The 'Towards a Sugar-Free Future' Challenge

Honey_Bear

Welcome, @cookie02!  Of course we're happy to have you on board - the more the merrier.  That sounds like a very sensible start to me, so well done and good luck.  Any work arounds that you find which make life easier while we're all trying to do this are always appreciated.

Delta, well done for leaving some in the packet!  I think it's helpful when things don't taste as amazing as we thought they would; I find I'm unlikely to crave that same 'treat' again and anything, anything at all, that stops me from wanting any of my go-to favourites is a real help.  I've been known to eat a whole T3rry's chocolate 0range in one hit, which just goes to show not only how much I, too, love orange flavoured chocolate, but also just how greedy I can be.  *hangs head in embarrassment*

Onwards and upwards.  We went to Morribunds today to find some treats to have for our 28th anniversary tomorrow, which is very definitely a High Day for me.  Belovéd has a bottle of champagne, and I have raspberries - which will definitely need sugar and cream. 

A few years ago my GP told me I have high cholesterol and rather than take any kind of medication he recommended I should control it through diet.  I've known that for a long time and done absolutely nothing about it.  This week I discovered my high cholesterol has stopped me doing something I wanted to do, and it's amazing how quickly one can find the necessary self-discipline to do what needs to be done in those circumstances.  I'm very aware of all the animal fat things I eat, so in addition to cutting down on the sugar, I'm now also cutting down on those, principally cheese, butter, cream, yoghurt and eggs.  I eat a LOT of those things so this is quite a big change for me, but if I can stop drinking coffee for a week completely I can stop scoffing shedloads of animal fat for a bit too.  Except on High Days and Holidays so Waaaay Haaaaay - Friday!

Jazee

I've been having more sugar free days than those with sugar.  Wasn't happy to find that half a tin of baked beans has two teaspoons of sugar in.  Not that I have them very often.  

This week my sugar free days will be Wednesday and Friday.  I have also lost another pounds, so that's five pounds since this challenge started.

Honey_Bear

Yes Jazee, most brands of baked beans have sugar in them, and apparently weight watchers have more than most of the normal ones!  They don't all have added sugar and some of the own brand cheap ones have the least, I'm delighted to say.  Brilliant that you've lost weight - well done.

I was very self-indulgent on Friday, but I noticed two things that surprised me.  I had whitebait for lunch and had to force myself to finish it which is usually no problem at all.  Secondly, overall my sugar consumption has dropped dramatically to the point where I now notice when I don't eat it when I used to I don't automatically feel deprived.  I had five dates for a snack with tea last week and was astonished at how sweet they were - that's completely new.  I've always been slightly puzzled by everyone who said they have a very high sugar content.  While I didn't doubt that I just couldn't say I tasted it until last week but boy did I on Thursday!  So, when I get cravings for something sweet now I can scoff a very few dates and that'll deal with it.  Added bonus - plenty of fibre in dates, and they count as one of the 5 a Day F&V.  Unlike a bar of chocolate, sadly.  The good news is I'm not getting as many urges to eat sugary things, so while I can manage on the sugar-free days (Monday and Wednesday this week), I eat much less on the other days too.  That was what I hoped would happen but I decided I wasn't going to fret too much about it if it didn't. 

Weight-wise I seem to be stuck at 68.3 kgs but while that's a bit frustrating it's not the 69.8kgs that bothered me so much at the beginning of July and it's been stuck around there for a couple of weeks.  Overall I'm aiming for 60kgs so I've got a fair bit to go.

delta13

Well done @Honey_Bear on the weight loss - I haven't lost a single pound! Feels very demotivating. I suspect its down to portion sizes - my OH has always served us the same portions for dinner etc but his work is much more physically demanding. I'm going to cut down how much I put on my plate. I'm also going to start using myfitnesspal again - I think the visual of seeing how much less calories/ sugar I'm eating when swapping out for healthier snacks will help a lot. Although I'll be honest, I don't really like the interface of the app - has anyone ever used something similar that I might check out?

Sugar wise - I've been keeping to my sugar-free days so I'm pleased with that. I also find that after eating some fruit as a snack I have a bit more energy through the afternoon.

This week I should be working the weekend, but I've swapped my shift so I can attend a friend's party, so will be abstaining from sugary treats midweek instead as I know there will be cakes etc at the party. I might be able to resist temptation, who knows, but I don't want to risk missing out on achieving some sugar-free days where I can.

in_need_of_direction

Today is my sugar free day and so far, so good but I’m struggling.  I have two deadlines and have so far had three cups of tea and some ham in addition to my breakfast. It has made me see just how much I graze when under work pressure. Still, only 12 hours or so until bed time.  Maybe doing an hour by hour countdown will help.

Honey_Bear

I'm sorry you haven't started shedding the pounds yet Delta.  I didn't start out with this as a way of losing weight but I'm pretty sure that cutting down on the amount of it I eat will eventually lead to it.  I wouldn't expect cutting out sugar one day a week but leaving everything else as it was dietry-wise would lead to an instant weightloss. I'm in this for the long haul and am using it as a way of curbing my sugar intake gradually because I truly do believe I'm addicted to the stuff, or as close to addicted as anyone could be if addicition itself is the wrong word.  In truth, I'm massively changing the way I eat, and think about what I eat, so it's probably a byproduct of that.  I am, however, certain that this could work, so please don't give in to the cravings every day just yet - five days a week you don't have to worry about eating sugar at all!

