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Reporting on the sugar free Lent on Day 5.
Dry roasted Almonds and raw Brazil nuts taste sweet.
Dry Roast kumara and potato taste VERY sweet (less than quarter of each)
Celery and carrot sticks taste sweet
Fruit tastes extremely sweet. I’ve only had one nectarine (2x halves) and a few slices of fresh mango (less than half).
Days 1-3 were cr*p and day 4 onwards is just lovely. Feeling fresh and energetic.
Cheers, all and thanks for your support. It was vital in days 1 through 3. 🙄 Bay
Oooo…don’t get carried away Bay!
Sounds as if you girls are kicking the habit.
Mr Purple and I are concentrating on having high and low days (the whole premise behind this wol). With a diabetic, it important his body doesn’t adjust to an overall low calorie intake, as insulin production drops too. It is very important for our bodies to experience overeating, tempered by regular fasts.
I walked in the evenings 3 times last week and on each of those nights I slept like a log. Sounds like a good habit to get into. 🙂
My new phone has an email alert that sounds like a bell on an old ice cream truck. Lucky I don’t eat ice cream 🙂 P
Hi Purple
No worries about not eating enough. 😉 I have snacked on raw carrots, celery and dry roasted almonds every day of my short sugar free life. And sometimes, gasp, I’ve even dipped the carrots into hummus, GF and no additives!
Having an iced coffee at the cafe while OH has sourdough cherry toast and jam. 🙄 My iced coffee has no cream or icecream or syrup and is delicious. His iced coffee has the works. He’s always been very fit and skinny.
Cheers, Bay 🙂
Lichtle
I’m still eating carbs, just no rice, pasta or bread except I’m experimenting with a sourdough bread that has no sugars in it. So far so good. I’m not eating any processed carbs for the duration.
I’m so glad this is a group challenge. I felt so cr*p the first 3.5 days I would have been tempted to quit, if you hadn’t been there. And you’re quitting caffeine too! 😉
Cheers, Bay
Yes Carol. I understand the evils of modern fast acting yeasts, but I thought I’d test it out. Mr P had corn bases for his tiny pizzas….we had some roast pork to use up before fasting tomorrow.:( Oh, the pressure to utilise yummy food before Monday and Thursday fasts and when Mr P is away on business!
Enjoy the rest of tour weekend folks. P 🙂
Hi All – here’s my touching-base reort:
No more midnight feasts, I’m glad to say – thank you all for not reproaching me with the disgustingness of that!
Like the others, I’m eating raw carrots, celery, nuts, hummus – all part of my normal repertoire, but more!
Managing to avoid carbs on fast days, but not trying to on others – just making sure they’re wholegrain etc.
Realising im only really missing sweet stuff at certain moments – like coffee out, or the need to ‘pick’ mid afternoon, or when I’m tired or bored. I didn’t realise I did that! A bit like smokers realising it’s not the cigarettes they miss, as much as something to do with their hands. But it’s fleeting – certainly not the level of craving I was expecting.
And… Fasted last Monday, Tuesady was at the bottom of my maintenance range. I normally fluctuate, going up a bit between FDs and down after them. Tuesday, hoovered up all the sweeties in the house -Weds , fasted (day early for reason I have forgotten!). No FDs since – due to fast tomorrow, and have eaten to TDEE each day since weds. Still at bottom of range! Don’t actually need to lose any more, but it would be nice to stick at bottom of range! And best of all – tummy feels (almost) flat – makes pilates easier!
Shan’t boast yet, as who knows when I might hit a wobbly. But so far, feeling fine. On the ‘Sunday feast day / ‘our bodies should experience overeating’ principle (thanks, P), looking forward to stir-fried chorizo, new potatoes and shredded Brussels sprouts tonight, followed by blackberry and apple crumble and cream. (Have made a tiny one, so no leftovers to tempt!) waiting with interest to see if any effect on my problematic skin…watch this space…
Almost forgot – my new secret weapon: sun-dried tomatoes! Not the ones which come in a jar, with oil and hundreds of calories (yum!) but the dried sort, which you’re supposed to rehydrate, use in casseroles etc. They’re actually fine as they are – chewy, tangy/salty, negligible calories – makes you wonder why you ever wanted toffee!
