The 'Towards a Sugar-Free Future' Challenge

Pollybear

Dammit!

Honey_Bear

In the end I asked Belovéd to get two bars of chocolate for me, one for today and one for tomorrow.  I went without the m@gnum tonight and then decided, once I'd got my hands on the bars of chocolate, that I didn't need to eat any of it and settled for raspberries and blueberries - commando.  I'm rather chuffed with myself that I've made it through six days in a row.  It wasn't intentional, but it's happened so I'm happy about it. 

Small victories, and all that.

Honey_Bear

I have had two bars of chocolate within reach since yesterday evening and haven't eaten any of them.  I must be under the weather. 

I did have apricot jam on my toast this morning, rather a lot of it, to finish the jar, and I had two slices of lemon drizzle cake that a neighbour made for us, but that's it.  This is most odd. 

Back to being sugar-free tomorrow for five days.

How did the tail end of your week and your weekend go, Cookie and Morning Walker?

Honey_Bear

Morning all.  Sugar-free yesterday, most of which was spent in the Fracture Clinic.  I find it most odd that I'm not craving sugar or chocolate while this is happening.  I think there may be something in over the counter painkillers that supresses them but that doesn't make any sense at all.

cookie02

Congratulations on your five sugar-free days, Honey_Bear!  I managed to stay sugar-free until Friday evening so I was pleased with that.  On Saturday, I wrote a very long post in the morning and then my internet connection cut out and I lost it all.  Of course, it would be the time that I wrote the longest post ever (you've been spared ).  My message was also to do with Pollybear's comment and it was much like yours: you are never too old!  Give yourself small goals at first but you can definitely do it.  My friend was in her late 70s when she quit alcohol and she's still alcohol-free today ⭐️ .  Maybe start with having just one chocolate free day per week and see how things go.  

My weekend was very sugary so it was quite difficult getting back to being sugar-free yesterday/.  I received a box of Ch0c0c0 from my family yesterday and I'm trying to wait until Friday to have any so this week is extra challenging for me as I can see the lovely rainbow box waiting to be opened. 

It sounds like all of us are (reforming) chocoholics here although my addiction definitely includes cookies and cakes too.  

Morning_walker, how is your scent experiment going?  I have found a chocolate rooibos tea with vanilla and the smell from that is amazing.  It tastes good too and I have a cup sometimes when I really want chocolate but know it's a sugar-free day.  I'm not sure that the scent alone could keep me on the straight and narrow but I do enjoy drinking it.  Good luck with being chocolate-free from tomorrow-Fri this week.  

Honey_Bear, I just realised you achieved SIX days in a row, not five!  🏅 🏅 How was your appointment yesterday?  I hope things aren't as bad as they seemed and that you ankle is healing well.  

Sugar-wise, I've been fine so far today.  My goal is to stay sugar-free until Friday evening.  Right now, I'm not having any cravings so I hope that continues.  

Hope everyone is well and good luck with your goals for this week.  

Honey_Bear

I'm sorry you lost that post Cookie.  It used to happen to me on the Alcohol Free thread and it drove me mad - all that careful thought *p o o f* gone. 

Well done for last week and wow! a gifted box of ch0c0c0 to look forward to - that's an incentive if ever there was one.  Belovéd and I really loved them so I'm grateful to you for your suggestion whenever I think about them.  It's his turn to order this time so I must get the website up so that he can peruse it and choose whatever he wants; he's been wonderful about this ankle business so he's more than earned some.  While I was in Ashburton I popped into a shop for an ice cream and they sold handmade chocolates and treated myself to one, but it wasn't a patch on the now defunct Chococcino or lovely Ch0c0c0.  Ashburton's well worth a visit if you're ever down this way; I've been in Devon on and off for 49 years and it's one of those places most people whizz by, but it's fabulous, nicer even than Totnes, and that's saying something.

I'm also with Cookie on this, PollyBear - it would be great to have you along with us.  I honestly wouldn't have been able to do six days in a row if I hadn't started off on one day a week.  I could eat chocolate for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and I have in the past.  There's nothing quite like chocolate cake and coffee for breakfast but I really shouldn't do it five or six days a week so I knew I had t do something to curb my appetite.  This is working for me even if I only get one day ocassionally when I don't eat sugary things when I'm going through a particularly chocolatey jag; that is a step up from where I was when I started this a year ago.  I'm not going to nag but it would be lovely if you joined in.

