I Quit Sugar - anyone up for this?

[Cappster]

I tried quitting sugar during January and it was really good - I lost a few pounds, ate really well, felt very good (after initial detox )

I need to do it again but it would be really good to have a bit of support

Any takers?

Bloody Hell Dowser :(
Was it a TIA? Mum had TWO over Christmas (just for maximum drama) and recovered completely from both. But very tired and frightened by the whole thing.

Best wishes and love to you both xx

I think it was a bit more than that. After I've written this ill do a bit of research . I think a TIA is a little bleed in the brain. My mum has had several on her road to vascular dementia. She went dizzy lost her sight, wet herself a little , went a bit weak ...and then it all came back as per normal.

DH has a blood clot. He had none of that . Just peripheral vision went in his right eye which hasn't come back yet.

I'm researching all I can. I want to get him on serrapeptase and am looking into grapefruit fibre. He on blood pressure pills and now this platelet medication ( stop them sticking) but I think he now needs the other stuff to decoke his blood vessels.

Things are returning to a bit more like normal in the Dowser household...he's just brought me my onion omelette and a cup of tea. ;-)

Hi - just found this thread and wondered if anyone could help or share experiences!

I'm 23w pregnant and at increased risk of GD due to being a bit overweight to start with and am also a lot over 40. During the first trimester I didn't really have much control over what I ate due to nausea, and then have spent the last 10 weeks eating chocolate and cakes which were freely available at work, and then there was all the general overeating at Christmas!

I weighed myself at the weekend and have gained 12kg and decided enough was enough so quit sugar (well most of it) on Monday. Haven't found it desperately hard as feel so bloated anyway due to the baby. I eat porridge most mornings (just with milk/water and no sugar) and have cut out cakes, biscuits and chocolate and replaced with plain yoghurt and a bit of fruit.

However... I temporarily lost control of my willpower yesterday afternoon and ate a load of stollen bites which were left over from xmas and immediately felt really ill. I had a terrible night with nightmares and insomnia and today I'm so tired I can barely walk. How much of this could be due to not having regular quantities of sugar?

The thorn in my side is DP, who decided he would give up sugar too, but has been constantly sabotaging since monday. He's addicted to buying cut price rubbish from the supermarket so I think I'm going to have a job getting him to stay on track. Tbh, if he wants to carry on eating sugar, that's fine, but I don't want to keep finding sugary crap in the fridge and cupboards!

Dowser so sorry about your poor DH (I read about it the other day on another thread). So glad he's come out of it with relatively little damage. I went through similar with my then DP many years ago - he was only 32 at the time.

Eagle I'm 30 weeks pg and just started no sugar on Monday as well... Happy to have solidarity and support with you?

Lucky my DH is doing it too and we are both bloody stubborn so don't want to be the first to cheat! I'm doing it to break the cake cycle I'd got into (cake or choc often several times a day), also read what you eat in 3rd trimester sets your DC's tastebuds up and given my 3 yo DS has a crazy sweet tooth and a vast appetite I'm hoping I can give no.2 a more balanced diet!

We are doing no sugar except fruit (not bananas or grapes) and what is naturally in dairy and veg, and no white carbs bar the odd potato - trying to eat lots of protein at every meal too (I'm veggie). I'm not restricting volume of food at all but am trying to make sure I'm eating loads of veg.

Don't beat yourself up about the stollen btw

Welcome newcomers! The first few weeks are definitely the hardest. And don't worry about the stollen...you've already cut a lot out so you're making a great start.

My DH wasn't interested in giving up sugar but he tends to eat sweets which don't appeal to me, i'm a die hard chocolate fan .

First few weeks?! I was hoping to feel normal in a day or two I guess I need to be realistic about it though - I've been eating a LOT of sugar and my body is already under pressure!

rage would be great to have a pregnant buddy - interesting too that you started on the same day as me! I haven't read up too much about eliminating sugar but I thought I would start with the really obvious culprits (daily cake when in cafes, chocolate, biscuits etc) and try to limit white carbs but will still have fruit and fruit juice. Funnily enough, I'm veggie too!

