The 'Towards a Sugar-Free Future' Challenge

Honey_Bear

Well done for not over-indulging over the weekend Cookie and the preps to keep temptation at bay this week.

I had a bit of an indulgent weekend and I'm not entirely sure it hasn't affected my mood negatively.  There are other reasons I don't feel 100% happy with life but I'm wondering if excess chocolate on Saturday didn't contribute to not being able to bounce back when confronted by a bit of adversity, which is something I need to think about.  Either way I'm getting out on another longer walk with the dog today to somewhere I know is absolutely beautiful locally and I've never been there.  Shocking really.  I'm also hoping it'll do it's magic and lift my mood back to where it was a few days ago.

I meant to make some more of those chocolate tangerine things but didn't get round to it over the weekend and I really don't want that temptation hanging around over the next few days, so that can wait until next weekend now.

The aim is sugar-free until Saturday.

cookie02

That's an interesting theory about the chocolate, Honey_Bear.  I've read that chocolate can provide a short-term mood boost but excess chocolate probably not so much.  I'm sure it's still less than you would have consumed before, so that is a positive.  I hope you had a lovely walk and that things are looking up again!

Here, I am surrounded by sweets and cakes thanks to the upcoming birthday this weekend.  I managed to get through today sugar-free, so I'm pleased about that, especially as I resisted the offer of shortbread earlier, even though it's one of my favourites.  A rare virtuous moment .  

Hope today went well and fingers crossed that we meet our goals this week!

Honey_Bear

Well done for getting through yesterday without succumbing to temptation Cookie, particularly as you're surrounded by that much temptation.  It's going to be a week of it if the birthday celebrations aren't until the weekend, so jolly good luck with it for the next few days.

I think you're right about over-dosing on chocolate, so I think I'm going to find it easier to resist than I did before.  Monday and Tuesday are under my belt, which is more than I expected.  I also managed five miles yesterday by putting the dog back in the car after she'd had enough and carrying on without her.  It's a shame I have to do that but she'd gone quite a distance given her health so I should be pleased with her rather than disappointed.  She's very good at letting me know when she's had enough fortunately and I got her to rinse herself off in the river after lying down in the mud to let me know when she'd reach her limit.  That's a first!

cookie02

Well, it's Friday and I'm shocked to be able to say that I made it through the week sugar-free.  How did you get on, Honey_Bear?  Did you explore any other new places?  I'm sure your dog must be enjoying the new walks too!

After having a week of being surprisingly good, I'm off to the first of the birthday celebrations shortly so my sugar-free streak is about to get broken 😋.  

Wishing everyone a lovely evening and great weekend ahead!

Honey_Bear

Hi Cookie!  Hugely well done for the week and *snap*!  I too have made it through the week without any angst at all, very surprisingly.  I may weaken tonight, but last night at a dinner with friends I didn't even consider putting sugar on my strawberries, and that was the closest I've been to indulging all week.

The dog absolutely loved her three mile walk this afternoon, thank you for asking.  She had to have a rest about half way through (and a couple of times on the way back), ate something, drank a bit and then did a fair amount of digging, so she's now exhausted and happy in a completely new way for her.  Marvellous. 

Have wonderful birthday celebrations and see you back on Monday!

Honey_Bear

Happy to report that I didn't have sugar on my strawberries, so I made it through the full five days sugarless.  I wish it were that easy every week.

Honey_Bear

How was your weekend Cookie?  I hope the birthday celebrations were full-on and you had a wonderful time, enjoying the whole event to the max.

My weekend was what my weekends have become, which is a bit over-indulgent in a 'nowhere near as bad as every day used to be but more than they should be' kind of way.  I was fine on Monday, stuck to the no-sugar thing without any trouble at all, but yesterday completely forgot that the date bars existed (how?) and had a 100g bar of milk chocolate when I needed something sweet!  Stupid of me, but hopefully having made that mistake once my memory won't fail me again to that extent.  This chocolate habit is far, far harder to break than the sugar one. 

It may have happened because I went out to lunch with a friend and thought it would be a High Day, but she didn't want a second coffee after the very early lunch which I'd rather been looking forward to, and had decided in advance I was going to allow myself a slice of cake to go with the second coffee.  I think I'd set myself up for a treat and was disappointed by thinking I couldn't have one because she didn't want one.  Having given up booze and smoking I really look forward to my coffees, and the fact that it's decaff doesn't impact on that at all.  I really, really mind missing out on one I'd planned on having.

