The 'Towards a Sugar-Free Future' Challenge

cookie02

Yesterday, I managed to stay sugar-free.  It was tough as I had a horrible headache and my first reaction was to 'treat myself' but then I read your post, Honey_Bear.  I figured that if you only had a m@gnum and 3 chocolates with your ankle, then I really couldn't justify myself at all.  Plus, sugar isn't a good thing to have with a headache anyway so I just kept drinking tea and water.  Sure enough, the headache went away but I'm sounding very nasal now -much to the amusement of my family- and I'm also developing a scratchy throat.  I've been testing negative and everyone I've been near has also been negative so I think I might be getting a regular cold.  Remember those?  

Today, I'm feeling much more determined to stay sugar-free but I'd also really like to bake some brownies this evening.  As context, I've got new baking trays (am I the only person that gets excited about stuff like this?) and I really want to try them out.  Right now, I'm not in the mood to eat chocolate but I have a feeling I'd struggle to resist freshly baked brownies so I might need to put this off until the weekend.  

Good luck with your goals for today 🍀. 

Honey_Bear

Well done Cookie.  I wish I could be as self-disciplined as you.  I'm seriously impressed with the headache, water and chocolate conundrum and the way you figured it out. Some days the yearnings are tougher than others.

I'm not going to beat myself up about this, but I am disappointed in myself.  It's the days where I struggle with breakthrough pain that are the issue - it's not an occasional pang that can be relieved with popping a paracetemol or ibuprofen because I'm very limited outside some unusual parameters.  I could, and very, very occasionally am allowed, to push boundaries but I save that for occasional night-times when the pain keeps me awake for an hour or so and shows no sign of letting up.  During the day I try to grin and bear it but I find it extremely wearing.  This phase is, I'm sure, temporary, and until the weekend I'd been pretty okay but I haven't been for the past few days and I'm afraid I've allowed my Inner Chocolate Ferret to get the upper hand.   I have been given an extensive rather wonderful chocolate mountain by very special friends who know me well.   If I eat more than a few squares or chocolates a day I feel rather sick, but to be honest my mid to late afternoon my self-control is lapsing every day now.  I'm going to use the chocolate to get me through the painful  days and hope that the nights when I use the minimal top up drugs I've been told I can take occasionally are few and far between. 

Today it was three squares of a L!ndt chocolate bar and that's an improvement on yesterday when it was five plus three champagne truffles - and yes I did feel a teensy bit I'd overdone it, so I think I can be a bit more self-discliplined than that from now on, but if I need to lapse daily to cope I will.

This is far from ideal but it's still an impovement on a 200g bar of chocolate a day when I started the Challenge last year so it's still a win even if I can't manage very many chocolate free days at the moment.  Knowing I have to record lapses means I do think about it long and hard before I indulge, rather than just reaching for it, so that's incredibly helpful.

cookie02

Honey_Bear, sorry to hear that your ankle is causing you so much pain.  As long as the chocolate is helping you, I'd say let the Inner Chocolate Ferret provide all the support you need!  As you say, this is still much less than before and it is a means to an end. 

I have had sugar gremlins screaming at me all week but I've managed to stay sugar-free until now.  I'm really looking forward to my Friday night treat and I think I'll be baking brownies later as I've been dreaming of them for most of the week!

How is everyone?  

Honey_Bear

I'm so impressed with your resistance Cookie, all week, being attacked by sugar gremlins from Monday onwards.  I hope you've baked those brownies and are now settling down to an evening where you can satisfy those longings.   You've totally earned them this week.

For the first time in days I haven't had to deal with much in the way of pain today, although I have had some.  It's made me realise just how much the pain was taking over my life because it was just there, all the time, and there were times when it was a shooting pain that just went on intermittently for quite some time.  Today I decided I just wasn't prepared to deal with it any more and put myself back on the strongest version of the prescribed medication (I've got two strengths of it) so I can take one every three hours.  If I sleep more than three hours overnight I don't take two when I wake up so that leaves me with a bit of leeway if I need to boost it a bit.  I haven't slept through the night since the accident which is wearing and doesn't help, although I don't mind being awake as long as there's something interesting on the radio - I use an earpiece as does Belovéd and we've both been hugely entertained over the years which is a huge improvement on lying there fretting for hours with insomnia.  Last night the content on all the talk stations was a bit extreme but it's a once in a lifetime event so it sort of made sense but I don't need to hear any more hacks witter on for hours about current events again.

Neighours invited themselves in for tea yesterday so I had a homemade hobnob with them but no chocolate, and today I've had four squares with my late afternoon tea. 

So, today's been better, and all I've felt is very tired but that's okay in the circumstances.  I do, however, get a painful reminder if I'm 10 or 15 minutes late with a dose of the meds.  I suppose that means I need it, which means I shouldn't worry about taking it.  It's an opiod, and I do worry about the problems associated with them but I've read somewhere that if you need to take them to control pain they're not addicitve, it's when you take them if you don't actually need them for pain that the problems start.  Either way, I've been trying to reduce the dose as quickly as possible but I no longer think that's advisable right now.  Maybe in a week or two, but not yet. 

