The 'Towards a Sugar-Free Future' Challenge

hazeldreams

Amazing news re the chocolate @Honey_Bear!

Sorry to hear about the pain and swelling. I'd be just as eager as you to get back to normal too! It must be hard to find the balance when you're still recovering.

Not much change here. Managed to get to 8pm with no choc on Monday, but then caved. I'll just keep trying until it clicks.

Hazel x

Honey_Bear

Getting to 8.00pm is an amazing achievement Hazel if you normally struggle with with it as most of us do, so focus on that rather than beating yourself up for indulging when you were overwhelmed with cravings. 

This is tough.  When I started the Challenge I knew I had a problem with sugar but I had absolutely no idea how tough it would be.  I've given up smoking and drinking and they were both tough; I smoked for 30 years, at least 20 a day and gave up over and over again over 25 of those years and couldn't make it stick until finally, one day, I just could.  Booze wasn't a problem until the last 10 years of drinking when I was also taking anti-depressants which made the impact much worse.  It took two serious attempts and some serious work to give up the booze but I succeeded.  I've never been remotely tempted to go back to either of them because as much as anything they were a way of life and life is seriously better without both of them.  I don't worry about the effect on my health of either of them any more and the quality of my life is so much better.  I'm also incredibly relieved I'm no longer prey to either of them, and I don't think about either of them very much.

Sugar is completely different.  Our taste buds are acclimatised to it from very early on in childhood, we're pre-programmed by nature to eat as much of it as we can get hold of for instant energy and we're manipulated by large commercial companies to think of it as a treat that we deserve all the time.  It's also now affordable which it wasn't when I was a child - did I want to spend my entire pocket money on one bar (eight squarees of chocolate for 6d!) or lots of Spangles and Refreshers?  No contest.  Bulk sugar was the order of the day, every time.  A couple of biscuits were a treat, now they're available all day every day everywhere and they're almost given away they're so cheap.  I don't remember having them every day - do you?  They were a treat, now they're not, they're all the time when we just need a little 'something' and all of this is now completely normal. 

Except it shouldn't be.  You've only got to walk down the high street in any town in the UK or the USA to realise we've got a collective problem with our body shape and size - we've completely normalised obesity everywehere and it's killing us.  The sugar lobby blames the fat lobby and the fat lobby blames the sugar lobby.  I'm convinced it's both, and the combination is lethal.  It's the combination that really sets our tastebuds going - which is why chocolate is so, so addictive.  We know we shouldn't eat cake every day and because it's big and fluffy it warns us of its dangers, but a few squares of chocolate are small and can be nibbled and sucked - much more acceptable. 

I can't deal with cutting down on everything I love at the same time, but I can begin to restrict my sugar intake because it's a start and from experience I now know that cutting right down really helps reduce my intake in the long run.  I could never, ever have gone without sugar all day for several days in a row this time last year, when I was really struggling with doing three days a week, but I have now again and again and again.  I'm not perfect, and while I'm laid up I'm having one chocolate biscuit every day but - that's it.  It stops there four days a week and my weekend intake is about a quarter of what it was both days.  I used to scoff a 200g bar of chocolate every single day and more on the weekends.  I still can if I let myself but I don't let myself at least five days a week any more and it's been several months since I did that at the weekend, too. 

What I'm saying is that if you got to 8.00pm without indulging you're already doing A LOT better than you were, and if you carry on plugging away at this it will get easier and become a new way of life.  It's totally worth it even if we find ourselves stumbling down the running track rather than sprinting - we're moving, we're moving in the right direction, and the more we practice this, the better we are at it.

Keep going - you're doing brilliantly.

Honey_Bear

@cookie02 I know life takes over sometimes, I know you're often too busy to post, but I'm really worried something bad has happened.  If you get a moment please let us know you're okay.

Pollybear

Reading your messages really helps me Honey_Bear.  It helps to know that someone else's brain is wired in a similar way to mine.

No chocolate this week although I have had a flapjack but they don't make me binge.

Honey_Bear

Well done on choosing the flapjack Polly Bear.  Yes, our brains are wired the same way - there are two things that make me binge - chocolate and stem ginger Twinks fresh out of the oven.  I daren't make them any more.

I'm so pleased with myself!  I had a lump of rye bread, the pumperknickle stuff, that black bread you can buy in supermarkets for when I went camping at the festival earlier this year, and I know Belovéd doesn't like it but I do.  He was out today and I wanted a cup of tea at about 4.30, so I had a slice of the rye bread with peanut butter and it was fab.  I was hungry, but I didn't indulge in that chocolate biscuit I've been having for the past few weeks and I'm chuffed as nuts about that.  Hurrah!

cookie02

Hello everyone, I'm just catching up on the thread.  Sorry for the radio silence - I was totally knocked out by a bug which I think I caught while visiting my cousin who was taken back to hospital.  I haven't really had much sugar as I haven't had much of an appetite.  That's definitely changed as my family pointed out that I was happy to have cake with some tea earlier so I must be getting better!  I'll be back at work together and aiming to try and do an 'official' sugar-free day, instead of the unexpected ones from the last couple of weeks.  

How is everyone?  Honey_Bear, thank you so much for checking-in here and for your very kind message ⭐️.  How is your ankle?  I just saw your message about the cast coming off. I hope the swelling eases off soon and that you have a smooth recovery. 

Well done, Hazel, for making it to 8pm sugar-free 🏅.  Pollybear, well done too and thank you for the giggle with your 'biscuit-related incident'.  I have a lot of those too...   

I don't think I've had a huge amount of sugar while I was ill but I haven't been keeping track properly. My food spreadsheet has a huge gap this month.  I'm going to try getting back to the challenge tomorrow and hope I can make 1.75 days this week and then try to do the full 4.75 days next week.  

Honey_Bear

Welcome back Cookie!

Honey_Bear

There may have been a Two Salted Caramel Chocolate incident last night.

Pollybear

I was buying my newspaper on Monday (with the voucher) and next to the till they had salted caramel Wispas Thank goodness I had no money.   Although they are still playing on my mind a bit.....

Welcome back Cookie, I hope you continue to feel better.

Pollybear

The shop I normally go to has moved all their chocolate and treats away from the tills in line with new legislation but their tills were down on Monday so I had to go to another shop who apparently hadn't heard about any of that.