I hope today's stress levels even out and you find it easier to resist temptation, In Need.  It's tough, this.  We're used to being able to give ourselves the instant gratification of something that makes us feel good - the sugar rush, the deliciousness of chocolate, the Ahhhhh moment.  I'll be rooting for you all day. 

I've discovered that doing this challenge has made me much more aware of how much I was basing my treats around sugar, particularly chocolate, and that's led to a reduction in my overall consumption.  I kind of feel it's a moral failure on my part to indulge myself in those cravings on the other days when there's no reason to celebrate anything, like a High Day or a Holiday.  That's definitely helping with resisting indulging myself.

The two things that I eat which lead to me putting on weight are sugar and fat.  I'm not unusual, it's just that other people might have different indulgences so I can't speak for everyone.  Cutting down on fat often leads people to eat alternative low fat foods, but they're packed with sugar to make them taste better - flavours we love predominantly comes from sugar and fat in our Western diet.  That's a powerful evoluntionary driver to scoff treats, which the big food processing corporations capitalise on really efficiently and I need to retrain my tastebuds and introduce a bit of self-discipline.

I also think I'm motivated because of this thread.  I started it, it was my idea and knowing I'd have to 'fess up if I broke my own rules for the thread to have any validity at all is important in keeping me on track. 

The cholesterol thing has become much more of an issue than I thought it would.  Belovéd was also told years ago he should work on bringing his cholesterol down and started out with good intentions and that then fell by the wayside.  I never even started!  Talking about it to him he wants to join in (he's not on MSE, so not on this thread but in real life), so we went along yesterday and got our cholesterol levels checked at a pharmacy.  (We had to pay for it but it's worth it for us at this stage.  We could have asked the GP's surgery to do it but neither of us wants to bother them at the moment - they've got enough on their plate.) 

He can remember his original level but not the breakdown of HDL/LDL and I've got all of the relevant information for me.  I've got higher levels of cholesterol overall (totally expected) than him, but amazingly - lower than when I was told I should do something about it.  The pharmacist conducting the tests said she had NEVER seen anyone with such high HDL levels, much less two people so we're both as chuffed as nuts about that.  However, both of our LDL levels - the bad cholesterol - were higher than they should be (totally expected) so that's what we're addressing.

Let me tell you - cutting out animal fat and sugar at the same time means drastically rethinking the way Belovéd and I eat!  When I thought about it for a long time over the weekend and consulted my good friend Duck Duck Go what I found out was that it's totally doable if you've got the time to do the research and are motivated enough to resist temptation. 

I make all our bread, and that means I can control exactly what goes into it.  Admitedly that includes 15g of butter, 1 tablespoon of milk powder and 1 teaspoon of salt, but that 500g loaf lasts us about four days so we're not ingesting a pile of things we don't know about.  I find I can have beans on toast without butter, the same with peanut butter, and avocado on toast.  Yesterday I made broccoli and stilton soup for him, and just had it without the stilton for me.  I can do this. 

I will still eat some animal fat because I do love eggs and they're a great food, but I'm limiting myself to two a week and with those I will l have butter on my soldiers on Sunday morning, but I'll skip the bacon sarni on Saturdays for a few weeks.  He makes a mean risotto and paella, and I do interesting veggie salads, so we're going to major on that kind of food for a few weeks and see how much we can lower our LDL levels in three months. 

What I'm really, really hoping for is that we find foods that contain animal fat so rich after that  we just eat less, while at the same time keeping going with the sugar-free days. 

I found a Three Ingredient Cookie recipe yesterday for oats, bananas and chocolate chips on the Tube of You yesterday which fits the bill - I skipped the chocolate chips and put chopped dates in instead, but next time I'll add three tablespoons of peanut butter and vanilla extract instead as recommended by the people in the comments below the video.  A couple (or three) of them are now my go-to breakfast.  The option to insert a hyperlink isn't available for some reason, so for anyone that's interested, this is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rQ-LrmzG3w

in_need_of_direction

Heading to bed having stayed sugar free. Thanks for both the thread and the positive vibes.

Honey_Bear

Massively well done, In Need.  It's a terrible temptation to give in to it, and I struggle to stick to it sometimes but I'm pretty sure it's worth it. 

Honey_Bear

I made it through another No Sugar Wednesday, despite Belovéd scoffing a couple of handmade chocolates in front of me, and I wasn't really that bothered.  I'd have enjoyed one, but not enough to make it worthwhile so I didn't reach out.I weighed myself this morning and I'm cross about being 68.6kgs, which means I've put some back on but it could just be a blip.  I think we all vary a bit up and down, so I'm hoping it's just that.

Honey_Bear

It wasn't a blip.  I'm really cross with myself, because it just goes to show how much harm a long weekend's indulgence can do.  *sigh* 

As a result I've been quite stern with myself since and stayed on the pretty straight and narrow apart from a madelaine I'd stashed last week and forgotten about, and a couple of chocolates after dinner on Thursday until last night, when we were celebrating a friend's 57th birthday.  She'd put butter on the potatoes (not something I do but I Belovéd does) and served profiteroles for dessert.  I love profiteroles so I indulged, but didn't help finish the last two which was a major moment of self-discipline for once.  I count other birthdays as High Days so I'm not cross with myself, but for once just thankful they were M&S ones because if she'd made them and had a pouring chocolate sauce as well all would have been lost.