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 :(

But when you don't eat them you will feel even more empowered and proud of yourself when all this has blown over and things are calm again...

Yes stay strong Ouch, you can do this. Day going well so far for me despite day number six of awful headaches. Egg and toasted flatbread for breakfast and just munched the gorgeous Lizi granola with blueberries, raspberries, flaked almonds and Greek yogurt - yum. Drinking a berocca drink as starting work in September in foundation so want to guard off coughs and colds! Feeling really positive about quitting sugar at the moment - long may it last. How is everyone else today?

Going I'm going to try to have it in September. There's never going to be a good time and otherwise it'll just be looming there in the future. I'm not in a huge amount of pain other than after about 8k of a run, but it won't get better and may lead to arthritis, hammer toe, claw toe etc. My friend said "Well it's less rehab time than being pregnant and at least you can drink" .

Anyway, low sugar wise I'm 9 days in and feeling pretty good. My appetite seems to have died off a bit and I don't get so monstrously hungry. Think I've lost about a lb, which is fine. I didn't expect fast loss as I only have 3kg to lose to get to what I think of as my fighting weight. The main thing is I feel really zen and calm. Long may it last- 2 kids parties tomorrow so that will be the test- ha ha.

honeyroar I read your reply at 12.37 quickly and thought you were referring to OuchBollocks's children when you said about not eating them! Did you manage to dodge the shortbread Ouch? It's so so hard not to reach for the sugar when you're tired. Are you looking forward to the visitors?

Cantseethewoods good luck for the operation next month! That made me chuckle about the alcohol thing (your friend has a good point). Fair play being able to run 8km, I'm impressed.

OvercomeByGravity hate it when technology lets me down! Your food sounds yummy. Glad you enjoyed the museum

This bored panda "article" came up on my Facebook feed last night and made me sigh...what do you guys think?

food comparisons

I actually think it's really irresponsible to give the impression sweets and almonds are the same

Oh, was checking the sugar levels in bread. The Best of Both stuff I usually get has 4.0g, but found this new high protein stuff which is only 2.0g. Will let you know what it's like.

Lol, probably best not to eat the children either, although they are generally sugar free!

That article made me quite angry! What a load of rubbish.

I've had a productiive day. I'm on my part time block, so at home for 10 days, so I tend to get a lot of cooking for the freezer done and generally the bulk of my housework! So I've cooked a huge ratatouille, which is the base of most things I eat, and a big I've just been out with the dogs for an hour and a half. Now to cook a carbonara for my husband and a veggie version for me.

Today , so far I've eaten

B - Lily's granola with blueberries and Greek yoghurt,

S - Banana, Apple, packet of hula hoops (hey ho!)

L - Lettuce and tomato sandwich on small buttered multi seed roll.

D - Pasta with Parmesan, cherry toms and basil.

S - Greek yoghurt and grapes.

Overcome, well done on surviving your day out healthily. Once you realise you can do these things sensibly and hopefully tastily, it becomes easier.

Cantsee I envy you only having a little to lose. But it's a sensible way of eating too. My husband has done it with me in a less strict way, he needs to put weight on ideally, but never can (we are like Jack Spratt and his wife!!), yet I've lost a fair bit of weight and he hasn't.

Didn't eat shortbread, didn't eat kids, phone ate a big post so will write more later. Hi everyone. Good luck for the weekend, the weekend is long and full of dangers.

Today has been pretty meh. Had scrambled egg and a small slice of wholemeal toast for late breakfast/lunch.

Salmon was planned for tea, but husband is gonna be late back and I'm tempted to just ask him to stop at the chippy on the way home.

Feel really fatigue and whilst I felt a bit off this morning, I was more positive than I am now. Just had a handful of cashew nuts to try and ease off my hunger.

Nothing wrong with a chippy tea once in a while littlepig, in fact fish and chips fits fairly well with the JERF principles - its just fried spuds and fried fish fillet with a bit of batter, not processed at all. Have some mushy peas on the side and keep an eye on portions, no problem at all.

I agree. I've had fish and chips a good few times on this plan over the last few months. It's fine once in a while.

Same for you Ouch, it's fine to enjoy yourself with friends for a weekend. Just make the best choices you can, but even if you can't/don't know that you'll pick it up again on Monday and don't make it a failure or big issue. It's only a failure if you do it every day...

Have a good weekend.

My Friday fish and chips gets me through the week. Sure it would be healthier if I ditched it, but there are only so many little joys in life and I'm already cutting out chocolate!

OvercomeByGravity was the other thing that malnourished woman cut out...erm...sugar?! Not surprised she was hospitalised.

honey what dogs do you have? I would love to get one one day. Are you vegetarian?

OuchBollocks your "the weekend is long and full of danger" made me grin! (Do you watch GoT? I read it in Melisandre's voice). I've got my wanky Kilner glass filled with ice, fresh lime and Evian. Rock n roll.

Littlepig8834 I had a bit of a tired and down day yesterday. I'm sure you'll feel better tomorrow...enjoy your fish & chips.