So, as of next week I'll see if I can banish the Inner Chocolate Ferret back to where he belongs.

cookie02

Good luck, Honey_Bear- I hope your ankle is getting better.  I know you were exploring your phone when you were on holiday.  Have you tried the Podcasts app?  If you search, I think it will be on your phone by default, regardless of which type of phone you have.  You can search by topic and there are some really interesting health / nutrition ones that you might find interesting.  Anyone can make a podcast so you do need to check that you're listening to someone that actually knows what they're talking about but, other than that, there is some great stuff there .  I was thinking this might be useful when the radio is consumed by big news stories.  

How is everyone?  I haven't started the week well as I had chocolate yesterday.  Things were a bit stressful as I've got two family members that were both admitted to hospital over the weekend.  They are both on the mend but I wasn't expecting either incident, and, to top things off, they went to two different hospitals.  I know I shouldn't default to sugar at times like these but chocolate seemed like it would help and I only had two each day.  Since this overlapped with the weekend, it was just the Monday that cut into the challenge.  

I'm going to try and stay chocolate-free today but I'm already feeling a bit wrung out by everything and I'm not sure how long my resolve will hold.  

I hope everyone is well.  Good luck with your goals for this week!

Honey_Bear

Hi Cookie.  How horrible for you to have to deal with two members of your family being unwell enough to be admitted to hospital, and in two different hospitals at that.  Being worried is bad enough but the logistics complicate matters in a major time-consuming way.  I'm glad they're both on the mend.  In the circumstances I think chocolate or something sugary should be prescribed for you, just to get you through.  It's called Comfort Eating for a good reason and if it helps you cope with the stress I suggest you use it.  *Healing vibes* heading their way.

Thank you for the Podcast suggestion on the smartphone.  I've found them on my phone but haven't yet worked out how to narrow down the choice to the point where I can reliably find something reasonably quickly which I think should happen once I start using it more often.  We had supper with a friend on Saturday and she showed me how to put BBC podcasts on Continuous Play which is how she goes to sleep, because like me she likes it on in the background as she goes to sleep.  That was a breakthrough moment!  I've also 'borrowed' some talking books from my library on my phone which I use, so I'm gradually adapting to the modern world but it takes me time to adapt to all this new-fangled stuff!

Chocolate-wise, I'm doing better this week.  The weekend wasn't too bad and yesterday was sugar-free although I was mildly tempted during the afternoon.  I had figs instead with a handful of almonds.  There is a possibility that I've got a mild slight indigestion type reaction to the painrelief drug I'm on if I eat too much sugary stuff but that could be my imagination.  It's dampened down my longings even if it is only in my imagination.  Whatever works is fine by me.

Honey_Bear

How did your yesterday go, Cookie?  I hope you've got passed the phase of thinking about all things sugary.

I made it through yesterday without much of a problem, and today so far so good although for some reason I've been imagining eating biscuits.  I won't because I can't get to any but it's not something that happens often so I thought I'd mark the occasion.

Pollybear

The other morning when queueing up to pay for my newspaper I was standing between plain chocolate digestives and Christmas chocolates.  So lucky I didn't have any actual money on me, only the voucher for the paper!

cookie02

Hello, how is everyone?  What a week (on multiple levels, I guess).  

Thank you for the healing vibes, Honey_Bear - it has been a crazy week but both family members have been discharged from their respective hospitals now.  One seems to be a straightforward case, the other is having various out-patient follow-ups but, as ever, the NHS has been amazing and we are very grateful for that (and just wish they actually got the funding and recognition they deserve).  

Sugar-wise, I've definitely been comfort eating but in a restrained way thanks to this challenge.  I've had chocolate each day but it's just been one square plus either one cookie or one brownie which is nowhere near as bad as my comfort eating of the past.  

How is your ankle, Honey_Bear?  I hope you are feeling better.  Your comment about imagining eating biscuits made me laugh, thank you!  Re: the podcasts app, in my version, there is a square at the bottom that says 'browse'.  If you click on that and scroll right to the bottom, it has 'Podcasts Quick Links' and the options are 'Explore Subscriptions', 'Browse by Category' and 'Charts'.  When I click, 'Browse Categories', one of the categories is 'health and fitness'.  When I click this and scroll down, 'nutrition' is a sub-category (and there are plenty of other categories to choose from too).  I actually listen to He@dsp@ce for sleeping - I know it's not the intended use but I find it very effective!

Pollybear said:

The other morning when queueing up to pay for my newspaper I was standing between plain chocolate digestives and Christmas chocolates.  So lucky I didn't have any actual money on me, only the voucher for the paper!

A win is a win, Pollybear🏅.  Only having the paper voucher sounds like a good strategy.  

