The 'Towards a Sugar-Free Future' Challenge

cookie02

That sounds amazing, Honey_Bear - congratulations!  I hope your planning for Friday is going well.  I managed to stay sugar-free yesterday and I've also been sugar-free so far today.  I know I'll be tempted by ice cream later but I'm going to try and stick with my goals, especially as we have planned to go out to one of our favourite places on Friday and I will definitely be having dessert then.  

How is your week going?  Work has been keeping me busy and that has also helped me away from the sugar (so far!).  

Honey_Bear

I hope you're doing well Cookie and work is keeping you busy enough to distract you from sugary things, but not so busy you're burnt to a frazzle by it all.

I was fine Tuesday and Wednesday but was given four slices of an M&S chocolate cake today, two of which we no longer have in the kitchen.  Belovéd was responsible for one of the slices going missing but I think the other one may have been my downfall ....  And then, because I'd failed on being sugar-free today I may have indulged myself with a chocolate or three after dinner.  Hey ho.  I managed two and a half days.

Tomorrow's walk is all planned, it could be 12 miles but I think 8 or 10 is far more likelyl.  Someone else may be joining me for all of some of it but I won't know until tomorrow morning.  The good news is that although my legs certainly knew I'd walked waaaay further on Monday than I had in years they felt pretty normal by today so revving them up again for a long walk, the first part of which is very uphill, will be a good thing although at the time I doubt I'll feel that happy about it!  I have put some very sugary things in my daypack just in case I feel the need of a quick boost but I'm hoping to avoid needing them.

Honey_Bear

Having disgraced myself yesterday with the chocolate cake I was hoping today would be faintly saintly, but I had an ice cream at 1.00pm to celebrate a tough two miles on my walk.  I shouldn't have, I know, but it was a particularly fab locally made salted caramel one, and after the two miles I'd done I felt I'd earned it.  The rest of the day wasn't bad at all, but I did have sugar on my strawberries and then ate the other slice of chocolate cake.  In my defence I walked 15 miles today, which was 5 more than I intended. 

How were your Thursday and Friday Cookie?

cookie02

Thursday was good and I was sugar-free but I had dessert yesterday, Honey_Bear, thanks for asking.  My Friday sugary treat is something I really look forward to and yesterday was even nicer than most.  I had a chocolate cheesecake at one of our favourite restaurants.  We're gradually re-visiting our old haunts in London and this is one that's just as good as we remembered 😎.  Despite it being the weekend, I haven't had that much sugar so far.  Earlier, we went for a walk with friends and I had a homemade brownie when we got back.  I've been looking forward to that since the disappointing brownies from a few days ago. I thought I'd eat more as I love brownies but the hot weather has curbed my appetite.  

This is ice cream weather, Honey_Bear!  Since you have been doing so much walking so much, you more than earned that treat  I hope you are continuing to enjoy the sunshine ☀️. 

Morning_walker

Hi Honey_Bear and cookie02, I've caught up on a lot of your posts having logged back in for the first time in a good while.

I have been dealing with a major bereavement, so have not always managed to prioritise healthy eating. I'm going to start the sugar-free challenge again tomorrow! My goal is to cut sugar out completely, as I think that will work best for me, though it will be challenging in the shorter-term. 
The new technique I'm going to try is using smell to curb cravings. I read something about the vanilla smelling stick called Killa Vanilla and I'm doing my own, much cheaper, version which is that I will use a Tisserand citrusy rollerball if I am craving chocolate. Let's see how it goes. 

Yes, it has been/is ice cream weather and I have been enjoying the Magnums, Twisters, Feasts etc. this past while. Hope you have a nice rest of your Sunday.

Honey_Bear

Thanks for the 'Get Out of Jail Free' card regarding Friday's sneaky ice cream Cookie.  I think I'm going to admit that the chances of hiking 10+ miles without sugar are minuscule non-existent so from here on in the days that I hike will be counted as High Days and Holidays and won't be sugar-free.  If they ever are, that's a bonus, but in the heat of the day or when I'm flagging if an ice cream truck presents itself or I need the energy boost - sugar is going to figure. 

I would really have regretted not having that ice cream on Friday, particularly as I got lost about an hour later when I was well out of sight of everyone on Dartmoor and went over two miles out of my way.  If I hadn't been equipped with a map, a mobile phone that gave me a grid reference, a lot of experience of map reading and a bucket load of commonsense I'd still be out there now.  Lessons learned.  I firmly believe it was the energy from that ice cream that got me out of the mire.

I'm so sorry to hear about your bereavement Morning Walker.  I'm a firm believer in comforting ourselves with food when we're going through a difficult time and when we feel able to exercise a bit of self-control, then doing so but later, when the first shock has worn off.  But in the thick of it, junk food really is a great comfort and the sad part is we all probably feel guilty for indulging ourselves.  (Booze really doesn't help but most people think it does temporarily, which is a great pity.)  I'm with you being sugar-free today, I'll be walking tomorrow morning (possibly with someone which will be a strain for me but hey ho and ice cream would help with that) and then back on the sugar-free for the rest of the week until Friday evening with you. 

