First day no sugar - any helpful tips or hacks?

[LadyHalesBroach]

After a weekend of booze and Easter eggs, and a year of increasingly bad eating habits, I have gained two stone.

I have a terrible sweet tooth, drink every day (G&T or wine) and a 9pm snack attack that I could set a watch by.

Any tips to go low/no sugar??

You will get horrible cravings in the first week of no sugar but it becomes manageable and unnecessary soon afterwards. I have found however that as it happens with alcoholics I cannot have sugar at all without going back to square one.

The 9 pm cravings are because your meal times are out of schedule. Start having a good breakfast in the morning and in the same way you don’t feel hungry in the morning, you will stop feeling hungry at bedtime.

Wine or gyn everyday... that’s were your main problem is. Reducing drinking to social occasions would help you lose weight, balance your hormones and feel better very soon.

Have some sugar free chewing gum or brush your teeth when you get the urge to eat sugar.

As previous poster said, once you get sugar out of your system, you stop craving it as much. Also, naturally sweet foods like bananas become so much tastier and more enjoyable once you stop with all the processed food.

Fill up on wholegrains and lots of veggies at mealtimes and you shouldn’t feel the urge to snack.

Look into sugar free chocolate or icecream. They will be sweetened with Stevia or something similar. I found that helped with the sweet tooth, when I went off sugar.

When I get sugar cravings in the evening, I’ll heat up some skimmed milk and add a splash of sugar free Crusha milkshake mix. It fills me up, stops me raiding the cupboards and makes me sleepy!

The Light and Free Greek style yogurts are sugar free (apart from the fruit) and less than 60 cal per pot. If I’m really peckish, I’ll stir in a spoon of oats, let them soak for a while and I find it really satisfying.

Toddler rice cakes like these www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/302000819 are flavoured with fruit juice and hit the spot if you’re craving something crunchy or need a portable snack.

Get Coke Zero or something similar in. Helps me to have one or two a day to get back on the straight and narrow. I drink a lot of tea too. Lots of fluids in general really, especially water. To flush all the toxins out.

If the rest of the family are having pudding, either get up from the table and make yourself busy, or sit with them and have a nice coffee. If you’re not a coffee drinker, try sucking a square of dark chocolate instead.

Honesty? If you are addicted and moderation leads to binges then the only way is to cut it out completely. Go cold turkey . Low carb high fat helps with the cravings initially and the worst of the cravings should be fine in about a week.
Follow sugar addiction groups on FB for support (Sugar bomb your brain is really good)
I've had years of trial and error with attempting to cut back rather than abstain. I've now been sugar free for months and feeling free and happy.

Also other tips: l-glutamine after meals for the first few days (break a capsule under the toungue) plenty of sleep, drink enough water, get rid of sugar in the house or lock it away.
Have a tick chart for everyday you succeed and just carry on if you have a bad day.

thanks these are all so helpful - I also love the idea of ticking each day off, like a star chart. I'll put that next to my 4 year old's.

I'm just so spotty, I have terrible mood swings, I don't sleep well and get into a bad cycle of being too tired and propping myself up with sugar, then not sleeping well because I have too much sugar in my system. I have an insane job, working full time from home with a bored DD.

But this is all really inspirational, thank you so much. Going to eat a massive plate of veggie crudités and humous for lunch and push through the need for a biscuit.

BRING IT ON!

If you're dying for pudding have strawberries and double cream. Or other berries, or full fat Greek yoghurt. They're all low-carb and low sugar, and they feel like a proper pudding.

I second having raspberries or a sugar free jelly with double cream. Have painkillers handy as the headaches will be a killer as your body goes into withdrawal. They will probably start tomorrow rather than today though.

It feels great when you come out the other side and you are no longer a slave to your addiction and appetite.

When I quit processed sugar I had a horrible first week including a few days of really, really bad diarrhoea. I don't know if that was sugar withdrawal related or I'd coincidentally caught a bad stomach bug at the same time. So be prepared for it to feel really tough initially.

After that it was a lot easier. I decided to quit processed sugar not naturally occurring sugars in whole foods. So I satisfied my sweet tooth with lots and lots of fruit and fruit based sugar free baking. I came to absolutely love Baby led Weaning type recipes, so banana oat pancakes and date sweetened baked custard became my regular breakfasts/suppers and I have lots of home made smoothies as one of my meals. I naturally became less hungry as I stopped chasing blood sugar spikes and found myself eating more protein and less simple carbs. I'm not wild on most artificial sweetners but sugarfree gum was very helpful at times.

Quitting processed sugar was honestly one of the very best things I've ever done in my life. The effect on my health and wellbeing has been enormous. Shortly after I got back to a healthy weight, I started skating too and the pleasure and rush I get from that has completely overtaken any sugar addiction. I have Candida at the moment so can't have sugar without instant cravings but other than that, since I started skating, I've been able to reintroduce sugar as I can enjoy some nice chocolate every now and then and completely live without it the rest of the time, as my brain gets it's dopamine hit from skating.

I really liked davinas sugar free book loads of recipes and tips which helped me meal plan and make snacks so i resisted reaching for the chocolate!

I've been sugar free for 8 months now. Personally I'd avoid all the sweet substitutes like Coke Zero, stevia, etc recommended on this thread. Eat plenty of good fat, season your food well, eat plenty of good food and break your addiction to sweet. It will only take a few days. Once you're a bit stronger you could reintroduce artificial sweeteners but you may find that they are horribly chemically and over sweet.

How are you getting on? The first few days can be tough and can bring into sharp focus just how often you reach for sugar. A journal can help. I still write in mine most days.

thanks everyone. By 9pm on day 1 I massively caved and ate two little bags of party rings. So this morning they've all gone in the bin. I had a big plate of scrambled eggs and now i'm going to have another big lunch with lots of veg, and just try and not get distracted.

Definitely realised that if there isn't stuff in the house, i can't eat it.

I'm going to keep up the sweetener until the weekend and then take myself off that too. Not that I have much of it, just a bit of xylitol in my tea, which is rank anyway.

Following. Dropped it completely months ago but like another pp, once took a taste fell into the hole completely. Taste buds are destroyed from sugar at the moment. I like the tick each day, I'd love a day counter similar to Alan on!!

Things that have worked well in the past for me: one meal of vegetables ie soup or salad, three decent meals and no snacks-as they set me off for wanting more.. Three/four hours between meals suited me. Some of the Michael moseley recipes were handy to have prepared food that I knew was low carb and cal. It is weird the way it becomes easy with me but seems way too big a mountain to climb before starting.

With time not with me!

Just an update to say I’ve managed to push through to day 4. Had a mini victory, went round the supermarket with my 4 year old and didn’t buy a single snack item, sugary treat, nothing. (Bar a kinder egg for dd to keep her quiet)

I’ve never done that, there’s always something in the trolley for me as a treat.

Feeling pretty fatigued but not sluggish and bloated. No headaches. Weighed myself and already lost 2lbs, though no doubt that’s just water!

Anyway, thanks for the tips, they’ve really helped!!!!