This topic contains 208 replies, has 29 voices, and was last updated by Rob in Recovery 7 years, 3 months ago.
@rob: Reducing or eliminating sugar does make a big impact; for me an ongoing education is around hidden sugar/glucose. Check out the impact of alcohol and other carbs/starches; they convert to glucose in our body giving a momentary endorphin rush and then set us up for a glucose crash that we counter with more glucose! YIKES; why bagels and muffins (marketing talk for CAKE) set us up for failure and weight gain. Big contributors to the Global Diabetes epidemic.
Best regards.
My experience with cutting out refined sugar is I can eat pretty much everything else. In fact I typically eat until I’m reasonably full or close to it. However in general I don’t eat nearly as often, I just don’t need too.
The only concern I had was with fruit, but I don’t seem to be able to eat enough fruit to cause me to gain weight. Even though there is a lot of fructose in some fruit I’m not sure that it is actually being well absorbed in to the bloodstream. I eat both whole fruit and dried fruit. When do eat a normal desert I often really notice the sugar rush now, I never used too. However with fruit I don’t really get that kick.
The impacts I noticed when I cut back on sugar:
* My hunger was greatly reduced. This is the main reason I was able to start experimenting with fasting. The difference was huge. I really suffered from hunger a lot on my eat less move more approach that wasn’t working.
* My waistline measured over my belly button started shirking very noticeably. I probably had a very fat liver.
* I started noticing a lot things are really sweet that I didn’t notice before, like salad dressings, etc.
* When I do eat more sugar like say I have desert two days in a row, the hunger comes back.
I’m sure the impacts and benefits vary a lot but it really made a difference for me.
If you haven’t already discovered Dr. Jason Fung, check out his 6-part series on “The Aetiology of Obesity” on youtube. It’s an outstanding lecture series which will give you insight on the science of insulin, the effects of sugar, and the benefits of fasting. He’s a brilliant communicator, with nothing to sell. Well worth your time.
Good luck with the next part of your adventure!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2016/12/17/i-tried-to-quit-sugar-but-failed-without-realizing-why/
Hi Rob, Just a bit of homework for you before you start your next challenge! May not teach you anything, but a light hearted read… (I was reading a newspaper today and saw this article and thought of you!)
Hi Rob,
Sounds like a great plan. It has to be ‘doable’ or as you say, you will fall right off the wagon.
I am being tempted by some home made Christmas Cake at present, but my desire for sugar has really diminished so much. I dont even feel like chocolate these days, just does not appeal and I used to love it and crave it. I also had some ice-cream today, a previous favourite ‘treat’ and an interesting thing happened – I could not finish it because it was so sweet!
Hi Rob,
Happy New Year and commiserations! Don’t beat yourself up too much, you know what happened so you can now fix it. The weight did not go on overnight and it wont disappear overnight either, long held habits don’t just vanish!
Quitting alcohol and coffee are one thing, but we HAVE to continue eating to survive. So its a contant challenge to make the right choices. We have all been there (actually I have been there tonight – had a great fast day, feeling determined all day after the xmas feasting got a bit out of hand, then went to a movie and came home so starving I ate some unplanned peanut butter!) Often its two steps forward then one step back, but progress will happen.
We just saw the new movie La La Land and really enjoyed it. The lead actors were perfect and the music was brilliant. Woody Allen will be jealous! Its incredible what people feel they have to take into a theatre to survive though, those boxes of flavoured pop corn are getting bigger! I was hungry but the movie made up for it!
Enjoy your day off, stay in bed if you must! Lazy days are underrated….
Hi Rob,
At least you are aware of your reactions and emotions (ie highs and lows). I think lots of people have the same problem, with varying degrees. At least you accept it and know it will pass. Comfort eating is a problem, but being aware is huge progress. Gradually you will replace the pleasure from food with other fun things.
Re the big weight swings, just a thought, are your scales really accurate? It is normal to go up and down pre and post fasts, but your swings seem really big. Also, I have found if I indulge in carbs, such as at Xmas, the weight seems to pile on quickly then fall off quickly. I assume it is mostly water, the carbs seem to hang on to water. Actual fat wont come and go so quickly.