Welcome back.

Morning_walker

Thank you Honey_bear. Hope the week is going well for all in this hot weather!

cookie02

Sorry for your loss, Morning_walker.  I agree with Honey_Bear -comfort food really helps during difficult times.  Good luck with being sugar-free and with your scent experiment.  I've read that fragrance can be used to positively impact how alert you are but I didn't realise it could also help to curb cravings.  

This week, I had a last-minute work trip and ended up eating sugar on Tuesday.  Although it was part of a work lunch, the dessert was lovely.  I chose a lovely ice cream - as both of you say, this is the right weather for it!  Monday, Wednesday and Thursday were all fine and I managed to say sugar-free, mainly because things were really busy and I didn't really feel in the mood for sugar, outside of ice cream.  The place I stayed in wasn't really close to anything so I think that also limited my sugar consumption.  I got back last night and I've been sugar-free so far today but I'll definitely be having dessert later. 

Honey_Bear said:

I would really have regretted not having that ice cream on Friday, particularly as I got lost about an hour later when I was well out of sight of everyone on Dartmoor and went over two miles out of my way.  If I hadn't been equipped with a map, a mobile phone that gave me a grid reference, a lot of experience of map reading and a bucket load of commonsense I'd still be out there now.  Lessons learned.  I firmly believe it was the energy from that ice cream that got me out of the mire.

This sounds quite scary, Honey_Bear.  I'm glad you were ok and that you had the experience to get back on track and home safely.  Have you been doing more walking this week?  There are weather warnings so if you're out and about, stay safe ☀️.  

Hope both of you have been managing to meet your sugar-free goals this week.  

Honey_Bear

I have been doing a bit more Cookie, but not much because it's just too hot.  I finished the second leg of the Dartmoor Way by doing the last four miles on Tuesday and it was a very hard slog indeed.  As usual it turned out to be hot and longer than expected, at 6 miles, which was on top of the mile I'd walked the dog early that morning, so I was flakers by the time I got home, even more than the day I did 15 miles, the day I got lost.  The forecast was 21 or 22 degrees and turned out to be 26, and that's just not comfortable walking.  I've invested quite a bit of time since that day in sharpening up my map-reading skills again and bought a nifty little distance reader for mapreading so I don't overshoot a turning point again.  I was, quite literally, in a mire, Brockhill Mire, to be exact.  Try that in the middle of winter and at best I'd get soggy very boggy feet.  I fully intend to avoid that because I don't like having wet feet at all when I'm walking on Dartmoor, as I learned from experience a few years ago.  I do love it though and Ashburton is an absolute gem, a town I'd never visisted before although I've whizzed past it hundreds of times on the A38.

So, Tuesday - ice cream and a handmade chocolate for lunch (the shop sold both, and one didn't seem excessive) but I won't need to go back there for chocolates.  Ch0c0c0's are much nicer.  Wednesday I took an elderly neighbour out to lunch and on the basis that she would probably enjoy a dessert I said I was having one, would she like one - she woofed the blackcurrant cheesecake down like she was starving which I very much doubt after the massive fish and chips we both had.  I'm fond of her and it was a thank you for her watering some of my tomato plants so needs must and all that.  (My chocolate cake was very disappointing, so I won't be bothering with that again.)

So this week has been disappointing, but never mind.  Monday and Thursday were completely sugar-free and today will be unless I weaken and indulge myself with a m@gnum tonight after supper which I very much fear I will.  It's hot, it's summer, it's Friday and I love them. 

I think, on balance, though I'll probably be able to resist eating a whole bar of chocolate in one hit over the weekend, certainly not a 200g one - it's not only too hot for that, but it now leaves me feeling more than a bit sickly afterwards.  That's progress, even though it's taken a whole year!

cookie02

My weekend was more sugary than usual as I had ice cream each day, in addition to some homemade brownies (a very tempting combination).  Yesterday, I made it all the way through to the evening and then I lapsed with an ice cream!  It was lovely in this heat so I don't regret it.  It was also a mini one so it could have been much worse.  This is ice cream weather, Honey_Bear, so I hope you also enjoyed the m@gnum .  That is a great breakthrough you've had with the chocolate bars as well 🏅.  

My original goal was to be sugar-free Monday through Friday afternoon, allowing for my usual treat on Friday evening.  I'm still going to try but I've accepted that I might break the rules with ice cream, depending on how things go.  It feels like it's getting slightly cooler outside today but it is still very hot here.  

Good luck with your goals for this week and good luck, Morning_walker, with your scent experiment as well!