Onwards and upwards.

Honey_Bear

Does your silence means that you've had a little bit of over-indulgence Cookie, or have you been saintly since the birthday weekend?

My computer has been missing for a few days which is why I haven't been posting.  It's not fixed but it's back with me and life's a bit more normal than it was.  I missed the laptop like crazy!

I'm incredibly relieved to say that I've only just realised I've been sugar and chocolate-free since I last posted and hadn't even given it a second thought for the rest of the week having slipped up on Tuesday.  I now, from looking forward to my date bar this afternoon with my tea, now want a bar of chocolate instead, or even worse - with it!  I won't give in to the mild temptation though, so I'm pretty chuffed with the rest of the week after the coffee/cake/chocolate debacle on Tuesday. 

I am, however, now much more aware of why I sometimes slip up.  If I've been looking forward to something I find it overwhelmingly disappointing when I'm denied it and take refuge in chocolate.  Not sure how to get round that but at least it means I know one of my triggers and I genuinely didn't realise that happened to me.

cookie02

Honey_Bear said:

Does your silence means that you've had a little bit of over-indulgence Cookie, or have you been saintly since the birthday weekend?

Good morning!  Sorry about being MIA - I had a very unexpected (but pleasant) detour this week.  A family friend was in the UK for work and we weren't expecting to see them until Friday.  Due to the trainer getting COVID, the course was cancelled so we went up and joined them in London and just got back last night.  Food-wise, I indulged but not as much as I could have done (small wins!) and definitely not as much as I would have done, if this had been a pre-planned trip!

Honey_Bear said:

My computer has been missing for a few days which is why I haven't been posting.  It's not fixed but it's back with me and life's a bit more normal than it was.  I missed the laptop like crazy!

Funny you say this as the week made me realise how much I rely on my laptop having my passwords saved for me.  I tried to re-set MSE and then I couldn't remember the password for my email and then I gave up.  I didn't meet my goal of 4.75 sugar-free days this week, mainly because I set the goal before I ended up in London for the week.  I'm not complaining as it was lovely.  In short, my week looked like this sugar-wise: 

Monday - sugar-free (too tired to eat anything thanks to last-minute packing etc, otherwise I'm sure this would have been a very sugary evening).  

Tuesday - sugar-free (surprising but I think this was thanks to us rushing around like headless chickens for most of the day!).  

Wednesday - very sugary but it would have been much worse a year ago so I'm focusing on that!
Thursday - sugary thanks to flapjacks, cake, biscuits and cocktails.  I think I had more sugar on Thursday than I had during the whole of the week before!
Friday - sugary but only because I had a couple of Bourbon biscuits last night after getting home.  

How are you, Honey_Bear?  Sorry for the delayed response.  It sounds like you have done very well this week - I know exactly what you mean about counteracting disappointment with sugar.  I think that was part of the reason why I went mad on Thursday.  Since this past week wasn't planned, it meant that the things I *had* planned all got moved and I was supposed to be elsewhere with another friend for afternoon tea.  While the tea didn't happen, I definitely ate more than an afternoon tea's worth of sugar on Thursday!!!  I hadn't spotted this trend before - thank you for pointing it out.  I will try to be more aware of this in the future.  I'm not beating myself up about the sugar on Thursday but eating afternoon tea with a friend and just gorging myself on sugary goodies aren't the same.  We were with friends still on Thursday but my sugar consumption was of the 'packet of biscuits in our hotel room' variety vs enjoying treats together with friends and family.  The cocktails were in the hotel bar and they were nice but incredibly sweet.  I think the challenge has changed my tastebuds as these are drinks that I used to enjoy. 

Did you manage to do any exploring this week?  We were outside a lot thanks to the lovely weather.  Our friend has been to London before so we didn't do any of the 'touristy' things but we took advantage of the sun to do some walks and it was lovely.  

Hope all is well and have a lovely start to the weekend ☀️ 

Morning_walker

Hi there, checking-back in. I am doing well with the bars of dark chocolate; I've cut down a lot. I was doing well with eating chocolate on certain days of the week, until this last week when I went off-piste with my plan and had a lot of ice-cream, puddings etc. Going to try to get back on it again this week, and will check in next weekend. Have a great week, all!