Giving up sugar for 21 days

[Ihaterain1]

I have been eating toomuch chocolate and sweets since the new year which resulted in putting on around 8 pounds. I am planning to reset my cravings by giving up sugar from tomorrow for at least 21 days. Anyone wants to join me?

I'd avoid popcorn though - it really is an empty carb

I would definitely recommend the Blood Sugar Solution diet. You don't need to follow it religiously to see tremendous benefits. I still used artificial sweeteners to start with, and I ate some unrefined carbs, as well as the odd dollop of cottage and a little bread. The big changes I made include:

Hardy any alcohol - this not only reduced my calorie intake but also left me sufficiently clear-headed to find the determination to stick with this new way of eating.

Absolutely no ultra processed foods - all meals are mostly plants plus circa 1/3 lean protein (mostly chicken, fish and prawns)

No bread other than an occasional Middle Eastern flatbread
No rice, pasta, porridge etc
No cheese or dairy other than cottage cheese

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blood-Sugar-Solution-10-Day-Detox/dp/1444751530

My main aim was to get healthy rather than lose weight, but I still lost 5 kg in just a few weeks. The big plus was that I felt neither deprived nor hungry.

I believe Jeannette Hyde covers similar advice in The Gut Makeover:

https://www.jeannettehyde.com/the-gut-makeover-uk

Both books include useful general information about nutrition and can be read for free via Internet Archive.

why no cheese or dairy? Thanks

So we're in. Day 1/21.
So far so good...
pancakes and satsumas for breakfast,
ham and salad sandwiches for lunch - with a sneaky bag of crisps (not usual for us... so need to not swap one evil for another),
dinner chicken risotto, unsweetened yoghurt and apple for pudding.

No sweets, no biscuits no syrup on pancakes etc. And I spent half hour clearing the kitchen of pickable sugars!

Hope everyone else is doing OK!

Cheese and dairy contain a lot of lactose, which is sugar and stimulates the production of insulin. Low fat dairy products are particularly rich in sugar, especially fat free yoghurts and processed cheese.

Small amounts of full fat Greek yoghurt and cottage cheese are fine. Aged cheese is not as bad as Babybels. Even full fat cream contains less sugar than 2% milk - but of course it's highly calorific.

I have finished my 21 days on Sunday, but i am carrying on being sugar free. I only have a square or two of dark chocolate ,but nothing else. I too have noticed over the years that if i have too much diary it literally sets me off to binge on sugary foods.
I don't eat flavoured yoghurts,no cheese, butter or cream (i have high cholesterol).
I do eat some natural greek yoghurt and cottage cheese, don't eat much fruit either as i don't like it anyway, just some blueberries and maybe an apple every couple of weeks, used to like red grapefruit, but always forget to buy it.

We are on day 6. Doing well. Teen told her friends at school yesterday and resisted the sweets they were offering so that's a big plus. They are seemingly supporting her too.

I'm trying not to change anything else yet as I don't want her to feel deprived and give up.

What are you doing to snacks.. noted above that popcorn perhaps isn't good... but thats filling a hole currently... so what else? We've got a watermelon and frozen slices of it ... but I'm concerned that's just switching one sugar for another...

A little fruit is absolutely fine, particularly if you reduce the serving size by eating some full fat Greek yoghurt with it, or a little cottage cheese.

my other go-to snacks are olives, berries (straw/rasp/blue/black), carrots and cantaloupe. Boiled eggs are great too. I also like those little red peppers filled with cream cheese that they sell at Lidl.

Quite often I make a salad of tinned tuna and finely chopped celery, peppers and spring onions, in a dressing of a little lemon juice and mayo and some parsley or basil. Delicious - I have a portion for lunch and eat the rest a spoonful at a time when I’m feeling peckish.

Are you still free of sugar? Did you lose weight?

I would say i am mostly sugar free still, but not super strict all the time, i eat dark chocolate though. I never drank alcohol anyway or neither was i eating cakes ,mostly the milk chocolate, biscuits and sharing bags of sweets were the problem. I haven't lost weight, but i have been off work for a few months and moving less. Hopefully i will lose some from September when i go back to work, i only have 4-6 pounds to lose.