Hope you are feeling brighter by now, we are onto Tuesday down in Aus by now!!
Just a few words of encouragement for your 17th week: keep on writing because you’re heading in the right direction. I do the same on my own thread. It’s a way to not forget my process and a reminder that I have committed to something utterly impossible — which I am making completely possible by simple things done every day. It helps me stay accountable.
Perfectionism is the enemy. Celebrate the successes and learn from and change what doesn’t serve you. We’ve all been there with that “last hurrah”, goodness knows. But you’re plugging away, and that’s going to make you a winner of this very non-race.
Happier 2017 to you!
I think it’s important to keep in mind that we’re human, and more importantly to allow yourself not to be perfect. I agree with what Lolly said about perfection, imo – striving for perfection is setting ourselves up for failure.
Success is not in NOT failing, success comes with continue with the journey in spite of the occasional obstacle.
Let’s be like Dory ‘Just keep on swimming!’ 🙂
Hi Rob,
Sorry to read you are struggling at present, we have all been there!
Try to get through one good fast day at a time, your confidence will grow. Just take it one fast day at a time.
I have maintained on 5:2 for over a year and some fast days can still be tough, but these always follow a sugar splurge. The less sugar I eat, the easier it is. Cravings really do diminish if you can avoid sugar\carbs. At present I am getting the xmas goodies out of my system and each fast gets easier.
You know you have to do this for your health, but the other benefits are fabulous. Your confidence will soar as you finally begin to feel in control.
Sugar is your last demon, you can do it. Just dont buy the stuff in the first place or if you find that too hard, buy smaller quantities of junk food. Slowly but surely those cravings will diminish and the less you have, the less you will want. Good luck Rob!
Hi Rob,
I started the 5:2 4 years ago and I am still here. There have been times when I have been weeks when I have not fasted and times when I have given up this way of life and then returned fatter and miserable. I would like to share with you what I have learned along the way and which I wish that I had known, it is up to you what you choose to do.
I wish that I had known that sugar consumption drives more sugar consumption not because we are weak but simply due to biology.Dr Robert Lustig(Fat chance, the hidden truth about sugar, obesity and disease)he is a paediatric endocrinologist and explains so clearly about how not all calories are equal, how sugar can cause illness even if you are not overweight, how many of our foods are filled with hidden sugar and how to avoid them. If you haven’t read the book, do so, I found it liberating.
I learned to read labels and make choices based purely on sugar content which I wish I had done sooner. A complete eye-opener if you consider that WHO guidelines are 24g sugar per day and I think that most people would struggle to get anywhere close to that unless they change the contents of their shopping trolleys.
Have a look at articles by Dr Aseem Malhotra(UK cardiologist) and my recent discovery because I kept hearing his name mentioned on these forums is Dr Jason Fung-a Canadian Nephrologist-The Obesity Code. He inspired me to try longer fasts, so I had a bash at x2 24 hour fasts(dinner to dinner) the week before Christmas and again the week afterwards and the result was that despite my 2 days of eating whatever I wanted..on the 1st January my weight was exactly the same.I put on 5lb last year and 10lb the previous 2 years.
Exercise is great on many levels but losing weight isn’t one of them. You cannot outrun your fork! I have staggered round a half marathon course and used a measly 1800 calories BUT consumed 3000 just to get round!
My dear friend who has been overweight all of her adult life, lost 4.5 stone last year simply by avoiding rice/pasta/potatoes/bread and fasting twice a week. She has done many mad diets but have changed her diet to one that avoids these refined carbs she now finds that she no longer wants them or enjoys them. At a guess I would say that she has another 3 stone to lose which should bring her into the right weight for her height bracket.
According to Fung our bodies have a set weight that they try to be, which is why losing weight can be so difficult but he claims that the solution is 2 part, one is to reduce refined carbs, sugar, stress and increase sleep..and the second half is to fast regularly. No snacking between meals either.
Have a look at what you eat each meal and see what improvements you can make. If you are struggling then post on here and see what we can come up with.
I hope this helps. Don’t give up.
Glad to hear that longer fasts are working well for you.
