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 :(

Essay away honey, it sounds dreadful. No wonder you're stressed and shattered. Do you want to tell us what you've been snacking on, and we can help you choose some alternatives that will help you feel less sluggish and avoid big crashes? for you

Sorry to hear things are tough honey. It’s really hard when you can’t get into any sort of routine or normality.

Thanks guys.

I didn't have much routine in my life even before all this. I've weighed myself again, and am only (!!) 7lbs up, which sounds better. We had been away for the weekend to visit my stepson at uni (sounds awful, but mum was safe in hospital - I'm more worried when she's at home and only got us looking after her). So we'd been out for a lot of big meals, and that probably didn't help!

I've just been snacking on biscuits and crisps, then going onto chocolate in a "oh well I'm off it now!" Meal wise have still been healthy, but a good few have been missed.

Anyway, I'm trying to pick up the reins. I've cooked two huge soups this afternoon, so have 25 portions of healthy lunches in the freezer, that's a good start!

Yeah I don't know how you do it honey. I love aeroplane snacks, especially that salted caramel popcorn you get on the night snack trolley. I managed to keep that a secret from the dc and then once I was waiting with DS for the loo and the pilot came out and took a mars bar and then took the basket down off the side and told ds to help himself, so now they reject their meal because they know they can raid the "chocolate basket" later.

B: protein shake (I so want to finish the bag so I can change flavours)
L: carrot and coriander soup, vegetable crudities and humous (cucumber, pepper, celery and carrot), an orange, some fresh pineapple
S: cup of tea
D: mozzarella, tomato and avocado salad and half a baked potato (I discovered too late that we only had one so DH and I had to share it- tough times ). Cheeky vino.

Yesterday

B: protein shake
L: 1 babybel, 1 hard boiled egg, veg crudities and humous
D: Nepalese curry- sag aloo, prawn madras, lamb bhuna, chicken tandoori, veg biryani, naan and roti. So so good. Rotis were the best ever. 3 bottles of Kingfisher.

Might join ye if that's OK? Just finished 4 yrs college and have 3 stone up . Too much sugary coffee, crisps, quick fixes etc...I'm a sugar addict too and need to call a halt now

Hi everyone, my name is Taggy and I'm a sugar addict.

Oh, and I'm also a proficient thread-killer as well...

Hello to both of you. This is a slow thread anyway, but it keeps going, so don't worry if people don't reply straight away.

Ps, Johnny come lately I know the popcorn you mean. The white chocolate shortbread from the same basket is my downfall!

Yes yes, please come aboard. This is a very slow moving yet welcoming train.

I have had a fairly disastrous weekend on the diet quality front albeit not very bad on the sugar front (bar alcohol which was terrible). One piece of birthday cake on Saturday afternoon. However, the rest was pretty bad. Not enough veggies. Lots of meals out. I did get to the gym though, so that's something.

I read the book 'Sweet Poison' and it's really eye-opening how much sugar we are all consuming even in supposedly healthy food, really worrying!

I'm trying to reduce my sugar for 30 days because that is manageable for me, then I'll hopefully see benefits which will encourage me to keep going on low-sugar beyond that

Taggy For me, sugar consumption was definitely habitual. I also found that eliminating snacking basically eliminated 80% of the sugar I eat and in turn, massively reducing refined sugar stopped me wanting to snack. I realised that I'd basically been eating small meals so I had calories spare to eat crap. It was a bit of a leap of faith to actually increase meal size but it's totally paid off.

After about a month of yearning I cracked and had a hot chocolate yesterday. It was good to start with, but by the end it was way too sweet, so that is that for hot chocolate this winter.

Hello taggy, I may join you in reading that book to keep my motivation up :)

Hallo fellow sugar addicts,

I am thinking about giving up again too. Did it a couple of years ago for Lent and dropped a few pounds easily. I had chocolate for Easter and didn't even enjoy it! Then fell back onto the sugar train and never looked back...I'm going to try OP's no artificials and still eat fruit and drink juice. Has anyone gone hardcore and cut out all in direct sugar as well? I want to, but don't think I could manage being so rigid!

I have cut out all biscuits, cookies, ice cream, fizzy drinks, sweets and breakfast cereals except for Weetabix. I only eat dessert on a special occasion and have cut right back on sauces and dips etc. Still have bread/pasta/rice though. And crisps, but have realised I was eating more of them as a replacement for sweet treats, so am going to cut them as well.

Am not weighing or measuring myself until I've done one month, but I think I have noticed some improvement in my mood and energy levels - am hoping it is not just my imagination!