FFS – loved to read your report and that you are still at bottom of maintenance range. Like you, sugar craving seems only fleeting and not strong enough to get me to give in. I was offered scones for tea this afternoon and I declined without too much mental struggle. (I know I it was “exempt-Sunday” but I felt on a roll and didn’t want to break it unless desperate). I am still a bit baffled. Outside of this challenge I would have “needed” to eat it. Psychology is a strange science.
Oh and today – no over eating.
Thanks L
Not sure what you mean. I made ordinary wheat pizza bases. Not sourdough. Hence the stomach ache 🙁
Why didn’t you eat the scones? Mine don’t have sugar in them and they are delicious with just butter. Or melted cheese. Mmmm..
I’d better get moving or I’ll head off and make a delicious savoury breakfast…mushrooms, tomatoes, feta…
This forum is dangerous today!
Keep up the good work gang. P
FD breakfast ffs?
I don’t eat until dinner 🙁 Occasionally a tiny salad at 3pm. That’s 7 hours from now.
L, try cooking scones with grated cheese mixed with a little mustard on top before baking. Serve cut open and buttered. Yum! There really is a whole non sweet world out there waiting for you to discover. Remember, I’m the girl who doesn’t eat chocolate. P 🙂
Hi Fast
Thanks for your lovely detailed report. I have had almost the identical experience. I fasted last Monday, and on the Tuesday i ate more sweet things than is good for me. On Wednesday I began the sugar free Lent challenge at the higher end of my maintenance weight range.
On Wednesday night we had pizza and salad. On Saturday night I feasted on salmon and roast potato and kumara, so I think I have fulfilled Purple’s concerns of the feasting and famine effect of healthy fasting. I have even eaten some sourdough bread. 😉
Since then, including breaking my fast on Thursday, plus nibbling raw nuts whenever I feel like it, I am now 1.4 kg (around 3 lbs) lighter than last Wednesday morning. My weight has been going down at roughly 300 – 400 grams a day.
This may be a normal weight fluctuation within range, but it isn’t my normal. It will be interesting to see what continues to happen. My system feels clean and light and energetic. In fact I now feel as I did when I lost weight at speed when first on the 5:2. In my early days on 5:2 I was trying to lose all the fat from around my waist, so gave up all starchy and processed foods, except for small indulgences 1-2 days a week.
I am fasting today for the health effect. I am beginning to think that if I minimise my sugar intake into the future, that I will only need to fast 6:1 from now on. Off to golf this morning.
Cheers, all. Bay 😆
FFS, I’m with you. I can’t go all day without food, so I don’t.
It’s really interesting reading all your experiences of going sugar free. I’m with P, more of a savoury person since starting 5:2, so my diet is pretty low/ no sugar in any case (at least until the bread and wine at the weekend 🙂 )
I’ve been finding maintenance, and weight loss, really easy but didn’t really know why. But from what you are all reporting now it seems clear that it is the effect of sugar/ refined carbs that makes the difference. It’s a shame we couldn’t have monitored your insulin levels over the Lenten challenge!
As we eat very few processed foods now, our inadvertent sugar consumption has obviously gone down. I add a little sugar to stewed fruit (like my mum and grandma did), but otherwise, don’t add sugar to any food.
Mr P was always a great sweet tooth and I am staggered how he has managed without. We went cold turkey with lots of food initially, so bringing alternates into our diet has been happening for nearly 2 years now. He loves berries to get his sugar hit. His bloodsugars definitely go up if he eats processed foods. (Read as more sugar and carbs). He is not effected by wine, but cider and beer are hopeless.
I think we all need to simply return to the food of our grandparents. Homemade and seasonal. Mine were very long lived on this sort of simple, but tasty diet. P 🙂
Day six of sugar free challenge. Fast day.
Slightly disappointed as I weighed myself this morning and my weight is slightly up by 200g.
I very much hope this is due to the adjustment period as I over compensated with more savoury food a couple of days last week, for lack of sugar, But I ate within TDEE this weekend, I think.
