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...

[HearMyRoar]

No ice cream at the panto! What have I started! :o

[foofooyeah]

I'm planning this .... Marking my spot

[Womnaleplus]

Netee, what does the quit plan look like?

My vague plan is:

Weeks 1 & 2: no sugar in coffee, no sweets or choc. Live yogurt for breakfast, eggs every day, up protein and fats. Fruit limited to berries, apples

Weeks 3 & 4: all the above plus no wheat. Concerted effort to increase veg intake, particularly leafy greens.

Then if I can pull that off (!), I'm considering doing a Whole30 in February....

It's going to be so, so tough. I am an absolute sugar addict. I basically run on sugar, and have done since recovering from a serious eating disorder in 2008/9 :(

[Nettee]

I will try to summarise the main points but it is a reasonably long book that you can get on Kindle for £1.99 and it is pretty good.

Rule 1 is to have the right attitude, essentially feel positive about it rather than deprived.

The first suggestion is to make a list of those times when you snack on sugar as a habit and work out what you are going to do instead.

He suggests cold turkey but says that gradual cutting down can work as long as you keep a sugar diary and are really strict about it.

Essentially the rule is no frutose except that found in vegetables and two pieces of fresh fruit per day.

Look at labels - dairy products should have 4.7% sugar as that is the lactose which is ok, bread should have as little sugar as you can find - I have gone for hovis wholemeal granary at 2.4%. Avoid anything labelled as low fat as it is likely to have added sugar.

He suggests snacking on nuts (which I am doing whilst being nervous about the calorie content) - He does say that as the sugar addiction disappears the snacking will naturally reduce anyway.

He gives a bit of a mixed message about the occasional bit of sugar - first of all comparing everyone to alcoholics and saying even a little will set us off but also saying that party food is for parties and having a dessert someone has cooked at a dinner party once in a while is not the end of the world.

Drink only water and milk - low sugar alcohol allowed in moderation

withdrawal is worse for women and can last a good few weeks but hopefully with only be up to two weeks and will feel like a nagging hunger and head aches. After that there should be a moment of revelation when you realise that you no longer crave sweet food.

sweetners are fine in relation to sugar addiction but who knows if they are fine in the long term for health. Use them for a bit if you need to but you will find you don't need them forever.

Once withdrawal is over you can use glucose for baking cakes etc. - My thoughts on this is that the calorie content will be the same so I am not planning to do it all that much. The theory is that glucose will fill you up properly so you wouldn't over indulge this way but will maybe have less supper later on for example.

Anyway a bit of a long answer to your question and to be honest your plan sounds good to me and a lot simpler! What is the Whole30?

[HearMyRoar]

Nice post nettee that's a fabulous summary.

I'm wondering what people's thoughts are on the great sugat alternatives debate? I was really inspired to give up sugar by this book he says a big no to sugar alternatives so I am planning on avoiding them. What do you guys think?

[Nettee]

I looked into this when I was on slimming world eating lots of muller lights and decided a bit of synned sugar would be better. I thnk they did an experiment on rats and Gould the ones eating sweetener gained weight as it made them hungrier.

Also I have come round to the view that we should try to eat what our ancestors did as much as possible as we just have not evolved to eat new man made chemicals. Who knows if or how they are bad for us but we are being the guinea pigs.

[HearMyRoar]

Interesting about the experiment. Better, I think I sort of agree with you on the food front.

Dh has said he will give the sugar free business a go if I can make an acceptable biscuit. Had my first go yesterday and he was pretty impressed with it. Needs some tweaks as it was a bit pastryish for my liking but not too bad really. Think this could turn into a bit of a project :o

[HearMyRoar]

Hmm... My auto correct keeps turning nettee into better, very annoying

[BerylsDailyKumquat]

Ooh my copy of The Sweet Poison Quit Plan arrived today, I ordered it weeks ago so am glad to finally have it! From Nettee's description it sounds really good.

I went sugar free as of New Year's Day!!! This is quite major for me, and there are still lots of chocolates etc all over the house from Christmas, but so far it's going well. Anyone else started yet or are you all waiting til next week?

[Womnaleplus]

Nettee thanks, that's a great explanation! I have come across the theory that fructose is actually the most damaging of the sugars before (something about its effect on the liver?)

Whole30 is proper paleo (the whole ancestral eating thing) and I probably would eat like it long term as it's no grains, sugar, dairy, legumes or alcohol, and excludes many fruits. It's a thirty day challenge and you can then reintroduce things one at a time to see if you tolerate them.

