The 'Towards a Sugar-Free Future' Challenge

Honey_Bear

Flower, what you're discovering is that sugar is a habit that is much easier to break if you have alternatives that you really like to hand.  Each of us has to discover that for ourselves and it takes time to get to grips with that, and organise things so that the stuff is available when you get the munchies.  Willpower is all well and good but we need a bit of help to boost and strengthen it mid-afternoon.  All of us that have stuck with the Challenge for a while have found our own preferred snacks and there's a fair amount of chitchat about it along the way.

(For information, because it happened in August last year and I posted about it at the time, I broke my ankle and had to have surgery to pin it.  Because of my age and the type of break it's taking a long time to heal but I'm getting there.)

I relented again tonight.  Belovéd and I went to the theatre and then went out to dinner.  I was fine until I saw tiramasu on the dessert menu.  'Nuf said.

Honey_Bear

Hi @SueP19 for your comment.  I didn't realise that going sugarfree to such an extent could result in such rapid weightloss.  Did you change anything else about your diet at the same time or are those numbers entirely down to sugar?  I'm seriously impressed by your obvious determination.

For my own part, when I talk about sugar I mean the added stuff.  I don't include fruit as a sugary food, I regard it as wonderful food, and I wouldn't know what to eat instead of it.  I usually have some kind of tangerine-type thing every day in the winter and a few grapes, having those at the end of the day after the evening meal.  I don't have a problem with mayonaise or tomato ketchup because that's going too deeply into it and I honestly don't think they're my problem. 

My problem was always cakes, biscuits and chocolate.  Ocassionally I have a dessert but not that often, and it's almost always because it's chocolate.  It's that kind of sugar I want to cut down or give up, but being realistic I just don't think I can even pretend to myself I'm going to go chocolate-free seven days a week.  Maybe up to five, but like you - chocolate at the weekends sounds about right. 

SueP19

Hi @Honey_Bear, we had to be determined lol

We lost that over the past year, DH had a huge heart attack in Dec 21 so we had to look at every aspect of our life 

It really was just a sugar thing, we didnt have a fatty diet and there were no takaways or ready meals to get rid of, DH would have a wrap for lunch, myself a salad then we would have something plus potatoes, airfryed or steamed at night.
I sat down the week he came out of hospital and wrote out every gramme of saturated fat, fat, natural sugar, refined sugar and protein we ate and there it was, some days he had about 90g of refined sugar!!!! Such a shock because no way would you have guessed it, he had a cereal bar with his wrap but the house was devoid of bread, biscuits, sweets and chocolate, it was all hidden in yoghurts, cups of tea, potatoes and beans!!!  At that point we joined G*usto, 6 months later we had a full reciepe file and eat rice every night, tonight is lean mince keema with lime and coriander, side salad and homemade coleslaw. I actually enjoy cooking now too, added bonus


Fruit is amazing, the sugar is slow release and a good source of fuel, you have to watch the tropical fruit though, they don't have as much fibre in them 

Honey_Bear

That's an amazing account, @SueP19 of how to get sugar consumption under control.  I don't think most people realise how much sugar is added to processed food, but even I had no idea that those hidden sugars could add up that much.  I suppose it also depends on how many cups of tea a person drinks a day, if you add a couple of teaspoons every time.  I will say that I've been reading food labels for decades and just don't buy those flavoured yoghurts etc because once it gets to the point where I don't recognise ingredients as just plain old food, but rather a list of chemicals, I'd much rather not eat it. 

I have a particular problem with palm oil, too, which we won't have in the house.  It's a strange ingredient to put in food, given that it's in a lot of washing powders as well!  

It sounds as though your husband's health is much better - congratulations to you both.

SueP19

Palm oil is a big no here too

I did have a head start on the sugar malarkey, my mums been "pre-diabetic" for 33 years now. Cups of tea!! Don't forget your sugar in milk! That's a refined one too 

cookie02

Pollybear, well done for continuing to make progress.  I think that plodding along is how we eventually get results

 

Making, I hope you are feeling better now and I hope your ankle is improving too, Honey_Bear.  