I have been thinking about your comments Bay, that we don’t need any processed food. I think this is true most of the time, but I don’t want to give up ALL processed food. Totally carb free is not for me as I love bread and pasta too much. I chose 5:2 in order to not feel permanently restricted unlike a lot of the other diets (particularly GI or Atkins)
Hear hear, Lichtie. I’m coming to the conclusion that 5:2 is a bit like feminism: it’s about the freedom to choose. The right choices will be subtly different for each of us; the important thing is that when we make them they should be informed, and neither constrained by outside pressures and expectations (many of which we’re not even consciously aware of), nor impinge on or disrespect the freedoms of others. I think it’s brilliant that within this group we have so many subtle variations in how we use the basic principles, and can use our own experiences to help – and challenge – one another, while each making appropriate tweaks for ourselves.
Re processed/sugar: I would have said I hardly eat processed foods – certainly all my cooking is done from scratch, and refined carbs have had no place in my cupboards for at least 40 years. Cakes etc may be sugary, but they’re always made with unrefined, wholegrain ingredients; bread is homemade, and I omit sugar from the recipe. This experiment is making me reflect again on the ‘sweetie problem’ – I can honestly say they’re the only thing I eat outside these parameters, so their influence and effect are clearly disproportionate. Scary! They will definitely remain a ‘once in a blue moon ‘ – certainly no more than once a week – treat once Lent is over.
And last night’s crumble, was delicious – but I realised afterwards that I’d actually used no sugar at all. Like P I normally use a bit in stewed fruit: I simply forgot it – and it was fine!
Happy Monday!
Hi Lichtle
I think it’s the old adage, ‘all things in moderation’again. I guess the knowledge of which foods can create problems and which have a positive effect, empowers us in our choices. Nothing should be excluded completely, there is a place for all healthy and yummy foods (Mind you, I would never include Diet Coke and the like in this category). A little exposure to the wrong foods can be a good reiforcement not to eat it 😉
We live in a modern world of mass produced foods. Mimimising the worst is possibly the best we can do without becoming fanatical.
Off to bed after another fast day.
Good night folks. P 🙂
Hi all
I agree with you all. I will try to keep my treats to once a week after Lent. What I have found is that I hardly eat bread or pasta or potato by choice. Every now and again I try some fresh sourdough and butter. Or I have a pizza.
My treats are mostly home made and GF. All of my stewed Apricots, apples, pears and nectarines have no sugar added to them. I have not added sugar to fruit for years.
As Fast says, the sweets that I eat appear to have a disproportionate effect, so keeping them at one treat a week should do the trick.
Cheers, Bay 🙂
Hi Lichtle
After fast day I am usually at lowest weight of the week. I fasted yesterday and woke up today exactly same weight as yesterday. Quite possibly I ate more than 500 calories, as I don’t count. All nutritious. 😉
I can say that any craving for sugar has vanished. However, when my eyes see something that I know I like such as apricot pudding that OH is eating each night, then I wish for a taste.
Hey ho! Onwards we go!
Cheers, Bay 🙂
Hi Bay
After my fast yesterday I went to bed quite heavy and am now 1.5kg lighter. There is a lot to be said about being awake half the night 😉
Aren’t you lucky to have a kind OH to place temptation in front of you! He is certainly helping to strengthen your resolve. 🙂
I’ve caught the cold that is going around, so I might have to stay home and catch up on the housework. 🙁 P
Sugar challenge = success
Fast day = failure
Feeling quite low at the moment with a massive cold that does not want to shift therefore not in the mood for fasting and probably sulking due to disappointing weight this morning.
So I broke the fast at midday with french bread and cream cheese. Bad news because french bread triggers reward with jam on last piece, so for the first time I was seriously sugar tempted. I thought: “What the heck I broke my fast so might as well break the challenge…’
Then I thought of my fellow challengers and I resisted!!!
Had a carb free meal in the evening and watched DH eat a couple of biscuits with no temptation. So very mixed day for me.
DH has started 24/0 with full blown meal and a couple of glasses of wine once a day. I can’t claim credit for this – I had to tell him that his way of eating has a name. Let’s see if he can lose weight by eating one meal a day without counting calories.
