So if you don't eat added sugar then what on earth do you do for pudding?

[gettingtogreat]

It's all very well this no-added-sugar healthy eating lark, but three days in and I am at a loss for my pudding options.

Am I destined to a lifetime of Greek yoghurt and fruit for afters??

Cheesey, that is amazing, well done.

My family have always had puddings. Sugar in the form of chocolate or cakes was always used as a 'reward' for doing well at something. At school, I would have two chocolate bars a day (despite being rake thin).

I've married a man who also loves his sugar but we are both a little overweight now and know it's not healthy.

But it is literally breaking the habit of a lifetime and it is proving so hard.

I'm a non pudding eater and a size 10 so slim but not skinny.

We didn't have pudding every day at home growing up but we had something most days - cheap vanilla ice cream if not much else in - and we were VERY sugar oriented. Sugar on cereal, I used to take it in coffee, as you say as a reward, buying nice sweets as a treat (e.g. Thorntons toffee), and making sweets and biscuits as a family activity.
Then I met DH who has type 1 and saw just how much sugar I ate. When I visit my family it shocks me now, too.

I am much better now. I started off with 2 I think days each week without added sugar and now do 3. I do crave sweet stuff so I have dried fruit, fresh or stewed in winter, if I want to do baking it's sign scones with dried fruit/cheese/mashed bananas. DS is four and he knows sugar is a treat, we have fruit/yoghurt (mainly plain for the DC and something sweetened with fruit for me) as our everyday afters. We also have afters with lunch (that's what they do at nursery), not usually with tea, we would have our tea/biscuits/scone once they are in bed (sssh).

You do get used to it. It also helps a lot not to think "I can NEVER have sugar again, woe is me!". You just think "I'll have some trail mix for my snack today. I'll have one of those cookies on Saturday".

If I am going through a rough patch I do still see it as a reward though. DH pulls me up on it (he would NEVER comment on my weight but he is obviously very aware of sugar).

When I first started doing this I lost 3 stone plus (but I was also counting calories and upping the exercise).

I would have thought that if you were making a conscious effort to avoid having added sugar, then cutting out pudding would be part of that? Rather than trying to find pudding with no added sugar, IYSWIM?

I'm not slim.

Which is why I don't eat pudding!

I prefer to make very gradual changes and not to feel deprived. I am massively more likely to stick to them!

I do puddings most days. Often a lolly. Also rice pudding ( though not in summer ) , yogurt , or biscuits. And a 'proper' pudding once a week on Sunday, often a fruit crumble or pavlova. We aren't overweight, though definitely not skinny! And yes, evil it is, but I do look on sweet things as a treat and think it would be difficult to stop.

When I said we didn't eat pudding I didn't realise people counted fruit as pudding. The DC have an apple or orange after dinner. I wouldn't call that pudding though - I was imagining ice cream or cake

When I said we didn't eat pudding I didn't realise people counted fruit as pudding.

Oh yeah, I think fruit is pudding. Especially if it is 'nice' fruit like a tasty peach or some water melon or something.

I wonder if you could do a tasty bread and butter pudding without sugar, it's quite low sugar as desserts go.
Or chia pudding, are they actually puddings? Keep seeing them as breakfast suggestions.

I think we've cracked the 'how come some people don't need to diet' conundrum!

Rarely eat pudding anyway, and I'm not 'no sugar'.

I don't eat puddings either... The last time I had a pudding was on Monday at Zizzi's and I regret it, I i wish I asked for another starter now!! I'm not overly keen on sweet foods.

I gave up refined sugar a few months ago. We're not a pudding every night household though. If I need something sweet, I have Greek yoghurt with fresh fruit, or Bircher muesli with cooked apple.

I never have a pudding. But I much prefer savoury food.

I have sugar but minimal
So a 10 cal jelly, strawberries or raspberries, couple of crushed mini meringues (19 cals each), light squirty cream
Sometimes I use choc shot which is like a lower sugar chocolate sauce

Erm, that stuff might technically be low sugar, but it's full of sweeteners and processed crap! I think the OP was asking about healthy eating...

Sitting here eating what feels like a very indulgent but virtuous breakfast - coconut & choc chia pudding topped with almond butter, flaked almonds, unsweetened dried cranberries and unsweetened desssicated coconut.... sugar free (ingredients are coconut milk, chia seeds, cacao powder, cinnamon) and really yummy. Would do lovely as a pudding as well.

I think giving up sugar is a retraining your palette exercise. I'm doing my 3rd "whole 30" month. It helps me reset- I find it much easier to go cold turkey if I've gone horribly off track diet wise.

I am slim and I love pudding.

Only eat it when out for a meal or at home on special occasions though.

Otherwise I would be huge.

We have "pudding" after every lunch and dinner. But often it's just fruit and yogurt.

Recently I've bought an ice lolly mould and the kids love fruit juice or smoothie ice lollies (just blend banana, milk and mango or res berries). Sweet but no added sugar.

We're all slim - puddings needn't be unhealthy.

Running - wasn't sure. It's often a balance between healthy and calories. I try to eat well but 1200 cals at 5ft 10 leaves me hungry and I have to look for volume for low cals which often = sweetners
The only processed bit is the jelly really, the choc shot is with stevia

We don’t have pudding at home, it is a treat saved for going out. We are not a joyless household and we love our food. I really struggle with my weight also adding pudding would make that worse. There is fruit and yogurt of something else is needed after dinner but we all tend to be very full once we have eaten our main course. I don’t do big portions either so it isn’t that.

I just don't eat pudding.

Pudding has never been a thing to do after every lunch or supper, for me. I have always been more likely to eat cake or sweets in the afternoon as a snack.

And I come from a country where sweet things are commonly eaten at breakfast (pastries, pancakes, waffles... At least jam on the toast). For me, the hardest meal to not have sweet stuff is breakfast.

We occasionally have pudding : pecan pie, Apple crumble and ice cream, brownies, banana bread etc. Live abroad hence the pecan pie. Most of the time we just have fruit and yog though. DH hates custard so I never make it.

Back to Blighty in two week's time and the things I'm looking forward to the most are the puddings!

Especially :

Sticky toffee
Manchester tart
Egg custards
Eccles cakes
Lemon drizzle
Mum's date and walnut
Curd tarts

I like "pudding" as I like to have two courses of different food. I'd much rather have two of three small course than one huge main meal. If nothing else, you get more opportunities for different food groups! I am slim (well, slim and pregnant at the moment), for the PP who asked.

I think the word pudding conjures up fatty, sweet, stodgy fancy dessert type things (like something you'd actually bother to order in a restaurant rather than something you might find in your fridge at home).... For me, after a main savoury meal I might have something like fruit, yoghurt, sorbet, cheese, flapjack, ice cream, custard, rice pudding, few squares of chocolate (not ALL together, obviously).... anything really which has a different texture and taste to the main meal. Not necessarily healthy but not usually hugely unhealthy.