Sadly Cookie the ankle is a bit of a mess.  We spent most of yesterday in the fracture clinic and surgery is going to be needed because there's a chip in a joint they need to get out and some bones need pinning.  A consultant orthopaedic surgeon, a foot specialist, had an attempt at manipulating the foot into a better position and it was x-rayed afterwards but to no avail.  (He was rather gorgeous and didn't cause me a tidge of pain so that was a very pleasant few minutes, but I probably shouldn't even be thinking that.  Probably the most expensive foot massge the UK has to offer though, so I made sure I thoroughly enjoyed it.)  Without getting too political, which I could, there's a two week wait for trauma surgery at the moment locally which is far from ideal but we are where we are, and honestly, everyone at the hospital, from the volunteer guides from the local hospice to every single member of staff I came into contact with, were an absolute joy to be with.  I used to work there (I left 25 years ago) and I'm delighted to say I was really impressed by the direction it's taken since then, especially as I know just how much pressure its under.  It's a massive hospital - when I was there it was the largest non-teaching hospital in Europe, and it's now a teaching hospital so it's even bigger.  I don't feel at all out of place there, fortunately, it all seems very familiar but I'm no longer responsible for any of it.  Knowing my way around is helpful because Belovéd's navigation skills are a tad hit and miss at the best of times.  My new-to-me wheelchair (thank you Red Cross) is also very comfortable which helped. 

So, today's been a bit of a strange day.  I've been prescribed some stronger pain killers but they've knocked me for six so I'm going to halve the dose - I managed my father's pain relief while he was dying so I'm cautious but not totally uninformed about pain meds and taking less the maximum prescribed isn't a problem.  However, I was so out of it earlier I slept for a couple of hours (I never, ever sleep in the day) so Belovéd gave me a slice of that lemon drizzle cake that was specially made for us by our neighbour so I have sugar'd today.  It was a real treat even though I hadn't craved it.  Sometimes a person's got to do what a person's got to do.

Honey_Bear

Ooops.  I m@gnumed last night.  It wasn't entirely my own fault (well it was, obviously, but circumstances played a part in it) as Belovéd wanted us to watch the final episode of Better Call Saul together after it was transmitted the day of my accident, so he'd been patiently waiting until I can bumshuffle my way downstairs to do so.  So, supper in front on the television and somehow that called for icecream afterwards with the mixed berries. 

So, it won't be another six day week this week but I have high hopes for the rest of it nonetheless. 

Honey_Bear

Hmm.  The lemon drizzle cake is now finished and I may have had a part in that twice this week.  Plus, this afternoon, half a bar of chocolate.

I spent most of yesterday gowned up ready for sugery on my ankle, and about 4.00pm a member of the surgical team came into stick a canula into my hand through which they were going to drip various substances during the surgery.  I thought it a good idea to nip to the loo before they started stabbing me and by the time I'd come out of there, my operation had been cancelled.  I didn't resort to chocolate then but the half bar this afternoon was a direct result of yesterday's frustrations.  The good news is I had a phone call this afternoon calling me in for an extra list on Sunday morning, so it could also be construed as a celebration.

I'm genuinely surprised at how little chocolate I've eaten since I broke my ankle, even if I haven't been as sugar-free as I'd be in an ideal world.  I don't live in an ideal world so I eat chocolate sometimes and I'm okay with that.  But if you'd asked me if I'd resort to bulk comfort eating in these circumstances I'd have said 'Absolutely yes!' but I haven't, and I've even had all most fruit desserts commando.

How have you done this week Cookie?

cookie02

Honey_Bear, you are doing amazingly well and I so admire how you have continued to keep going despite the very unlucky incident with your ankle.  Sorry things aren't looking good but at least you have good care.  My mum is retired from the NHS and I have a lot of current and retired family members in there - I don't see much in the way of hope politically but I'm always grateful for the care everyone provides in increasingly trying circumstances. We can only hope that things improve at some point!  

Thank you for the tip re: Ashburton.  We haven't been to Devon for years now but definitely plan to return at some point as it is so beautiful - a far cry from where we are in South London although it has other benefits here, especially in terms of my work./.   I'm glad you're enjoying the chocolates, this box was a celebration gift after a project went well which I was hugely relieved about.  If your husband hasn't chosen yet, the summer limited edition molasses chocolate is amazing.  I hope they turn into a year-round chocolate.  It is billed as caramel so I was a bit unsure about trying it but the flavour is incredible.  I asked my family to hide the box so I can't just gobble my way through it in one sitting!  

Honey_Bear said:

I spent most of yesterday gowned up ready for sugery on my ankle, and about 4.00pm a member of the surgical team came into stick a canula into my hand through which they were going to drip various substances during the surgery.  I thought it a good idea to nip to the loo before they started stabbing me and by the time I'd come out of there, my operation had been cancelled.  I didn't resort to chocolate then but the half bar this afternoon was a direct result of yesterday's frustrations.  The good news is I had a phone call this afternoon calling me in for an extra list on Sunday morning, so it could also be construed as a celebration. 

