six until a couple of weeks ago and so far there have been no side effects at all.  This was absolutely not in the original plan but needs must sometimes. 

Jazee

Hello HB.
My planned sugar free day yesterday went ok.  This morning I have made up a big dish of fruit salad which I'm hoping will tempt me if I get sugar cravings.  The other thing I've been doing all week is eating lunch later which seems to be helping.  Oh, and I haven't purchased anything sweet so it's just what's left in the cupboard now.

Honey_Bear

That sounds like a workable plan, Jazee and well done on keeping up with the sugar-free day thing.

Hmm.  The buying of it just in case I get cravings thing is a matter I need to address.  When I do get the cravings I never resort to baking a cake or some Twinks so I know it's an instant gratification thing, but I do still have chocolate in the house from weeks/months ago.  I'd be best off just making another batch of brownies and accept I'm going to eat them, even if it is gradually, rather than scoff a whole bar in a moment of weakness. 

There's fruit here all the time because Belovéd eats it every day but I'm so addicted to added/excess sugar it doesn't satisfy the cravings.  I intend that in the future it absolutely will, and I do eat is sometimes as a dessert so all is not lost!

Jazee

So yesterday was my third sugar free day in a row.  This means snack free for me too as I include crisps which are my weakness. When I popped to the shop yesterday my favourite crisps were half price but they stayed on the shelf.  Also forgot to mention that cakes that didn't get eaten when we had guests last week were taken as donations to the community fridge.
 I weighed myself this morning and I've lost 3lbs this week.
This coming week, my official sugar free day will be tomorrow.  Was disappointed with the amount of sugar in my yogurt this morning but not stressing too much about that.
My plan for the week will be:
Eat a substantial healthy breakfast 
Eat a substantial later lunch
Only have fresh fruit for mid afternoon snack
Try not to snack after main evening meal by reading or knitting or similar.

Honey_Bear

I'm really impressed with your achievements Jazee.  Resisting those crisps when on offer is awesome!  I'm so glad you've seen immediate benefits so soon too. 

As for me, I've suprised myself by sticking to one chunk of my homemade brownies most days and stopping sugar consumption at that.  It's resulted in a lost kilo but I'm not sure how real that is - my weight fluctuates that much quite regularly, so I need the scales to go down a kilo more for me to believe it's real.

Tomorrow being Monday is a sugar-free day but I'm going to be travelling for at least eight hours and while I've amassed a whole load of things to do during the journey, boredom is one of my triggers - the stimulation of sickly sweetness is a moment of instant gratification that I used to get from cigarettes, red wine, coffee and sugar.  I no longer smoke or drink and I'm off the coffee, so if I weaken I wouldn't be surprised.  If I do, then I'm going to have a sugar-free day on Wednesday because Tuesday is another travel day, and at least as long as Monday.  I'm not taking anything sugary with me, so if I do weaken I'll have to find the opportunity to buy something and I may not have much chance of that due to timings, so that's helpful.