The 'Towards a Sugar-Free Future' Challenge

Makingabobor2

I'm so pleased to hear you are getting some results from the protein increase @Honey_Bear,  I think I'm not doing it enough yet, I have egg for breakfast most days and we often have meat or fish for tea, but I don't think I'm getting anywhere near enough. I must research and do more.  Must try the pate. Don't like cheese and although I like nuts, too many and they play havoc with my IBS. 
What mineral supplements did the physio advise for your leg muscles?  Its interesting protein and muscles are linked as well, aren't they?
 And don't worry about the one biscuit, I have been very naughty today and had 3.....yes 3...squares of dark chocolate. Now my DD tells me that GSs have both made cake in school today and will be dropping one off for us on their way home!  I will try and cut it into very thin slices and make it last a long time 
I'm hoping that if I start on more protein, I can really cut down on this sugar. 

Morning_walker

Interesting to read about your diet changes, Honey-Bear. That sounds great that you have found something that works for you. 

I've had 8 days now without eating sugar. I hope to do another week and be able to get through to 14 days. 

Have a great weekend everyone. 

Honey_Bear

Makingabobor2 said:

What mineral supplements did the physio advise for your leg muscles?  Its interesting protein and muscles are linked as well, aren't they?

Zinc and magnesium.  I had tried magnesium for three months before I went to her and it didn't make any difference so I'd started trialling zinc before I went to her.  It may be helping, but with the increase in protein it's hard to tell what's working best at the moment.  I suppose I should have figured out that a shortage of protein and muscle problems are linked but it had never occurred to me that I wasn't getting enough protein.  I genuinely thought I had a healthy diet.  Eggs, apparently, have all of the amino acids in the right proportions and amount, so they really are a superfood.  I have upped my egg intake as part of the protein push anyway but that little factoid came to light once I started reading around the subject.

Eight days is a fantastic achievement Morning Walker!  Huge congratulations.  I can't manage one at the moment so I'm doffing my cap to you.  How have you found it?

I had one third of a ramekin of my chicken liver paté left in the fridge and Belovéd knew I wanted it for tea.  When tea arrived it was my leftover pizza from last night I didn't feel I could say anything because it was lovely of him to deliver it to me.  (The dog's got a gyppy leg and she follows me everywhere which in this house means stairs, so I'm trying to stay in one place upstairs for her sake.)  I love pizza, but it's not really enough protein so when she needed to go out we went via the kitchen and could I find my paté ramekin?  I could not. 

Apparently Belovéd had put it out prior to cutting a slice of bread to make some toast to go with it, forgot about it (footie on TV, brain dead for a105 minutes) and when he went back into the kitchen the cat was looking a bit green around the gills and the paté bowl was empty!

I had cottage cheese instead and got myself a bar of chocolate so I could have a few squares and am delighted to say that I'm not going to go without it but a couple of squares will be enough after that cottage cheese and half a dozen Brazil nuts.  That's about 40g instead of the 200g it used to be every afternoon.  Things are improving.

Makingabobor2

That's interesting about the zinc @Honey_Bear, I had previously tried Magnesium, although it did make me go to the loo a lot more....lol  I might try a few Brazil nuts and see how I go with them. Maybe I could blitz them up a bit so they are more easily digested. Definitely going to try the pate though. 
Today I have to confess to 2 squares of dark chocolate again and a small slice of apple cake. Will try to be better tomorrow. 

RandomOne

Hi everyone. Could I please join you in January? I am away for a few weeks after this week, celebrating Christmas early with family. I know I wont be sugar-free while I'm away, it's unrealistic for me over Christmas. 

Honey_Bear

Hi there @RandomOne and welcome.  Of course you'd be welcome to join us anytime and I totally get why you don't want to do so just before Christmas - there's no way I could start this Challenge in December. 

I'll be starting again from scratch myself on 7 January, one day a week sugar-free initially, and then adjusting it to two days a week when I'm ready until I'm back up to five days a week.  I just can't go cold turkey but I have found that doing this Challenge has gradually made me much less likely to reach for sugar or chocolate as the first thing to eat when I get the munchies, even if I can't make it through the day without indulging.

