Sugar free life!

[Taz]

Good morning. Day 3 begins with a headache. I think my body is starting to realise I'm not going to drug it.

Got very excited last night when I found out my raw chocolate bars have only 3g sugar (30g bars). They have no added sugar, wheat gluten and dairy free and made in Cornwall. And they are delicious! So I can still 'treat' myself but without damage. I only have one bar left in the fridge so I will have to schedule a trip to St Ives where the shop is. Such a hardship

 

[Taz]

Day three completed! Had a headache on and off all day and felt a bit funny this morning but otherwise doing OK.

Breakfast: whey protein shake with oats and peanut butter

Morning snacks: banana, 2 clementines

Lunch: coconut chilli and lemongrass rice

Afternoon snacks: marmite cheese, applewood cheese, 2 slices granary bread

Dinner: chicken chargrill with peas and carrots

Drinks: 3l water, herbal teas , 2 coffees (one full fat latte)

Total calories: 1623
Total sugar (not including fruit, veg or milk) 7g

 

[tipperary]

Sounds great, you are doing well and your food choices seem lovely. I was making Konjac pasta and quorn meatballs and used a jar of tomato sauce. I knew it had sugar but was shocked to find it had 10g of sugar per serving.

 

[Taz]

That's the trouble with jar /packet sauces, they do tend to be loaded with sugar. If you can make your own you can control what goes into it

 

[Taz]

Day four starts with another headache. I also woke with a bad neck and can't move it so I'm off to the chiropractor this morning.

No work today and I ran straight into another challenge as I had nothing here for breakfast. When I'm at work I take a protein shake with oats with me for breakfast. When I'm home I prefer to have a protein shake first thing to take my supplements with then I'll have something like scrambled egg, sometimes with bacon. I have no eggs so straight away I was wondering what to have, then I remembered I had granary bread so I had that instead. Note to self: go shopping.

I'm finding this easier than I thought I would. For everything I can't have there's loads that I can and everything I'm eating is full of flavour and filling.

I'm not going to lie, there are things I will miss like my tassimo caramel lattes. They have 10.5g sugar. Some of that will be from the milk and if I can work out how much is bad sugar I could probably still indulge after withdrawal although it's likely I will have one and I won't actually like them anymore!

This is my first day off since starting this so it will be a challenge in itself as I will be out of routine and around temptation. Staying strong and focusing on the bigger picture will be key today.

Tomorrow is weigh in day and I'm quite excited to see what happens. I've done very little exercise this week as the withdrawal has made my head a bit fuzzy and I want to ease it back in. My calories have gone up and the only real difference is no sugar.

Watch this space...

 

[Taz]

Apologies for today's rather erratic diary, the pain I woke with is a locked neck and is really rather painful. So much that I've felt a bit sick hence lack of morning snacks and lunch and made up for it with dinner.

Breakfast: 2 slices granary bread

Morning snacks:

Lunch: banana

Afternoon snacks: marmite cheese, applewood cheese

Dinner: chicken breast fillet, pigs in blankets, sweet potato fries

Drinks: 3l water, herbal teas , 3 coffees (two full fat latte)

Total calories: 1447
Total sugar (not including fruit, veg or milk) 6g

 

[tipperary]

Ouch sounds painful, hope it goes soon.

 

[Taz]

So do I! But I didn't reach for any sugary feel goods so focus on the positives

 

[Mini]

Hope you feel better soon Taz and well done on not reaching for the sugar.

 

[Taz]

Today's weigh in was all I needed to show in doing the right thing. Despite my calorie intake being higher this week I have lost 1.8lb. Considering how I've struggled with my weight this year and was still 3lb over my Christmas eve weight, that's most of the gain gone. Cutting the sugar really is the way to go.

So day five begins! If I'm feeling the effects of withdrawal it's being nicely masked by the pain in my neck. It's no better this morning and the pain is constant. I actually have no desire to reach for anything sugary so resisting isn't an issue.

I never thought I'd say this but, I'm really not missing sugar

 

[tipperary]

Brilliant, well done

 

[Taz]

Pretty pleased with myself right now. I'm at a training day for work and these things are always catered. I brought my own lunch with me and I'm surrounded by people with random sandwiches and donuts and I'm perfectly satisfied with my chicken and pasta. I visited the table once for crisps and ignored the other stuff

 

[Taz]

Day five ends and despite the high calories I'm pretty pleased. Good result on the scales, not being swayed by a free lunch and no snacking!

