Tomorrow I quit sugar

[OuchBollocks]

I am OuchBollocks and I am a sugar addict. Not for me one square a day or a frozen curly wurly to take the edge off, no. I have it, I eat it, I want it more.

Last year I quit sugar for New Year, and stayed off minus one or two teeny slips until I got pregnant with DS, then being off alcohol and caffeine combined with the summer heat made the lure of a cold Fanta too hard to resist. Then I broke my leg and was bed bound and in pain and people brought chocolate to the hospital, and the meals all came with dessert, and then I had DS and more chocolate, then Easter and more chocolate, and although I've managed to drop a dress size so far with the 5:2 diet I need to jack in the white stuff. I am going to Ibiza in September '18 and I want to feel confident.

God help me,it's going to be hard. The rules are:
No sweet drinks, including artificial sweeteners
No chocolate, sweets, icecream, cake, sorbets, pastries, jam, marmalade etc etc
No crisps
Read labels of sauces carefully to check sugar levels.

I will update this thread for my own personal records. I am going to kiss sugar goodbye with the slice of cheesecake that is waiting for me after dinner. Goodbye sugar, it's been fun :(

Goodness, I'll bow out now.

All the best everyone

Granola.

100g large rolled oats
10g shredded coconut.
20g pumpkin seeds
20g flaked almonds
20g pecan nuts
55g flaxseeds
20g almond flour
1 tbsp stevia
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
Pinch of salt
55g almond butter
70g unsalted butter
2 tbsp natural yoghurt to serve.

Preheat oven to 160*c.
Put coconut, pumpkin seeds, almonds, and pecans in food processor and pulse to break up. Transfer the mixture to a bowl, add flaxseeds, almond flour, stevia, spices and salt. Mix well.

Melt butters, pour over ingredients and stir well. Spread into a large roasting tin. Bake for 15 mins until golden. Leave to cool. Shake to break up.

Can be stored in an airtight jar for up to one week.

Doesn't actually sound too difficult. Although I might just use regular butter for it all, and I've no idea what stevia is!

Stevia is a sweetener made from a plant.
My morning "granola" is a bunch of nuts and seeds with cinnamon poured over plain youghurt and eaten with some berries. Not as glamorous but still recommended!

holiday hooray really good to know that taste buds change and we will lose the taste for sugar eventually!

going rogue we always eat together as a family too; I do think it is good for DC to do that when time/jobs allow

Thank you ThechampagneGalop.

i know I have an unhealthy reliance on sugar. And I know that it's a vicious cycle.

In the past I've managed short stints of very low carb, which is obviously also very low sugar, and the results are amazing, in how I feel, how I look but I always felt I was balancing on a knife edge and would inevitably revert.

For me, I think the focus has to be on balance - I can't envisage being able to sustain a way of eating that excludes rice, pasta, bread or potatoes. I also don't want to eat drastically differently to dc.

So, I think my approach has to be the cut out the worst things: chocolate, sweets, cakes, biscuits etc.
Reduce the rice, pasta, bread, potatoes.
Utilise the things I love (outside of those two groups): avocado, nuts, cheese, salmon, eggs, yogurt, fruit and veg.

Holidayhooray if you're still around I'd just like to say I found your posts really helpful, so thank you. You look wonderfully healthy and I'm sure you know that bmi is not the definitive measure of health.

DCI I agree with you. I couldn't imagine life without pasta, rice or bread, and I don't feel I need to give them up (I eat loads!). It's the sweet and processed crap I want to eliminate.

Its true that your tastebuds change. I'm a long haul stewardess, I drive from London to Manchester after a flight. I used to swear by two cans of Redbull driving home, plus a bag of sweets. I'd been doing that 15 yrs. yet it turns out, once sugar was out of my system, I'm fine on a latte and a box of grapes, and I don't get the highs and lows of tiredness, even in this job!

I am going to join you all on Monday. On holiday this week. Have also given up Facebook!

Cantseethewoods it wasn't one of those, it was a a Cauldron vegan burger. Had beans, nuts, cauliflower and spices in so didn't taste like meat at all. Was nice though. I'm not vegan but I don't eat too much meat so eat a lot of veggie/vegan stuff

Afternoon, all!

Today I've had:

B: Peanut butter sandwich
L: Greek yogurt and blueberries
D: Tuna salad and then more yogurt
Snack: 6 cheese oatcakes and a babybel

Will probably have another snack later too! Maybe another peanut butter sandwich because I'm staaaaarving today. 😑 Very carby but we made the bread ourselves so there's zero sugar added in that, at least.

Seems like we're all doing well 👏🏻👏🏻

Hmm well it's only been a couple of hours....

Ive had -

B- yoghurt and grapes
L- Homemade Butternut soup. Small multi seed bread roll and butter.
S- Two apples.
D- Ginger, garlic and lemon salmon with ratatouille and wild rice.

Copious amounts of instant coffees and a few herbal teas. I'm feeling "back on it" again, which is nice after a month of feeling I'd let go. That's down to you guys and this thread.

honeyroar thanks for the granola recipe I actually nipped to Sainsbury's this afternoon and found that Lizi's low sugar stuff so bought a bag of that for now. Will enjoy making some from scratch soon though.

Sounds like everyone is doing well Here's my day:

B: Shreddies and berries. Tea.
S: Tea. Half a dark choc digestive. Was going to beat myself up about it, then remembered how well I've done these past few days and got a grip.
L: Omelette with mushrooms, spring onion, chilli, and a smattering of ham and cheese. Side salad. More tea.
S: a peach. More tea
D: creamy mushroom pasta. Fresh pineapple.

I slept a lot better last night, didn't wake with hunger pains. I think having a banana with my Greek yoghurt at 9pm helped, so will have that again tonight with maybe a tablespoon of granola on top.

humanfemale I'd be starving too if I only had fruit and yoghurt for lunch! Kudos for making your own bread.

Right, was going to start watching Celebrating Masterchef tonight, but now thinking it'll be torture !? Anyone else watching?

Just caught up on this thread. Going to enjoy my last birthday chocolate in a minute......

Sorry that was meant to be funny but was probably a bit unfair! This thread is great really supportive :)

Yes, I've just been to Tescos and they had Lizi's granola too, plus another low sugar brand of granola called Rude Health, which is slightly less sugar again. So I will test them both!

Human female do you use a breadmaker? I've got one that I've never used, but I need to start - I want to know exactly what I'm eating.

Bread made in the bread maker is lovely but i always want loads of butter! I've got about a stone to lose and my blood sugar level is too high. I'm not going to cut carbs to start with as that would be setting me up to fail.

Sorry forgot to say my name is Whatshouldmyusernamebe and I am such a sugar addict.

Hello! Welcome. I've still eaten carbs and lost weight, plus lost the sugar cravings etc. I just cut out crap and processed. I'm having more fat than I used to on previous diets - full fat yoghurt and butter instead of low fat spreads, it's better for you and more filling.

The plan with making bread is that I can make the mix in the machine and then do small rolls. I throw a lot of bread away at the moment.

Good idea. Granary bread in the bread machine is gorgeous. I will switch to brown pasta and brown rice. Quite happy to do that.

I made this soda bread last month. My friend makes it and it's gorgeous (My first attempt was edible but could do with improving! See pic).

I only used half the ingredients as just wanted one small loaf. Also added salt, and my friend uses 100g spelt and 350g wholemeal. I didn't have spelt so just used all wholemeal. Oh, the warm water doesn't have to be filtered, and using a loaf tin is fine. Hope that all makes sense.

So full fat Greek yoghurt with berries is a good call? I like honey Greek yoghurt but that's not going to be acceptable is it!