A sugar free month - anyone else fancy giving it a go?

[HearMyRoar]

I Have been thinking about giving up sugar for a long time now but haven't really felt ready. I have decided that now is the time and so am aiming for a sugar free month from the 6 january.

I figured starting with a month seemed less scary then giving it up forever and reasonably achievable... I hope :o

Still working out my rules but currently they are:

No sugar
No sugar substitutes
No processed food with any sort of sugar or sugar substitute in

So pretty simple so far. I am not giving up the carbs so still eating rice, bread, etc (I am nowhere near ready for boot camp). Also planning on still eating lots of fruit though probably not juice. All this is open to negotiations and suggestions.

Anyone fancy joining me? Go on....please... Anyone...

[BerylsDailyKumquat]

Sounds interesting - I'm currently following the 7 step plan to giving up sugar, and don't want to rush into trying to give up too much too quickly, but with carbs still on the menu it might be doable...I'll give it some thought...

[Womnaleplus]

What's the seven step plan, Beryls?

I'm interested!

[BerylsDailyKumquat]

It's from a book called Potatoes Not Prozac, all about sugar sensitivity. It starts with eating breakfast with protein everyday, then moves onto having 3 regular meals with protein, and gradually moves onto cutting out sugars...it's a slow and steady approach. There's a website called Radiant Recovery which goes into the steps in more detail.

[HearMyRoar]

Yay! I've got friends :o

I'll check out that book beryl. It sounds interesting.

Hello Wom!

I've been working on improving my diet for the past few years. I'm good with the 3 meals a day, could improve the protein intake though. Weirdly I think I am not too bad with hidden sugars as most of my food is cooked from scratch. My problem is that I have 3 lovely meals and then still scoff loads of biscuits, cake and chocolate.

I've tried cutting back in the past but it never lasts long so I think stopping the whole lot for a bit is the way to go for me. At least worth a try :)

[BerylsDailyKumquat]

Yes, I sometimes think it's easier to cut it out totally rather than rationing what you have. I'm awful with skipping meals, I often don't feel hungry at meal times, and then leave it until I'm starving which is when I end up grabbing something quick and easy (& unhealthy!). I'm going to start doing more cooking, so that there's always healthy left-overs in the fridge to quickly heat up when I'm hungry.

[WireCatGlitteryBaubles]

I will join.

Think I'm addicted to sugar.

It's not good.

6th of Jan sounds good. Kids back to school & gives me a chance to get rid of eat all of the Christmas chocolates.

[Tinkertaylor1]

Me!!!!! When you starting???

I'm a complete sugar addict and its getting out of control especially itch chocolate .

I feel disgusting inside.

Beryl's website sounds good! I'm going I cut wheat out too!

[HearMyRoar]

I know just what you mean about feeling disgusting inside tinker. I just feel so yukky and full of crap. I want to feel clean and shiny and full of vim (whatever that is) :o

[HearMyRoar]

I have quite a lot going on up until the 5th so thought the 6th seemed a good time. Going to Mil's for a few days the weekend after so might fail on rule 3 as we will be eating out but hoping to keep to the 1st 2 rules and avoid anything too obvious.

[Womnaleplus]

Yes, I will do both wheat and sugar.

[ToddleWaddle]

I would love to give up sugar too. Never really had a sweet tooth until I lost weight a few years ago.
Find it's all or nothing with me so will aim to cut out completely.
Am breastfeeding dd2 6 months old but need to change diet dramitacally and start exercising again to shift the calories!

[nosleeptilever]

I'm in. I went sugar free for years when in my early twenties and lost tonnes of weight and had loads of energy. I'm back to being a complete sugar addict in my late thirties, a stone overweight, always ill and tired and I want to feel good again!

[Womnaleplus]

Wow, nosleep, can you say more? Why did you cut it out, did you cut anything else out, how hard was it?

I'm sitting in the bath feeling disgusted with myself as I've put away so much crap these last few days. It's actually ruined my appetite for real food. I'm constantly after junk :(.

[HearMyRoar]

nosleep did you reach a point where you didn't really want it anymore?

I have got to that stage with alcohol after not drinking more then a pint in the last couple of years. I was fully expecting to have a little tipple at Xmas but when it came to it the thought made me feel yuk and I didn't want any at all. I sort of hope I'll feel like that about sugary things one day.

[BerylsDailyKumquat]

I overdosed on wine and chocolates last night so today I'm planning 3 good meals and no sugary snacks. Started with scrambled eggs & toast for breakfast, am going to have soup for lunch then I'm doing a roast dinner tonight. I expect I'll still indulge in my daily Pepsi Max, but I'm going to tackle the sugar first before giving that up too.

I haven't drank loads this Christmas, I'm planning a couple of drinks on NYE, but none until then this week now. From the New Year I've decided to only drink when out, to cut out the odd glasses of wine I have at home (friday & saturday, and sonetimes one midweek too). I find that when I eat less sugary stuff I don't fancy wine as much either.

[Nettee]

Hello - can I join you? I have read sweet poison and the sweet poison quit plan and have gone for a sort of cold Turkey since 20th December although I have not been perfect for a few days over Christmas.

I have had headaches on and off but no cravings as such - hoping to make it a way of life but a month is a good start.

I think the social situations where there is birthday cake or similar are going to be the hardest to deal with. Hoping to develop my polite "no thank you" response.

I have been gradually gaining all the weight I lost with slimming world over the last year and hope that quitting sugar will stop all the obsessing with weigh ins and what I can eat next.

Good luck to you all - bring on 6th January!

[Betrayedbutsurvived]

Hi we've been sugar free for two years, and it's the best thing we ever did. BUT, it's a lot harder than you think, for a start, you need to stop eating bread.
www.gnolls.org/905/mechanisms-of-sugar-addiction-or-why-youre-addicted-to-bread/

Read michel Pollan. Once you get into this stuff, it's life changing, but it's a damn site hard than you think to begin with.

[Betrayedbutsurvived]

www.gnolls.org/905/mechanisms-of-sugar-addiction-or-why-youre-addicted-to-bread/

Clickable link

[Nettee]

Thank you for that - I am going to aim to eat smaller portions of bread, potatoes, pasta and rice (in order to reduce the calories I am eating for weight loss) but am not going to cut them out altogether.

I can see what they are saying about glucose being released quickly from these things but I have been reading about avoiding fructose specifically because it bypasses our satiety signals more than glucose does.

[MollyBerry]

I'm in! I'm goign to start tomorrow but I think I'm goign to need to do a bit of research on what things actually have sugar in them as I think I'm probably eating a lot of hidden stuff

[thisismyYuleTimenickname]

I fancy giving it a go too!

[HearMyRoar]

I'm just not ready to give up the bread yet. I know if I went all out for stopping sugar and bread, potatoes, etc all at once I would just fail miserably. Aiming for one step at a time to try and make it achievable for me. Maybe bread will be next on the list.

[Nettee]

I agree with you hearmyroar. I don't think I could cut all carbs and not for the long term. Will aim for whole meal and sweet potatoes but not be fanatical about it. So much rubbish that I eat is full of sucrose so cutting all that out is bound to make a difference to my health whether the theories are right or not.

[Nettee]

Woo hoo - small victory today! No ice cream at the pantomime interval. The world didn't come crashing down around me either

[JedwardScissorhands]

Think I will give this a go. I am what is known on mumsnet as skinny fat, which I suspect is due to too much sugar. I don't even really have a sweet tooth. Think I need to focus on eating more mindfully, with an increase in protein. I only eat sugary crap as I am hungry, so need to fix this. Will look at the 7 step website, sounds good.