Giving up sugar for January, maybe longer

[GrumpyOldBag]

I have decided to try giving up sugar.

Anyone else tried this?

I am going to continue eating fresh fruit, but not dried or juice.

No processed foods containing sugar.

And obviously no fizzy drinks - but don't drink those anyway.

Anyone tried doing this? Can I have honey on my porridge?

I think dry wine & vodka OK?

Anyone got any advice to share? Thanks

No weight loss for me this week despite sticking to plan. Am hoping loads comes off next week! Still have managed 16lbs in four weeks so overall can't complain.

Yes, I have to keep reminding my self that I've lost a stone in just over a month! Even if it has slowed a bit now.

Some great losses there. There's always significant weight loss at the start of any new way of eating, I find, and then it really slows down so you do have to try not to get disheartened. I'm coming up to four weeks of no caffeine, alcohol, refined sugars or processed foods and to start with I was pretty much dropping a lb every day - crazy! But that soon stabilised and now each day I'm either the same or just a few ounces down on the previous day. I know I shouldn't weigh daily but it's part of my morning regime

I agree- I think we're all starting to plateau a bit. I think I need to watch my portion sizes, though. I think my dinners have started to creep up a bit!

I've added a couple more miles to my thrice weekly cycle and on Fridays I'll be doing a 1 1/2 hour cycle so hopefully that will help as well.

I'd suggest thinking about adding satisfying protein to meals. Lentil dhal / lentils in soups / chickpeas added to stews or in curries. Eggs (scrambled/ poached / boiled). All of these will help to fill you up and provide great nutrients for your bodies.

Anyone who has lost a stone in a few weeks shouldn't be disappointed if they don't lose for a week or so, you've already done great, and it would be a bit unlikely for the weight loss to continue at that rate... You're still a lot better than when you set off and still going strong, pat yourself on the back and keep going. It will start coming off again soon,

Wow, these weight losses are really amazing, Well done!

Maybe everyone else does this, I've only just discovered it and it's been a taste revelation: you can poach eggs in soup, then have delicious soup and poached egg all together. Just bring the soup (I recommend roast vegetable) to the boil, crack an egg or two in, put the lid on tightly, turn the heat down to very low and leave for about 5/6 minutes. So simple but tasty.

Flyme I love that idea, I struggle a bit with getting enough protein.

Flyme, I've been meaning to try a soup like that - I have seen recipes for egg drop soup (maybe an American thing as hadn't heard of it until recently). Thanks for reminding me!

A quick question ladies, when I'm looking at packets, it's the carbohydrate that sugars that counts (aside from actual sugar, which I'm obviously looking for)? Just I usually use Teaco's wild rice, which is easy cook white rice with 12% wild rice, and I bought brown rice this shp, thinking it would be better, but it has more carbohydrate that sugars than the wild rice. So I'm wondering if I can just stay with the wild rice?

I just look at the ingredients list and if it has sugar/dextrose/glucose/etc etc in it then it's a no go. I don't know about the carbohydrate sugars thing.

I only look for added sugar. The sugar in rice from carbs is glucose so ok.

My brown rice says per 100g:
Carbohydrate 74g
Of which sugars 0.6g

So that's only a teeny tiny amount of sugar and nothing to worry about.

My brown rice says carbs 74g of which sugars 1.3g
My wild rice says carbs 77g of which sugars 0.3g
My white rice says carbs 77g of which sugars a trace.

So there's not much in it really, is there? I just thought brown was meant to be much healthier. Even weightwatchers say choose brown, but I can't particularly see any reason why it's better from looking at the nutritional values. I think I will stick with the wild rice that I enjoy most.

For carbs I want to eat I am aiming for low GI to keep my blood sugar levels on an even keel. I found this online;

White rice, boiled GI 72
Quick cook white basmati GI 63
Steamed brown rice GI 50

I believe low GI is below 55

It also had - Parboiled Converted white rice (Uncle Ben's®) GI 38 but I am not sure you can get it over here but I will investigate.