I am hopeful, because he is 6″3 and 115kg so he has quite a high TDEE.
Well done Lichtle. That wasn’t a fail, that was a success! You pulled yourself back from the brink! We all know how incredibly difficult it is to stop once you have given in to temptation. I’m glad your fellow challengers were in your head urging you on. Great job. Tomorrow is another day….
Bay, I doubt I will fade away. I found some old photos of me 30 years ago. Incredibly skinny. Flat chested, bony arms, womanly hips 😉 The hips are gone, so has the top half, but the waist refuses to return to it’s former size. I’m hoping it is just spare skin, but I suspect the fat around the middle is here to stay. Every time I lose more now, it makes the rest more bony, but the waist stays the same. Blow!!! Keep up the good sugar reduction girls. P 🙂
Morning all! This is a quickie as rushing to get DH to a hospital appointment.
Just to say – this sugar-free gal weighs 3.5lb less than she did on Ash Weds and is 2lb under her maintenance range!!! Delighted and also ashamed of amount of sugar I must have been inadvertently eating!
More later, with proper replies to all your lovely posts…in haste –
Ok, ok, I know!!!! (Hangs head in shame!) but I really didn’t think it was that much – and as we all know, ‘knowing’ and ‘doing’ aren’t always the same. That’s what Lent’s for!!!
Thanks for support, everyone. Like Bay and L, I’m finding it invaluable to keep me in straight and narrow – to fall off would be to let them – and you all – down.
Really am going now…
Lichtle and Fast
I’m so proud of you both. What achievements. You are making my sugar free Lent doable.
A fast doesn’t matter, what does matter is that we stay sugar free for six weeks. What a bonus to lose any weight. The funny thing is that yesterday I fasted, with a tiny meat rissole wobble at the end of the day. i minimised my food intake after fasting for 19 hours, but I didn’t have a strict fast. 😉
I still think we’re doing the feasting and famine that Purple talks about. Keep on keepin on! My fellow sugar free fasters. 🙄
Cheers, Bay
Well done FFS, 3.5lb in one week, that’s amazing. Just enjoy the success I hope all is OK with DH.
Weighed myself this morning and 300g down again meaning loss of 100g since Ash Wedndesday. However a loss of 100g does not really count for me – that is just part of body fluctuation.
Luckily, I am feeling a lot better today physically and therefore mentally and it’s FASTING TAKE 2 for me.
I hope I can pull it off today. My last meal was yesterday at 17.00hrs and carb free. After a carb free meal the night before I am usually hungry and it is harder. The reason fasts seemed so easy for me was because the day before I usually over ate with sweet carbs.
But you loser girls spur me on. 😉 I can do it.
Thanks Bay, for your encouragement, I agree it makes everything much more doable.
Hi everyone (but especially my fellow sugar- abstainers) – yes: we can do it! I’m sure the dramatic loss won’t continue at that rate – and actually I don’t really want it to, as I’m close to underweight – but it was quite exciting to see a very round figure on the scales! And it’s obvious that even the amount of sugar I was eating (which I thought was not a lot) has a dramatic effect on my particular metabolism. So I shall stick to being without it, but reckon all those empty calories I used to get from it are now available for other, more nutritious things!
Thanks for concern re DH, Lichtie; he does have lots of problems – mobility issues, brain injury – but today it was simply hearing aid clinic. Early appointment, 12 miles away, into Bristol in the middle of morning rush hour via a route with multiple major road works = early alarm and rush to get him out (afraid he got a ‘lick and a promise’ rather than a shower!) but now all done, and back home eating toast (no jam!)
Keep going, everyone: YES, WE CAN!
Hi FFS, I understand your delight at seeing first hand what effect sugar had on your body and it does make a commitment for post lent easier. You are right all that good, healthy and also filling food that would be available if we manage to kick the habit.
Driving into Bristol in rush hour is really no fun and downright stressful, my DD lives there and it is a nightmare, but so are most UK towns in the South these days. Glad you made it back and can relax now (without jam)
Oh, my FIL has just given me 15 jars of jam he was about to throw out. They are sitting in my kitchen at the moment but I have to move to the shed. There is only that much temptation a girl can resist. 🙂
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