My food today was ok:

B: bran flakes and granola. Tea.
L: Cheese sandwich, strawberries, melon.
S: babybel and two crackers. Cup of tea and a dark choc digestive (whoops).
D: Chicken curry with a small portion of rice (I used the Tilda stuff which is 60/40 white/wholegrain) and lots of veg.
S: Greek yoghurt and melon, a few flaked almonds, chia seeds and a pinch of chopped dates (whoops again, but I'm not ready to be mega strict).

Think I'll prob have a cuppa and an apple later. Have been waking up hungry at 3am these past two nights again. And still have a headache, though that's only come on again this eve.

Have a good weekend all!

going it was intended to be read in Melisandre's voice, I wondered if anyone would notice

My mum's flight landed, hand luggage only, over an hour ago. The airport is literally 10 minutes from my house. Where the hell is she?

GoingRogue I'm a veggie who occasionally eats fish (although ready to stop that too now). I'm also a huge Game of Thrones fan too. We've got two rescue labs and a Romanian fluffball rescue. I'm a sucker for animals, we've also got two cats, two horses and some hens!

Ouch it can easily take an hour to get off a plane, through the airport and through customs (unfortunately!).

Didn't have the fish and chips. DH couldn't be bothered to go out after coming home late and I was mid hair dye so not in a fit state to go out for them.

Had the salmon, which was nice.

Farmers market tomorrow, perhaps a chippy tea too

Hi everyone. That article is ridiculous. Of course flavoured water has calories ffs. I've not started yet but not long to go. Have orthodontist on Monday so that will be a few days of soup and weetabix which will give me a kick start! Are people having sweetener? I know it's bad for you but I love my tea and need something sweet in it!

Hello Whatshouldmyusernamebe. Sweetener is a no because they keep the desire for sugar in your brain, so I've read. You'd be better trying to drink something else for the first week or so, once you haven't had sugar for a while your tea will probably taste fine without it.

I was thinking about that article - I used to eat fruit pastilles driving up and down to London because they were low points on ww, whereas nuts were a no no.

Ouch did your Mum make it to you ok?

honey you have a small holding by the sounds of things I love love love GoT.

Whatshouldmyusernamebe I think most of us are giving up sweeteners too. We're trying to JERF - Just Eat Real Food. I've done Slimming World in the past, and they're sweetener crazy. I used to have it in my tea, have low-fat yoghurts with it in, and drink Pepsi Max. Switched back to real sugar a couple of years ago, as managed to go from two teaspoons to half in my tea. For now I've given up Pepsi Max, but am still having the odd glass of weak Robinsons no-added sugar squash, which obvs has sweetener in it.

I started a thread about tea and trying to go without sugar in it; will pop a link up in a sec. Some useful tips in it. How much sugar do you have in your tea atm? I'm going to brave it and try going without over the next few days - wish me luck!

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/3008687-Which-brand-of-tea-bags-are-naturally-sweetest

At the end of the thread, someone recommends books by David Gillespie called Sweet Poison. Has anyone here read them?

I keep thinking about that ridiculous article too! I was reading the comments and nodding along to those people saying things like how they could eat a whole big bar of milk chocolate, but not dark.

My mum turned up not long after I posted. It was a domestic flight, hand luggage only so no customs or baggage reclaim but she went to tesco with my aunt instead of coming straight here. We've had a lovely evening. Night everyone.

Glad she turned up Ouch.

Someone on a previous sugar thread in January swore by a book called The Case Against Sugar (can't remember the author) and I bought it. It was good but too scientific for me. The Paul McKenna latest hypnotherapy book about sugar had the same facts and reasons in it in a much simpler way, I found it really interesting. I never bothered with the techniques and cd, but it may be helpful.

For example (these are from The Case Against Sugar) they got rats addicted to sugar, cocaine and heroin (poor little things) and when given a choice of all three they went for sugar 100% of the time. There was also a section about how sugar in food was put in cereal initially, as people put sugar on top and they thought it would make life easier, but then they noticed that it got people addicted to their brand, so they added it to other stuff. Then they started using other terminology for sugar (fructose, sucrose etc) so it didn't look such a big ingredient in the lists. It also goes on about how fat was demonised over sugar to protect the food industry and its added sugar.

Anyway, I'm off to bed too. Night all.

(And yes Rogue we do live on a little small holding)

ok........dont hate me, but I actually thought the article was ok. I know jelly sweets and almonds aren't nutritionally equivalent but I think there is a case to say that dietary dogmas such as clean eating have made people think that so long as something is low sugar and unprocessed they can eat as much as they want. I also think people do underestimate things like the calories they add through dressings and don't realise that a frappucino is a calorie bomb and those breakfast biscuits are basically digestives in disguise.

I feel like diet convention has gone straight from "calories are the only thing that matters" to "calories don't matter at all" whereas I think the truth is in the middle and you sort of have to triangulate between calories, macros and portion size.

On sugar addiction, I personally believe it's more comparable to gambling than cocaine, in that most people who are addicted to sugar are addicted to the behaviour rather than being chemically addicted. If they were chemically addicted to sugar they'd prefer eating tbsp of sugar from the packet to a piece of cake. I don't say that lightly btw- there are plenty of excessive drinkers who aren't addicted to alcohol in the physical sense, for example. Like sugar, some of them manage to just cut down. Some say they can only do it by never drinking alcohol at all.

Final confession.........I'm still drinking Diet Coke.

I guess it has to be a personal journey (ommmmm)