Hope everyone is well.  While I'm not going to meet my goals for this week, I'm going to try and be sugar-free from now until tomorrow night.  My initial thought was to just wait until next week but I think I need to just stop now, even if I only make 1.75 sugar-free days this week.  It will be much harder for me to get back on track on Monday if I've eaten sugar solidly for over a week.  On that note, is it too early to ask if you've devised any good strategies for managing the sugar during Christmas this year?  I plan to try something different but I don't know what my strategy will look like yet.  Last year, I enjoyed the holiday but I struggled so much with getting back on track.  Ideally, I'd like to find a way to enjoy the holiday with my family but minimise the amount of time to get back on track with this challenge.  I think it took me at least two months to get back to the Mon-Fri this year!  

Honey_Bear

There is no doubt, Polly Bear, that taking a debit card to the supermarket has been my undoing when it comes to chocolate and grocery shopping.  If I had an ounce of sense I'd do exactly what you do and limit my spending capability which would curb my chocolate stashing habits, which has been my downfall this past few years.  Good call.

Well done on being so abstemious under such trying circumstances Cookie.  I'm filled with admiration at your self-disclipine because there must have been a lot of to-ing and fro-ing and balancing of daily life's pre-existing commitments while things were so up in the air, and it's exactly that sort of juggling that leads me to cram sugary things into my system to alleviate the resultant stress.  I'm so glad one of them has been discharged and hope that the other's follow up is progressing. 

I'm staggered at how well the NHS staff cope with being so flat-out busy all the time because of the understaffing and waiting lists and why the electorate cannot see that electing people who want to privatise is a bad idea amazes me.  We've got over 6,000,000 people on waiting lists now and I can't see how that situation can change under this administration.  My surgeon said he can't see how this will end any more, either.  I suggested that increasing the percentage of our GDP that goes to the NHS and then paying nurses a salary that means they want to come off the tills at Sainsburys and go back into nursing might be start.  His comment, 'Some of them earn more on the tills' is one I won't forget in a hurry.  It will come as no surprise either, I'm sure, to learn that one of the consultant orthopaedic foot specialists I saw in the Fracture Clinic is emigrating to New Zealand exactly around now - he was doing a locum shift.  It broke my heart but I don't blame him.

Thank you so much for the information about how to find podcasts.  I need to spend more time actually getting to know my smartphone properly.  I'm not a Luddite, I'm happy with my laptop and the internet, but for some reason I've been a very slow and late adopter and learner with smartphones.  I've borrowed digital talking books from the library and I really enjoy them, and they've totally come into their own while I'm off my feet so with your careful instrutions I can now see a way forward.  Really helpful at getting me past that inital feeling of total - thank you.

I've resisted anything sugary so far the past couple of days.  Figs and almonds get me through the mid-afternoon munchies at the moment although no longer fresh ones from the garden (we've got two trees I helped plant 28 years ago) and I'm back on the dried ones.  You'd never know the fresh and dried are even the same fruit!

Christmas.  Yes I thought about it but no I don't have a cast iron strategy that will get me through.  I know I'll be relatively okay until 1 December.  This month is still relatively light and bright and warm enough, October can be okay warmth-wise and very beautiful if it isn't raining with constant gales but November is drear and that's when I start to get a bit jangly, so where comfort food starts to be a bit problematic.  Not being able to get to my chocolate tin or the supermarket means the stuff is out of reach in every sense at the moment which is making my life easier but by December neither of those things will apply and I'll be resisting the worst temptation of the year because it's everywhere, and advertised on TV and generally not letting me not think about it.  Last year I was pretty okay until about 13th I seem to remember and then my resolve just died overnight.  If I can make it to about 20 December without stuffing my face with chocolate I'll consider that a real victory so I'm aiming for Monday to Friday evening chocolate free until Monday 19th December.  That's my pragmatic realism stepping in - no point in setting unachievable goals when experience has already shown I can reach realistic goals but not unicorn ones. 

That gives me a whole week to celebrate the run up to Christmas half off the leash, when I can allow myself something chocolatey or sugary once a day if I feel I must, but to stop after one indulgence.

Christmas Day, Boxing Day, no limits.  I never, ever want to share a table again with someone who talks about their wretched diet on what has been a Feast Day since pagan times.  It's killjoy stuff and I'm absolutely not about that kind of boring nonsense.

Belovéd's birthday is 6 January, which is 12th Night which is when the festivities end.  I will finish up the sugary stuff lying around leftover from Christmas itself during that time, using the same rule as the week before Christmas - once a day is enough.  It makes sense to me because the earlier I eat sugar in the day the more I want it later, so by allowing msyelf treats I can limit them to the afternoons or evenings, although the High Days and Holidays apply to days like bank holidays, which means when we're out and about with friends and family, don't forget!

If it's too tough after that to get back into Monday - Friday evening without sugar and chocolate then I'll go back to basics and start again.

It's annoying not knowing what my weight is doing at the moment because I can't weigh myself but it doesn't feel as though I'm putting any on.  I hope not because doing this Challenge means I had stopped putting weight on and did lose a bit at one point when I cut cheese out as well.  I think the food Belovéd is feeding me is rather better than the food I'd choose for myself but I hope I don't have to deal with a massive weightgain when the plaster comes off, hopefully in about four week's time.