I still eat a fair bit of fresh fruit (2-3 portions a day), but I dont eat dried fruit or drink fruit juices (tbh this isnt a hardship as never really did eat/drink them beforehand). I do still drink artificially sweetened stuff because it doesnt seem to impact me negatively. I have a couple of cans of diet coke a day and also my daily protein shake is sweetened with Stevia.

For me, it was all about knowing that I just ate a lot of crap carbs. Therefore, I cut out/ massively cut down the obvious suspects that I knew I ate too much of - cake/ biscuits/ candy/ chocolate etc. I dont really eat ready made sauces anyway. I make my own salad dressing out of olive oil and cider vinegar, and because I live in Asia, condiments tend to be salty/ hot/sour rather than sweet.

I do sometimes still eat cakes and stuff, but I just make it occasional and when it's something really delicious rather than just eating oreos because I'm bored.

I still drink too much wine

Yesterday pretty typical

B: 2 cups of tea, protein shake (just the powder, ice and water)
S: Cup of coffee with full fat milk
L: Tuna sashimi and avocado tostadas and grilled cauliflower. Unsweetened iced tea (fancier than normal- business lunch)
D: Beef lasagna, mixed salad (spinach, avocado, tomato, cucumber)with olive oil/ vinegar dressing, broccoli. Glass of wine.

taggy I was supposed to give up crisps and failed miserably. I need to stop eating them, they're definitely hindering my weight loss. I've combined quitting sugar with 5:2 and I'm over a stone down since I started this thread.

That's brilliant Ouch, and a real incentive to keep going! I'm hoping to see weight loss after my month of low sugar to encourage me to keep going, but I'm doing it for health as well. Today had Weetabix for breakfast salad for lunch (did have some pasta with sweet chilli sauce with it though) and then Greek yoghurt and raspberries for a snack. Chilli con carne planned for dinner.

That's a great result ouch. Happy to see the thread starter achieving their goals. I always feel a bit sad when the OP disappears. Tbh, if you like crisps and can still lose weight eating them, I'd carry on. You need to have some treats to make it sustainable justifies own wine habit to self

Taggy The way I think about it is that low sugar can help weight loss because it helps regulate appetite/ reduce cravings (at least it does for me) but its not a magic bullet, so you just need to be careful that you're not replacing sugary snacks with other high calories snacks like cheese and nuts and actually ending up eating more calories. I love cheese and find babybels really useful as they're a good snack size and help portion control.

B: protein shake
L: babybel, humous and veg sticks, fresh pineapple
S: 2 carrots (v bare fridge)
D: baked salmon and mixed salad with a glass of wine.

Yea Johnny, I have fewer cravings now I'm on less sugar, which is good, but just have to be careful not to 'boredom eat'. That's always been when I'm most likely to reach for a sugary snack.

I've done 2 weeks now, 2 more and then I'll weigh and measure myself. Today was:
B - 2 slices toast with butter and a coffee
L - Weetabix
S - Greek yoghurt and raspberries
D - going out for dinner tonight, have already looked at the menu and planned low sugar options of the Brie starter and grilled salmon main (hopefully I'll not give into temptation later on!)

honeyroar how is your mum?

Hi, she's so so. Out of hospital and improving, but she's on steroids for two weeks and previously when she's been on steroids she's been fine but when she comes off them she's two steps back again. Next week will tell. But we keep falling out, it's so upsetting. I love her to bits and she does me, but we have always had our moments. She has been quite grumpy (with reason!) lately and I'm reacting too much. It's not good for either of us. And it doesn't help that when I come back upset (especially if tired) I end up comfort eating. I can feel and see the fat coming back. 🙁 I'm completely fed up. I'd done so well.

But going back to what you were discussing- when I was doing this well, I ate much more cheese and dairy than I had for years, plus tons of fruit portions each day, and the weight (and especially inches) still came off. I'm veggie, so that is probably a factor too.

You're not having an easy time, sorry to hear that. I think you probably have enough on your plate (not a good analogy on a thread about what we eat, I know!) looking after your mum at the minute and you shouldn't worry unduly about your weight at this time. I hope next week is easier than you're anticipating.

I did manage to stick to my menu choices this evening and didn't take dessert even though most people at the table with me did.

In the interests of full disclosure I did eat the chocolate that came with my coffee though, but that was crucial in preventing me leaping across the table and stabbing the diner opposite me with a pudding fork before running off with his chocolate fudge cake...