Have a lovely Christmas and New Year and we'll see you when you're ready.

Makingabobor2

Can we talk protein please....I Googled and it says for a woman my age, I need 1.5grms of protein per day, for every KG of my weight. I weigh approx 55kgs, so that's 82.5kgs. That seems a lot! So far today I have had a boiled egg, which apparently is 6gms and half a tin of sardines which says it is 9gms!  Never going to get enough at this rate

Honey_Bear

I had exactly the same problem with the numbers when I first heard about Making, except I was watching a YouTube video about body-building that stipulated an even higher figure.  I knew I could never reach the amount he was saying was necessary so I googled it a lot more.  I've found a whole load of figures, the lowest of which was 0.8g of protein per kilo of bodyweight, so in my case I'm aiming for 54.64g of protein in total as my target minimum, and if I can get it higher that can only be a good thing.

So, breakfast was 2 boiled eggs (and I hardboiled two for tomorrow's lunch at the same time), with a slice of toast and butter.  I make my  own bread so in theory I could work out how much protein is in my bread but my slices are a bit hit and miss width wise, I add seeds, so I reckon they are about 2g per slice.  My quick calculation is that was about 2 x 5.5g per egg, and 2g for the toast:  breakfast was 13g of protein. 

I've just eaten a tangerine and a large handful of pistachio nuts as a snack, and I'll be having some of my chicken liver paté for a late lunch and I've forgotten the calculations for my paté but that's one of my higher protein lunches.  Dinner will be homemade cheese and onion flan with stir fried veggies and broccoli, with cheese afterwards with masses of grapes. 

I build all of my meals around the protein at the moment and my second consideration is my five fruit and veg a day.  It's a struggle to manage to eat everything I should in the quantities I should eat, and it's that realisation that made me understand how it appeared I was eating healthily before but absolutely wasn't. 

I can't advise you on how much protein you should have but I wouldn't be able to manage 82.5g per day!  I use this website to calculate the grams of protein in the food I eat, but keep an eye on which portion sizes you're basing your calculations.  I go with 100g per food to base my calculations.  It was a bit of a faff while I got used to doing the calculations initially but now I just go with three proteins per day, usually cottage cheese for breakfast, I vary the proteins at lunch and then alternate meat one and vegetarian for the main meal of the day in the evening, which is the one I share with Belovéd.

RandomOne

Honey_Bear said:

Hi there @RandomOne and welcome.  Of course you'd be welcome to join us anytime and I totally get why you don't want to do so just before Christmas - there's no way I could start this Challenge in December. 

I'll be starting again from scratch myself on 7 January, one day a week sugar-free initially, and then adjusting it to two days a week when I'm ready until I'm back up to five days a week.  I just can't go cold turkey but I have found that doing this Challenge has gradually made me much less likely to reach for sugar or chocolate as the first thing to eat when I get the munchies, even if I can't make it through the day without indulging.

Have a lovely Christmas and New Year and we'll see you when you're ready.

Thank you @h@Honey_Bear I appreciate it. Would you mind if I followed suit and cut it down by 1 day a week? I think I'm less likely to get withdrawal headaches etc. 
I think my main culprit is wine, to be honest, so I'm sure it'll do my waistline some good as well as my health. 

Do you mind if I give my thoughts on protein too @M@Makingabobor2 ? I lift weights at the gym and eat about 80-90g of protein a day. It can be SUPER difficult and quite expensive (in my experience anyway). I buy protein powder that tastes like Vimto and is added to water just like juice. I hate traditional protein powders that you add to milk, so the vimto one works for me. But, I would say it was expensive. 
Tinned fish is great, especially tuna and mackerel. I have them with baked potato, on toast or in a salad. Tinned fish from Lidl is great and also cheap. About 80p for a tin of mackerel.
Beans on toast is another good one.

Makingabobor2

Thanks for the link @Honey_Bear, I'll have a good read. I hadn't really thought about how much protein there might be in bread. Not sure I could manage 2 eggs every day...they tend to be a bit binding if I have too many. ...lol
I think protein will help everything TBH, all my muscles as I am getting older and maybe my droopy skin om my face...lol