The 'Towards a Sugar-Free Future' Challenge

in_need_of_direction

First attempt today.  I have my water bottle, an apple and an orange to take to work. Fingers crossed that I manage it

Honey_Bear

Well done Jazee and Lefty.  Good luck In Need - I'll be thinking of you today and sending you *sugar-free vibes* to boost your willpower.

Second day away from home travelling which, all things considered, went a whole lot better than I thought it would despite a 40 minute delay to one train which resulted in me missing a connection.  I indulged in two single portion M&S chocolate mousses which hit the spot, but I checked the labelling and one of them, the cheaper one, was full of real processed crap, including fructose.  I have recently realised how evil fructose is and if there's one sugar that I definitely don't want in my food any more it's that.  Other than that, on the nine hour journey I ate lovely food and almost no other sugary stuff all day, other than a four pack of Belv!ta biscuits because my blood sugar was low and it was about 10.30 am, and it was the only food available at the time.  I need to plan better.

On a side note I'm now totally off coffee, both rocket fuel type and decaffinated.  It may not last long but as I went from two full size caffetieres of decaff every day and a real hankering for more to zero in about 10 days without any withdrawal I'm seeing how long I can hold out for.  Both days I drank a litre of water and a litre of fruit tea, plus a few other glasses of water here and there.  What has been really shocking is that I've realised just how much of a diuretic even decaff coffee is, and how dehydrated I must have been for years because I haven't needed to pee anything like the number of times I ususally do.  I'm astonished by that.  It has nothing to do with the sugar thing but it's kind of along the same lines of an effort to spring clean my nutrition, albeit totally unintended and unplanned.

Jazee

I had crisps with my lunch yesterday, but other than that no other snacks.  We had guests for dinner last night.  They had dessert and I didn't.

leftatthetrafficlights

Another sugar free day today 🙌 unintentional this time but still happy with it! 😉

Jazee

Another sugar free day for me too!

delta13

I've been offline for a few days, sorry for the lack of update! Getting up at 5am for work last weak meant that by the time I finished my shift I couldn't bear the thought of looking at a computer screen again.
It also made the sugar-free days a lot harder to manage - by mid afternoon I was really low on energy. Wednesday last week I did cave and have a can of coke, but I felt really bloated and uncomfortable the rest of the day so that put me completely off and I haven't had one since.
I have managed to stick to my sugar-free days. And on my "free sugar" days I've only really had a couple of biscuits with a cuppa, although I did have a salted caramel doughnut on Sunday from my friend's bakery (it was worth it), and the aforementioned can of fizz.
My thermos flask has arrived so I'll be taking teas into work so I'm not tempted when going into the canteen. Today and tomorrow are my sugar-free days this week but I'm due to have my second covid jab this morning, so I'm going to be kind to myself if I feel unwell.

Honey_Bear

Amazingly well done, Delta.  It's hardly surprising with working such long hours that you need an energy pick-me-up but now that you've found work arounds to avoid pop it will be onwards and upwards from here on in.

I used to love 7up as a child and had one every day after swimming in the afternoons.  I tried it again in my 20s and it tasted horrible, but I have no way of knowing if the ingredients were identical from the early 1960s in Malaysia to Florida in the late 1970s.  Probably not.  I can still remember the taste from my childhood which I loved but I've never really bothered with fizzy drinks since.  I did, however, get a craving for a coke on the way home about 20 years ago on a long car journey and so swung into a petrol station to buy a can.  It was utterly revolting so I've never touched one since.  It was so bad I thought the can must have been contaminated but apparently that's what it tastes like.  Yuk.  I can quite understand why anyone who has a pop habit finds themselves craving one, so I'm really, really thankful I've never suffered from that. 

I'm seriously impressed with how disciplined Jazee and Lefty are being, too.  Since I started this thread I've surprised myself about how little sugar I'm having, and how adept I'm becoming at managing it.  I was in Morrison's yesterday for what used to be a weekly shop and is now more likely to be monthly and I found a whole pile of one of their own brand snacks, all YS'd so I bought a pile of them having checked the ingredients list.  I can resist sugar most of the time if I can have something salty, which is what I've now got stashing in the cupboard, and when I got hungry late in the afternoon that's what I ate.  I'm rather chuffed with that.  I did, however, put a bit of sugar on my strawberries after dinner, mostly because I was so tired I could barely keep my eyes open. 

I've been weighing myself and there's no doubt that this cut in sugar is having an effect but I haven't dropped below 68kgs yet.  Maybe next week.

Onwards and upwards!

Jazee

I had a packet of crisps yesterday with my lunch sandwich so not too bad.  Another 1lb gone.

in_need_of_direction

So, I managed my first sugar free day on Wednesday thanks to an apple and some strawberries.  I was pleasantly surprised that knowing it was one day made it so much easier. However this pans out for me, my thanks to honey bear for starting this thread as any sugar free days benefit my health. 

Fayolle

Been awol from posting for a week or so, but trying hard to stick to the one sugar free day a week. I surprised myself by managing it on a “ high day and holiday”, when I was quite prepared to delay The Day until the following (work) day. Certainly the one day at a time method is easier for me, and I have had a couple of spectacular full on sugar days to show for it - doughnuts at work being a culprit Not beating myself up for them - yet. On the plus side, I have managed extra no sugar days unintentionally during the week.
It has been interesting that my weak point at work is the 3.30pm dip, but at home it seems to be the mid morning dip. I have got round the afternoon dip by taking a small plastic box of dried fruit and some unsalted nuts with me, and not being tempted to binge these as part of my lunch. It’s also clear that our fruit consumption needs to go back up. I can no longer get to the local market so easily, and that has had a real impact on the amount of fruit in our diet.