The advice is that you should look for sugars to be below 5g per 100g - so all the types of rice should be fine.

I'd go with brown rice which has the highest fibre content.

For contrast - I checked the Fruit 'n' Fibre DH has for breakfast every day which is marketed as a 'healthy cereal.' It is 24g sugar per 100g - that's almost a quarter!!

Thanks all re the rice.

Yes Grumpyoldbag, Fruit and Fibre is frightening, it's what I usually have, although it's the dried fruit that bumps the sugar up. I've just run out, so onto porridge from now on! We also have Crunchy Nut and Coco pops in the cupboard, which were 37g! My dad has Shreddies or plain Special K, which were about 15g.

It's my weigh in day, only a lb off this week, so a total of 6lbs in three weeks. Doesn't sound much, but clothes are noticeably looser, in fact I reckon I have more than dropped a dress size. A friend said my face looks thinner and asked if I'd lost weight yesterday. I wish I'd taken measurements before I started.

Well, after my point gain last week I was down 2.5lbs this week so am pleased.

I did a 17 mile cycle on Friday and at the last three mile mark ran into a flipping hail storm, right at the start of the one big hill! I battered through that just to find that the hail had turned to heavy snow on the other side- argh!! It was lying thickly in the path, I could barely see and ended up covered in snow. So so cold!

At least no other cycle will be as bad as that one.

That's good you're continuing to lose weight noofly I've plateaued but been ill a lot this month

Blimey noofly, you well and truly deserve that loss. Well done!
My daughter made some lovely chocolate brownies yesterday, so had a small one, and another v small one today.
Also made a rhubarb and apple crumble today, and I intend to have a small serving of that too.
The main thing for me, is sticking to healthy meals and the basic principles of making sure if I'm eating sugar, that I know about it, and it's home made so that I'm not eating them in processed / packaged foods or without realising :-)
And that I don't allow a small piece of cake to spiral off into a full on sugar / chocolate binge

I agree Dotty, you've got to live. It doesn't matter if you have the odd thing as long as you get back on track. I went out last night and had big fat fish and chips with s scoop of luxury caramel ice cream afterwards. I've been good for three weeks, I'm not going to beat myself up for last night.

No fly well done! And as for that bike ride, phew! Rather you than me, but thats gotta do some good. It's been snowing here all weekend, I could barely get the dogs outside and the horses queued to come back in the stables. We've all laid low in front of the fire.

Noofly wow! That sounds hardcore. I was thinking about starting c25k but over the weekend it was 2degrees with driving rain and sleet and I decided no way, not yet.

2lbs down so 13lbs in 4 weeks.

I agree that I will want to reintroduce sugar at some point. Just now I am still avoiding sugars as much as I can, my plan is to maintain this till Easter and then maybe join the No S board so I am only have treats at the weekend rather than a daily occurrence.

Noofly and Lucked, well done on the losses. Noofly very impressed with the 17 mile cycle!

I e lost 3lbs this week, very pleased especially after not losing last week.

Well done ASD! I lost 1lb this week. I have started logging on MFP, and I am eating well within my calorie max- 1300-1400 a day. And I ran 4 times last week!

Thanks everyone and well done ASD and Lucked! I really do love to cycle. I am very slow but can go quite far. I get passed by loads of Lycra clad men and just ignore them in my Mickey Mouse sweatshirt.

I'm also adding the odd bit of sugar now on a Saturday. I did the 6 weeks sugar free but to keep it sustainable long term, I need some sort of treat to look forward to so the Christmas chocolates from DH are finally slowly being eaten. I've also switched DC onto a no biscuits during the week routine and am not buying any. Instead I'm baking on a Friday and letting them have the odd biscuit over the weekend. I realised they'd slipped into a biscuit eating snack habit when they got home from school which I've now stopped.