It really doesn’t matter what the ‘done thing’ is, it only matters what you are doing. My friend(who has lost loads) has finally stopped calling it a diet and now says that this is how she eats now.
Sugar is a problem for many of us, you are not alone.I loved sticky Toffee Pudding with a passion but this time last year I reduced my tea consumption overnight from 7/8 mugs to 3. It had nothing to do with sugar at all, I had seen a programme that shocked me about how much caffeine i was getting through in a day. What I hadn’t considered was that 1 tsp of sugar/mug=35 tps of sugar less a week!
I found that if I had a pudding at work it made me feel very tired in the afternoon. So I ditched puddings for a week to see how I felt and it may not surprise you to hear that I felt much much better. Then I thought that I would have a pudding to see if that had any effect on me..I felt lousy, struggled to keep my eyes open whilst looking for my next sugar fix.
I then looked at the sugar content in everything and if sugar(in all of its 40+ guises) was in the top 5 ingredients then it stayed in the shop.I learned to make a tomato pasta sauce that had far less sugar in it, I stopped buying anything ‘diet’ or ‘low fat’as they are invariably stuffed full of the white stuff and started to reduce the sugar in my tea to a half a tsp. I noticed that lots of foods tasted sweeter to me now that my taste buds were no longer swimming in sugar and I craved them less and less.
I ditched sugar in my tea completely in the autumn, I rarely have a pudding now. I allow myself 1 piece of cake a week, but don’t always have it.In my world nothing is banned, merely avoided. I avoid the white stuff.
I found it really helpful to limit myself to 24g sugar per day or 6 tsps of sugar when I started reducing sugar.Don’t try and do everything at the same time. If you have fizzy drinks then reduce the amount and ditch them as a priority. I think that the key is baby steps, so reduce your daily consumption and see how much better you will feel, to say nothing of losing weight.
I thought that it might help you to see how I slowly changed from being Miss Puddings to one now and again. I never thought that I would be able to stop hiding chocolate and scoffing it all by myself either…
For me the reduction of sugar, meant that I was far more aware when I had some, exactly how I felt. I didn’t feel good so there was no sense of deprivation when I avoided it the next time. Replace the sweet stuff with something healthy, whether it is a piece of fruit or some nuts.
It does sound ludicrous and I don’t know how to tackle that impossible-sounding mindset. How about just being kinder to yourself? Think about what you would say to someone else in your position and then say something positive every day to yourself.
Jason Fung would say that obesity is a multi-factorial problem and that all of the elements need addressing to lesser and greater extent for each person. Are you getting enough(7/8 hours) sleep? Are you stressed? Are you reducing both the hidden and visible sugar in your diet? Are you reducing the amount of refined carbs in your diet? Are you fasting regularly?
It sounds as if the fasting is going very well and it would be a shame if your sugar consumption was slowing your progress. Remember that every small positive change that you make to your diet all add up.
You are doing really well. If miss sweet tooth here can quell the sugar beast then anyone can. You can do it Rob.
I am now aiming for 3 days/week to eat meat/fish with either/and vegetables or salad. I started off with 1 day a week with no refined carbs at all for the whole day. Seemed weird at first but I am very happy with a salmon fillet , sprinkled with some dried chilli or nude (wrap in a foil ‘pocket’and bake for 20 minutes)serve with salad/veg. My favourite salad dressing is 2 tbsp exra virgin olive oil in a small jam jar which has a lid, add x2 tsp white wine vinegar and 1 tsp Dijon mustard. Shake together and this is enough for several days and very very tasty over salad.
Any help?
Rob,
I’ve been an intermittent faster since January 2014, maintaining my weight successfully now for over 2.5 years. I mostly don’t have a sweet tooth now, and can easily refuse cake etc when out…unless I’ve eaten added sugar or simple carbs. And then the cravings to eat begin…
So my solution is to not eat added sugar or refined carbs during the working week, and then maybe ‘treat’ myself in moderation at the weekend (I use the inverted commas because of course white flour and sugar are really not a treat for my body!!).
I don’t feel deprived because I don’t eat biscuits every day. I remind myself that the definition of a treat is something you have on an occasional basis that brings great pleasure. Daily it’s just habit.