Last week was tricky for me as my colleague tested positive for Covid-19 so I had to go to an event at short notice.  I actually managed two sugar-free days, not because I was being good but because I arrived after the food had been cleared on the first day.  Then, on the 2nd day, the meetings I was covering all happened over lunch and during the coffee breaks so I had no temptation.  I did succumb to temptation during the rest of the week though.  Unlike with most meetings, the catering was good so I actually enjoyed the sugar this time - not a disappointing cake in sight!  I'm trying to get back on track this week.  My goal is to have at least two sugar-free days. I'm going to aim for today and tomorrow but I'm already thinking about cake this morning so I'm not sure how successful I'll be.  Fingers crossed!

@SueP19 , congratulations on the turnaround for you and your husband and thanks for sharing your experiences with us - it's always inspiring to hear from people that have succeeded and are continuing to contain the sugar gremlins and manage their health ⭐️.  

Good luck with your goals for this week, everyone!

Honey_Bear

Well done for enjoying what you ate Cookie, after managing to avoid the excellent catering for the first couple of days.  January is tough, there's no way of avoiding that, but I do think we're probably doing better than we did this time last year.  I didn't go mad over December / Christmas and I'm finding it tricky to manage more than two or three days a week now but that's a huge improvement on where I was this time two years ago and that's the key to getting where I want to be - improvements, even if they're slow, exactly as you say.

As for me, well, the tail end of last week was a bit more indulgent than would have been ideal but at least I left it until the evening before indulging except on Saturday and Sunday.  Saturday I over-indulged on shortbread biscuits (6!) and felt really sick afterwards, so something fundamental has changed.  Admittedly I had some chocolate before I ate them, but six biscuits in the olden days would have been positively abstemious on my part - I used to stand over the biscuit tin and just eat until I'd had enough, which is never good.  It made me rethink what I was going to allow myself on Sunday after I finished the other half of the chocolate bar so overall I'm glad.  If next time I get the serious sugar munchies I only allow myself four that will have been a lesson well learned.

Big surprise this morning, I will admit I was a tad concerned that my making the chocolate Brazils hadn't left me with as many as I thought they would.  I thought I'd massively over-indulged until I was sorting out some gibble on the coffee table shelf this morning and found a big box of them I'd forgotten about! 

Back on the sugar-free today, and I'll see how long that lasts this week. 

SueP19

@cookie02

Not sure we are a success story but thanks

I first found out about sugar years ago when I did the South Beach diet (I lost 6 stone) it really helps to understand the how sugar and fibre work 

Take 2 typical fruits the apple and the banana 

The apple, is a fibrous superstar, think layers of sugar coated bundle of spagetti, you unwind it, slowly releasing the sugar, the stomach digests the apple and the body slowly absorbs the sugar and uses it all as energy 

The banana has so much less fibre it breaks quickly and the body is flooded full of sugar but it can't use it all so what does it do, it saves it for a rainy day (fat stores) because we as neanderthal man didn't know where our next meal was coming from so we learnt to store our reserves ! 

If that makes sense lol

cookie02

Yesterday, I managed to stay sugar-free all day .  I'm trying to stay sugar-free again today.  If I achieve two days this week, I'll be happy.  

SueP19, thanks for the example with the apple and the banana.  I focus on added sugar as I think I probably need more fruit and veg in my diet but it's helpful to see how not all fruit is equal!  

Honey_Bear

I didn't know about the difference between bananas and apples so that's really helpful @SueP19 - clearly not all fruit is born equal.  I bet mangos and dates are like bananas because I like them and never get round to eating the apples because they're just not as inviting. 

Well done for yesterday Cookie and good luck with the rest of the day.  You're doing better than me this week - I was fine yesterday until I rememebered the box of chocolate Brazils I'd found earlier and also, very regrettably, then remembered again around teatime today.  At this rate temptation won't be around for much longer though, so I suppose that's an advantage.