The 'Towards a Sugar-Free Future' Challenge

Pollybear

I've had a couple of bad days but then a couple of not so bad so the answer is I'm still plodding along.  I get very disappointed with myself but I haven't given up yet.  I wish I didn't like chocolate

Honey_Bear

Am I overstating things to suggest that all of us love chocolate?  It's absolutely my downfall as well Polly Bear, so you're in good company as far as I'm concerned.  Well done on the good days and don't worry about the bad ones - you've come a long way since you started this Challenge a few weeks ago and we all get them.  The thing to remember is that you've already eaten far less chocolate than you would have done if you hadn't joined in.  You're doing brilliantly!

Pollybear

I wouldn't really care if I ate a small bar of chocolate every day if that satisfied me but it just unleashes the beast and I just want to binge.  I only seem able to have none at all or all the chocolate in England.  No happy medium!

hazeldreams

Pollybear said:

I wouldn't really care if I ate a small bar of chocolate every day if that satisfied me but it just unleashes the beast and I just want to binge.  I only seem able to have none at all or all the chocolate in England.  No happy medium!

Omg I can so relate to this. Today has not been a good day. Looking forward to tomorrow and a fresh start (again). 

cookie02

Pollybear said:

I've had a couple of bad days but then a couple of not so bad so the answer is I'm still plodding along.  I get very disappointed with myself but I haven't given up yet.  I wish I didn't like chocolate

Well done for sticking with it, Pollybear!  In my case, I wish I didn't like all sugary things (cookies, cakes, chocolate, everything!).  Let's hope it gets easier with time.

hazeldreams said:

Pollybear said:

I wouldn't really care if I ate a small bar of chocolate every day if that satisfied me but it just unleashes the beast and I just want to binge.  I only seem able to have none at all or all the chocolate in England.  No happy medium!

Omg I can so relate to this. Today has not been a good day. Looking forward to tomorrow and a fresh start (again). 

I hope today is going better for you, Hazel.  

How's everything going, Honey_Bear?  I have found a new recipe for mejadra which you recommended a while back (thank you!).  I will be trying it out later this week and, if it's good, I will see if I can find a link to share here.  Like you said, there are so many variations but we love lentils, rice and onions so it's hard to go wrong.  

Sugar update: yesterday, I managed to stay sugar-free (just!).  Today, I've been sugar-free so far but I've been thinking about sugar for the last few hours so I'm not sure if I'll make it.  I've had date, pumpkin seeds etc.  None seem to be curbing my cravings.  It's one of those days!  🙈 

cookie02

Well, I made it all the way to the evening sugar-free.  Then I caved and indulged in two delicious slices of cake.  The upside: they were smaller slices than they would have been pre-Challenge, and I stopped after two.  I will be trying to be sugar-free again today so fingers crossed. 

Good luck meeting your goals, everyone! 🤞 

Honey_Bear

Cookie, I hope you enjoyed those two slices of cake to the max, and I'm with you just being pleased they were smaller than in previous years.  That's still a win as far as I'm concerned, so well done.  I've combined the spices for all of the recipes for mjuddarra that I've found and can guarantee that the more the merrier.  I'm out of it at the moment so I need to make some more for myself because I don't think Belovéd enjoys it as much as I do.  I'd rather have it than the egg on toast he always has for lunch when he's short of ideas and with lentils, onions and tomatoes it's three of my fruit and veg a day, one of which also counts as a protein, which makes me happy.

Confession time here, too.  I'm so grateful for people being honest about the fact that we cave sometimes.  I'm not in the least embarrassed about it - I'd prefer that I didn't but when I do I want to be able to say I've caved and not feel guilty about keeping it a secret.  There's absolutely no point in doing that as far as I'm concerned. 

So, with that in mind, Belovéd has been bringing me a chocolate biscuit with my afternoon mug of tea, and if I were a good person I'd ask him to take it back downstairs.  I'm not that good!  I also indulged in a third of a 200g bar of dark chocolate yesterday which was seriously off piste but I needed the mood boost - I didn't know quite what to expect at the Fracture Clinic today and it's been preying on my mind.  I was worried I would be told I still couldn't weight bear on my right leg and I so want to able to walk again, as pain free as possible.  I didn't have all the information I needed and it was bothering me.

Polly Bear and Hazel - if I could stop after one or two squares of chocolate I wouldn'where I am, needing to cut down drastically.  The only that stops me at the moment is not being able to get to the chocolate or biscuit tin, and I can assure you that's not down to me being self-disciplined!

Big news for me today - my plaster's off.  Yay!  I'm also delighted to say that the Senior Registrar I saw says that I will only need to be in the boot for six weeks, rather than the 12 weeks I was initially told, so I'm a very, very happy bunny.  I've been given a load of exercises to do every hour to unstiffen it and I've done them three times since I got home and I can feel a little more flex already.  I've also had a bath for the first time in eight weeks rather than the strip washes I've been having and it felt absolutely fantastic. 

Pollybear

Brilliant news Honey.   Hope you make great strides now

Honey_Bear

Polly Bear.  I've already slightly overdone the exercises and had to skip the 5.00 set because the ankle is aching but I can live with that!  There will be no striding for several weeks, just a lot of shuffling about, which is a vast improvement on bum-shuffling!

Pollybear

It's bound to ache for a while yet but slow and steady wins the race.  I'm full of platitudes!  Hope you get a good night's sleep now.