I went into a rage with DP this evening as he came home (he works away and comes home overnight midweek) and put a pair of custard tarts in the fridge (part of his addiction to cut-price, going-out-of-date food). I asked him why he'd even bought them and he accused me of being 'extreme' with the no sugar thing. So he's gone in a few days from agreeing to cut out sugar for many and varied reasons to totally backtracking and making up the rules as he sees fit. I would love to say I could just ignore the rubbish he brings into the house but it's so hard. I prefer to just not buy it in the first place. The really stupid thing is that diabetes is rife in his family (to the point where it's inevitable he will get it in the next decade or two) and he has a chemistry phd so he should bloody well understand what his rubbish diet is doing to him.

Am hoping for a better night's sleep this eve - and not dreaming of custard tarts

Oh sorry, it's different for everybody and I'm sure after a few days your body will be getting used to it. For me it took a few weeks to break the habit of thinking about it after dinner etc!

My DH is kind of on board but it took a long time for him to come around. It was only after I did it for ages and was prancing around celebrating weight loss that he just did it for about 2 weeks and he saw the benefit for himself. It sounds like yours is resisting hard! Unfortunately you just have to concentrate on you here, you can't make him see sense!

Eagle it sounds like your DH is in denial. Make sure you have loads of food readily available you can snack on so you have something to eat when he scoffs his tàrts - I've found greek yoghurt with fruit and sugar free granola, oatcakes with cheese or an apple with peanut butter to be quite good. I'm totally the same with food - I can't have it in the house and not eat it.

My DH is also very partial to a yellow sticker although he doesn't really have time to go to the shops after work at the moment, thankfully! He really lacks energy so I think that's why he's on board with trying this. I think he's finding the not drinking a bit of a pain though.

I'm finding it helping a bit visualising all that beige food im avoiding like biscuits etc as really gross and un-nutritious and clogging up my insides with crap, and focusing on all the healthy stuff I'm eating as helping me have a healthy strong rest of pregnancy and labour.

Thank you Eagle.

To the lady who's drinking fruit juice. Can you try watering it down or better still cutting it out. It's pure sugar.

Brew a nice fruity twinings fruit tea. Put in a good couple of tea bags and store in a large jug in the fridge. Add ice, slice of lemon, sprig of mint when in season.

Calorie free and so much better than sugary juice which will only spike your insulin and leaving you craving for more sugar.

A piece of whole fruit is fine but keep that down to no more than two pieces a day.

My body is in revolt over too much sugar too. Nearly 24 hours without sugar. The worst is over but my body has not recovered. I thinkmy liver is bang out of whack :-(

I found it really easy to water down my morning orange juice. Just a bit at first, then down to 50:50. This week i'm just having water as I got a bit sick of orange juice at breakfast.

I've been low sugar for 4 days now and today it's been pretty easy. The first 48 hours where the hardest.

Can I ask if anyone has any idea how many grams of sugar they are now consuming a day?

msrisotto you are right - it's one thing dealing with the immediate physical reaction but another dealing with the 'habit'. I went to my favourite cafe today and would always have a cake if I was there then realised today I can't do that but there's not a lot else to choose from!

rage yellow stickers are the bane of my life! DP is behaving like a bit of a tit over the whole sugar thing right now, but he's very competitive and often takes a while to absorb new concepts, so will just bide my time and see what happens...

SuperCee7 I have absolutely no idea how much sugar I'm having each day now! I've taken a bit of a simplistic approach to it as I'm pregnant and knew that by just cutting out the really awful foods I would be making a big difference to my health (and hopefully turning around the giant supertanker that is my rapid weight gain). I'm also trying to declutter (Kondo) the house at the moment and plan for a big building project so have set myself simple goals. I just have to hope I'm doing enough to make a difference!

I'm very partial to fruit juice right now - I guess it's marginally better than the ice lollies I'm usually addicted to? I tend to water down juice 50/50 as a matter of course anyway. Is carrot/orange juice any better I wonder? I fear there's not as much carrot in the juice as I like to think!

PS - my fatigue seems to be getting better - have walked 14,000 steps today and also swam for the first time time since last summer!