Breakfast: cheese and marmite panini

Morning snacks:

Lunch: pesto pasta, chicken breast, bag of crisps

Afternoon snacks:

Dinner: KFC popcorn chicken, flamin wrap

Drinks: 3l water, herbal teas , 2 coffees ( full fat lattes) protein shake

Total calories: 2105
Total sugar (not including fruit, veg or milk) 9g

 

[Taz]

Day six, calories still high but sugar low. You may notice my snacks are becoming less! I really don't feel as hungry as I used to and I'm getting properly satisfied from my food. This is actually quite liberating

Breakfast: cheese and marmite panini

Morning snacks: 2 cheddar cheese sticks

Lunch: 2 slices granary bread, egg & bacon sandwich filler

Afternoon snacks: sugar free jelly

Dinner: chicken & pepperoni bake, smokey paprika shake fries

Drinks: 3l water, herbal teas , 3 coffees (two full fat latte)

Total calories: 2076
Total sugar (not including fruit, veg or milk) 5g

 

[Taz]

Omg here's one for you Mini. Way better than yogurt!

As I'm having big meals today I'll only be having breakfast and dinner so I decided to have an afternoon snack. I put chopped pear, banana, clementine, grapes and raspberries in a bowl and poured double cream over it. Absolutely delicious and quite filling too!

 

[Taz]

Day seven and first week done! As I've said before, this has been easier than I thought it would be and I am not missing any of the cakes sweets or chocolate I had before. I am really enjoying my food, properly tasting it, and I only need to eat when I'm hungry. Right now I am quite stuffed after a yummy roast dinner.

Breakfast: fry up (bacon, eggs, fried bread, fried potatoes)

Morning snacks:

Lunch:

Afternoon snacks: bowl of fruit with double cream

Dinner: roast dinner (pigs in blankets, roast potatoes, stuffing, veg, gravy)

Drinks: 1l water, herbal teas , 2 coffees

Total calories: 2018
Total sugar (not including fruit, veg or milk) 8g

 

[Taz]

Now the first week is over in not going to post my food diaries but I will share any recipes or tips.

I definitely have a handle on the sugar now, next is to reduce my calories too which should come naturally as I settle into a 'normal' way of eating.

 

[Mini]

Well done Taz getting your first week over.

I have kept my sugar under 15g...10g is not so easy most days.

Omg here's one for you Mini. Way better than yogurt!

As I'm having big meals today I'll only be having breakfast and dinner so I decided to have an afternoon snack. I put chopped pear, banana, clementine, grapes and raspberries in a bowl and poured double cream over it. Absolutely delicious and quite filling too!

I love cream but it doesn't love me... I try and stay away from cream as it blocks me...I use quark on my fruit and have got to really like it.

 

[Taz]

Great that you've found something that works. I found a natural unsweetened yogurt yesterday that's good with fruit, the great dairy collective straight up natural live yogurt

 

[Taz]

Let's talk about chocolate!

I've always classed myself as a chocoholic but I've recently found this to be completely untrue. I was actually a sugarholic. It was the hit of the sugar I was addicted to not the brien stuff itself. However, I have discovered that I do like chocolate!

We've all got our favourite bars, whether its a flavour a shape or a texture but many on the market are actually identical inside the different packaging. A good example of this is at Christmas and easter when all the different shape chocolates come out in character packaging but what's inside is just normal chocolate. It's the association with the season depicted on the packaging that excites us here. But how often do we subconsciously convince ourselves that we are having something different?

The very sight of a bar of chocolate or just a wrapper switches on our reward centre. What it sees is the next hit. It doesn't care about the taste, only that it contains sugar.

So does chocolate have a place in a sugar free life........

Simple answer, yes! When your addiction is broken and you are no longer craving sugar there are options if you really want to still have chocolate. I can now stand in front of a chocolate display and it does nothing for me. But sugar aside, I still wanted to taste it. So I went in search of 'safe' chocolate that wouldn't put me back in addiction.

What did I find?

I'd already established that raw chocolate is naturally almost sugar free at only 3g per 30g bar. This is a bit of an acquired taste though so not a solution for everyone. Next I found a sugar free dark mint chocolate sweetened with xylitol. I would not recommend having this often as xylitol, while safe, should be an occasional use not every day.

I was sceptical but curious. It wasn't cheap but then I'm not going to be eating it regularly. When I got it home I just had to try it. Just one square was enough to tell me it was delicious! But with only 1.5g sugar per 100g there was no hit making me Wolf down the lot. After that one square I put it back in the cupboard for another day.

Does this mean I'm still a chocoholic?

No. No more than I would be a cheeseaholic or a breadaholic. The please from the chocolate was all in the taste which I really liked and without addiction I was able to control how much of it I had.

The benefit of dark chocolate is that it's naturally lower in sugar. The higher the cocoa content the less sugar it has. It's also near on impossible to eat too much of it. And more importantly for us females, when you get that craving at certain times of the month it's actually the magnesium you crave and not the chocolate itself. Dark chocolate is richer in magnesium so you need less to get what you need.

All good right?!