And like you, if it’s in the house I’m going to eat it! People have suggested freezing left over cake…But I’ve discovered I like frozen cake 😁
People are suggesting you might want to cut down your sugar consumption rather than cut it out. My approach was to just stop, because I know me, and any added sugar (or e.g. a slice of toast for breakfast) sets off the cravings. Much simpler for me to avoid those foods, and not suffer cravings gnawing away at me.
You’re clearly struggling at the moment, but you’re not alone! Even slim people battle with sugar addiction! For me, kicking sugar and simple carbs (bread, pasta) combined with intermittent fasting has been the key to finally being in control of my eating and being slim for the first time in my adult life.
I don’t know what clicked in my brain that day in January 2014 when I started 5:2 and gave up bread and sugar. But I’d had enough of the old me that I increasingly didn’t like, and was suddenly happy to take control and let go of the things that were making me fat and unhealthy.
If you’re not happy with who/how you are what’s stopping you committing to be better?
Good luck!
5:2 is the only thing that’s ever worked for me. I can’t stick to 24-7 calorie counting, I get bored or distracted then lose all motivation. It sucks all the pleasure out of life.
The way I do 5:2 is that on Monday and Thursday I eat nothing till 6:30 in the evening, then just have soup and a roll, or baked beans or poached eggs on toast. That way I’m not trying to construct 3 tiny low calorie meals; I know I can’t eat till the evening. It’s simple, and I find it surprisingly easy. And because I eat nothing after my evening meal the night before I’m effectively fasting for 24 hours twice a week, so I get maximum benefit. Blood lipids improved so much my GP is no longer threatening me with statins / fibrates.
This is the third year I’ve done it, I just eat like this all the time, with the exception of holidays and the Christmas period when I pig out a bit. These immediate post Christmas weeks are tricky because the house is still full of addictive stuff, but I try to eat that on the non fast days, and so I’m still slowly losing weight. Once the chocolate and biscuits have all gone the weight loss accelerates. When I get back down to what I consider to be my target weight I’ll be a bit less strict about the 600 cals, or maybe just do 6:1.
Hi Rob, oh dear, you sound so frustrated. We have ALL been there Rob and understand the frustration. Remember, you are still a whole 12lb less than when you started.
I have had trouble reducing my sugar cravings since overindulging at Christmas, it seems it really is addictive for some of us. I have just come home from 5 days at our country place and decided to do something drastic to outsmart myself. As there are no real shops less than 20 mins drive away, we always take all the food we need with us. As husband was at home working, I only needed food for myself, so I took only really healthy stuff. No biscuits, cakes, chocolates, etc. None. It made it much easier not having anything remotely sweet on hand. By day 3 the cravings had gone! Seriously. Of course, evil thoughts crept in concerning going to the general store, but I managed to divert these by keeping busy. I even made sure there was no honey, jam or dried fruit on hand. My only treat for 5 days (apart from healthy salads, a beautiful steak and some nice fish) was the odd spoon of peanut butter and some fresh cherries!
I know its not always easy to be so selfish with food choices, but my strictness has paid off. I think I am over the xmas damage and hopefully have learnt not to have sugar in any of its disguises in arms reach again. Of course, treats are permissable now I have lost my excess weight, but not at home and not in easy reach.
Keep trying Rob, you will get there. Try to devise some strategies where you are not in a situation faced with buying junk or not. Shop less frequently, plan healthy meals well ahead. If it is not in the house you cant eat it. It does not really make you happy, even when you are eating it does it? The guilt spoils it!
Try to think of food you enjoy that does not involve sugar..treat yourself with high fat things if you must, just not sugar/carbs. The cravings they set up are irresistable.
And keep posting….
This is a marathon, not a sprint. I try and visualise my finish line in May or June. And if I get it wrong, it just means I have to catch up, or finish a bit later. My belly has dropped from 41 inches last September to 37 inches, so I must be doing something right, and I feel much better
For what it’s worth Rob, my advice is to take the pressure off, stop beating yourself up, and focus on the long game. I had a right old binge on Saturday, but it’s in the past and I know I just have to plan a bit better to avoid the old habit returning, but I refuse to live like a monk as I would just give up!
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