So, first week of the year down. That was ok. I went out to dinner last night (Ed's Diner, utter utter shit) and was craving dessert but managed to abstain. Today will be a big challenge as I will be at a big family thing where the food is fantastic and there is an enormous dessert trolley with profiteroles lots of choice and everyone will be having some and I know there will be questions about why i'm not and some encouragement to eat dessert this time. Any other time I would, but I really want to do a kind of 'Dry January' with sugar intake. Fingers crossed I don't cave.

Well I have no option but to quit sugar as I think I'm in the middle of a gall bladder attack. So I went 24 hours without food and then just simple meals.

My DH is fitter than I am. Thank god. So am just taking it easy right now. Drinking some herbal tea that is particularly cleansing and good for an upset system if you're near a tiger it's allied ginger tea but it has lots of herbs in there. I find it excellent. I haven't had one of these attacks for about 2 years now and it may be because I stopped drinking lemon juice.

So, not very well. Very emotional. DH said he had a headache last night and I burst into tears. I think I'm carrying all the upset, fear and worry. Good job we are not both like me.

So, very sugar free right now!

Called ginger tea

Hello again!

How is everyone getting on?

I just watched . It's good for a very simple explanation of the difference between Glucose, Lactose and Fructose. It also finally forced my eyes open to the con of smoothies as healthy. Must get my husband to watch that bit as he is still convinced. It is a bit like that long Robert Lustig video I posted upthread but an entertainment lite version. Significant downsides include excessive footage of the presenter in his pants. He's generally only just about bearable. Still, definitely worth a watch!

I had cut orange juice from my morning drink but bought it again for this week as I struggle to drink enough fluid as it is and I water it down by half anyway. It does make me think about watching my fruit juice intake generally though. Oh...and my baked beans intake :(

Balls. Just noticed that there's sugar in the bread rolls I bought last week. Why? I don't usually like bread even, I suppose I know now why I liked those!

I thought it was just America who put sugar in their bread

Is anyone still feeling this?

Hi Mrsrisotto! Still feeling this as in still wanting to chat? If so, yes please! I've been sugar free for four weeks (again). I wanted to lose some wait, and also needed to eat healthier as I have high cholesterol. I've done this before but was well and truly off the wagon! It's been made easier this time by trying to cook lots of new healthy meals and I've felt a lot more satisfied and not wanted sugar as much. My initial target was Valentine's Day so I will be having some sugar at the weekend and then again at my birthday on 25th. Really hoping that this time I can get properly into the mind set that sugar is just for special occasions. This week might be quite hard though, as I'll be doing pancake day without Nutella for the first time in a long time!

Hi 2madboys! I was starting to think I had killed the thread.
Good job for climbing back aboard the wagon! Have you found any new awesome recipes? I'm a bit on a treadmill with mine, getting a bit repetitive.

I read the other day that a good way to survive cravings is to tell yourself that you'll have it another day. So you're not saying no, but you're telling your body that it isn't important right now. Interesting idea and i've certainly found it helpful to say I will have X, Y or Z on holiday, or my birthday or other special occasion.

I've been stealing ideas from the Dorothy Camper blog. She's been posting her meal plan for the week most Sunday afternoon. A lot are from BBC Good Food, but obviously they have tons of recipes, so easier to let her do the work. Mostly just fairly simple, healthy recipes. I've also just got a new food and nutrition book, called Fitter Food, so planning to try some of the recipes from that as well. DH needs gluten free so most of our main meals are gf.

Landing with a hefty thump!

Rather ashamed of the sugar gest that has become my life at the moment ...and feeling truly sick with it.

There's no point in me spending the fortune I spend on health supplements while poisoning myself at the same time.

I've just come back from two weeks in benidorm. I've enjoyed the excellent dark valour chocolate with nuts. Oh look, I've had a ball.

Sadly it didn't stop when ingot home. Woke up yesterday feeling awful and tearful. I'm sure my liver is right out of kilter again. Didn't stop me having 3 gluten free cakes yesterday morning and then feeling worse and unable to eat dinner.

So' that's it I'm off it now.

Did I really do 3 months last summer. Yes I really did.

Once I get rid of another headache from hell I will begin to feel much better!