[Womnaleplus]

www.whole9life.com/start/

[HearMyRoar]

Gosh wom that looks seriously scary! No beans! I blooming love beans.

Congratulations beryl! I think you are the first. I am doubly impressed you are doing it with chocolate still about. I am aiming to finish all ours by Monday. I do feel like I am ready now though, I've eaten so much crap that I am rather looking forward to not having it any more.

[BerylsDailyKumquat]

wom I attempted a Whole30 a while back, and only lasted a couple of days. I think you're very sensible to build up to it, for me it was too big a jump from my usual diet.

Feeling a bit headachey this afternoon, but that's quite possibly caffeine withdrawal from not having my usual Pepsi Max fix. Going to make myself a healthy snack to keep me going til tea. I think the trick is to not to get too hungry...

[BerylsDailyKumquat]

HearMyRoar we've got ridiculous amounts of chocolate etc left, it would take weeks to eat it all. I'm going to put it away. I'll have to get used to resisting temptation anyway as DS and DH will both be eating sweet stuff on a reglar basis. I've already made DS jam on toast today!

[Womnaleplus]

I've started, currently drinking a latte with no sugar in town .

I have four cans of diet coke in my fridge that I will allow myself to finish off before kicking that (disgusting stuff, but addictive) and sticking with the coffee.

Beryl that sounds like my own previous Whole30 experience :o. I got horrendous carb flu and caffeine withdrawal - horrible migraines and vomiting - so I gave up.

[Nettee]

Yay - well done to everyone who has started. Whole30 sounds good but not sure I could do it. I tried quitting caffeine a few weeks ago and although the withdrawal was not all that bad I found the cultural aspect of drinking cups of tea too strong a draw. I suspect this will also be my biggest problem with quitting sugar - birthday cake anyone?

Great that your DH is on board Hearmyroar - I suspect that will make a lot of difference. Mine isn't but then it should be ok as he doesn't have much of a sweet tooth. We have liked things like sweet and sour sauce and ketchup though so will need a bit of tweaking there.

How did you make your biscuit? my bag of glucose powder came through the post today so wondering if I should get baking or as I said earlier if I should wait for a special occasion.

[Womnaleplus]

I switched to redbush/rooibos a few years ago Nettee. Took a bit of getting used to but I now prefer it to 'normal' tea. You can take it with milk and sugar, no! Naughty and everything.

[Dontletthemgetyoudown]

This sounds good. I have spent this evening gorging on toffee popcorn chocolates and shortbread and feel disgusting. I'm taking most of the tins of biscuits and chocolates into work tomorrow. Have allowed the children to choose one each (were obviously difficult to buy for as between the five of us we got over 20 boxes/tins of treats) and the rest will go.

I will then look at cutting out caffeine. Does anyone know if tassimo costa latte contains added sugars or just the sugars from uht milk? It's the only coffee I drink and don't think I could get through long work days on just water. I can't stand instant coffee and filter coffee has an adverse effect on my bowels

[mulberrybag]

Im in too ! I kid myself every day that today will be a sugar free day and have done for the last year at least. My skin is awful and although I'm not over weight I have saggy flabby skin and from the mountains that I've read about nutrition, sugar is a major offender ...so I'm starting with you, if that's okay.

[Womnaleplus]

Join us!

I'm on day two no sugar (apart from a cheeky banana I've been really good at sticking to my plan above).

Mulberry I've don't that for so long, too. Always promising myself to give up sugar forever and then giving up and binging on the stuff (in for a penny type thinking). I'm hopeful that a time-limited challenge will keep me on track!

[TheOneAndOnlyAlpha]

I'll do it!

I also want to try and cut down on carbs, so no carbs at breakfast and lunch, then a limited amount at dinner. I can't really avoid then totally as DH loves his pasta/rice/spuds but I can certainly cut down.

I'll do no sugar month from the 6th

[TheOneAndOnlyAlpha]

Oh Lordy does that mean no fruit too?

[skaen]

Hello - I'm doing this with pretty much your rules, Op, by co incidence!

I've been struggling with recurrent thrush so I've decided to cut out sweets, chocolates, biscuits, crisps and alcohol for the month and limit normal carbs to brown ( I know it's not perfect, but I will be able to stick to it!)

Good luck!

[Womnaleplus]

Alpha, I think we're all doing slightly different versions of the no sugar thing. I posted my plan earlier and it involves cutting back on super-sweet fruit like bananas, tropical fruits etc, and stick to lower sugar stuff like berries, apples and pears.