I'm so sorry about this, Honey_Bear.  Fingers crossed for tomorrow morning and well done for avoiding the chocolate 🏅.  It's easy to forget how far this challenge has taken us - thank you and good luck for tomorrow! 

This week has been a bit of a blur thanks to work getting very busy ahead of the Bank Holiday.  I managed too stay sugar-free until last night but I feel like that was largely due to work keeping me busy vs any kind of self-control on my part.  Still, I'm happy to take the win either way!  

Today, we're meeting some friends for lunch at a new place that just opened last week and which is owned by someone that used to work in one of our favourite restaurants so it should be good.  We have a family birthday this weekend so I've been cooking this morning as we'll have family staying over for part of the weekend and I don't want to be cooking then with everyone running around.  It'll be chaos but I'm grateful for the break and it'll be fun to see everyone.  After the last couple of years, just having the opportunity to celebrate a birthday properly is something to be thankful for 🌸.  

How are you doing, Pollybear?  I hope things are also going well for you, Morning_walker ⭐️. 

Hope everyone has a lovely day and hope your surgery goes smoothly tomorrow and that you have a swift recovery, Honey_Bear.  

Honey_Bear

Congratulations on the project's completion and successful outcome Cookie.  I've no doubt you earned every single one of those fabby chocolates but rather relieved you know you can't trust yourself to gobble them all down in one hit!  We're so predictable around special chocolates.  Knowing how much of a temptation it is for us I think it's really, really important that we can enjoy our treats on the weekends to the absolute max, as when celebrating with friends and family. 

I used to feel guilty all the time whenever I indulged, and now I don't.  We've both cut down so much and we are so mindful when we have anything with sugar in it we are careful about it now and don't go completely mad, but even if we did, it would be a one-off and not an every day thing as it was with me in the past.  So, however long the chaotic celebrations last this bank holiday weekend, I hope you thoroughly enjoy them.  The key word there is HOLIDAY - so Monday doesn't count.  It's a sugar-allowed day.

We've finished the lovely lemon drizzle cake our neighbour made us.  It was worth every bite and because I couldn't just go and help myself whenever I felt like it, it lasted more than a week.  I've bought Belovéd two boxes of his favourite Ch0c0c0 salted caramels which arrived this morning to thank him for everything he's done since my accident. 

It's been 12 days and it's going to be at least six weeks before I can weight bear on that leg.  There's a very good reason you don't see many 66 year old women trundling themselves around on crutches - they feel very, very unsafe to me, whereas the wheelchair is comfortable.  I don't intend to use it for longer than is absolutely necessary but needs must at the moment because the thought of face-planting without being able to break my fall with my arms because they're braced in the crutches isn't attractive.

Our longh-haired, rather agéd slightly hippy, tatoo'd neighbour is conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the Royal Albert Hall in early November and I am fully intending to be there because it's the kind of one off that only happens to people like us once in a lifetime.  I'm very fond of him, I know he's really excited and thrilled about the gig and it'll help my recovery in the short term to have that to aim for.  By that time I should be in a surgical boot, and I think I'm allowed to weightbear on that.  I may need to take the wheelchair along for some of the journey but Belovéd is already used to trundling me in it to the hosptial appointments so London shouldn't be too much of stretch on the train by then.  And if the underground isn't wheelchair-friendly, which we all know most of it isn't, there are always taxis.  I'm not spending any money at the moment so I should be able to afford the extra expense by then.

Apparently I'm first on the list on Sunday, so barring accidents to the surgeon (he told me he's moving his parents into their new house today, so *yikes* on the fingers) or a disaster happening and all trauma surgeons being needed elsewhere, which we wouldn't wish on anyone or our society, I shouldn't be cancelled.  I mentioned that I was walking the Dartmoor Way this summer / autumn to him, and later found out he's part of a Dartmoor Search and Rescue team, so there's a connection there which he alluded to when he told me about the cancellation  I found him very easy to have a conversation with, which I didn't expect at all - when I worked at that hospitals consultants were treated as gods and the ones I've met this time around are not like that at all.  Mind you, it's been 25 years and a lot's happened in and to the NHS in that time and I've been very aware of what's been happening for the last 12 in particular.  This isn't the place for a political rant but I can, at length.   Either way my hiking days are over for at least six months and it'll be a year before I'm back out there with my map and compass.  He knows about these things, so at least I can be realistic and work at my physio after the surgery with a plan in mind.  No more wearing shoes with little grip on damp granite steps again either, for sure, when I'm dog-walking.

It's the weekend.  I think there will be chocolate today and possibily post-surgery tomorrow if the effects of the anaesthetic aren't too grim.  I'm sure it would help getting my blood-sugar levels back up after the pre-op starvation, wouldn't it?