Ha ha good one Happy! 🙂
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Hi Fast I have a confession to make. On Friday my boss bought some pain au chocolate for breakfast and I didn’t reject this nice gesture (happens very rarely) as he was very pleased with himself knowing how much I like pastry. I wasn’t even hungry or craving sugar as I had just had a protein breakfast.
Hi Lichtle – I think not wanting to hurt the feelings of someone making a kind gesture is probably more important than sticking rigidly to the rules, don’t you? Well done you for getting the priorities right! Nobody said we’d be 100% perfect – it’s the overall direction that counts! ( but no sugar next Sunday for you, as a forfeit!!) (joke!)
How’s it going otherwise? I confess I was very glad to get to sunday today. Definitely need a fast day tomorrow!
FFS, on the whole it is going better than I thought, but I am glad about the Sunday exemption . 6 days seem doable but any longer and I start compensating with “more” food in general as I am trying to satisfy “something”. Once I have indulged, I am always a bit puzzled as to why on earth this sugar was so important to me. Tomorrow will be a fast day and I never crave on fast days.
And how about you?
Ditto, really. I’ve always thought it was easier to give up altogether than to stop and start, but I’m realising the wisdom of 5:2 – (1:6 in this case!) – in allowing relief and treats. Like you, I’m finding a tendency to compensate by eating more of other stuff – but as long as it doesn’t put weight back on, I think that’s probably ok – I tell myself those are nourishing calories, rather than empty sugar ones. And it’s interesting that the only time I fluctuate within my range now is after my Sunday sugar allowance.
And also like you, I don’t crave on fast days, so they’re actually welcome.
I think what this is achieving for me is not a complete change of tastes, but an increased mindfulness and awareness – I wouldn’t have known, without doing it, that I only fluctuate after sugar, for example. All the good things about 5:2, concentrated into one issue!
Have a good fast day!
Hi Sugar-Light Ladies!
There’s a recent article in the Independent (available on line if you Google it, but I can’t post the link from my phone I’m afraid) that may be of interest – ‘What happens to your body when you give up sugar?’
It talks about it being a proper addiction, and what happens in the withdrawal period. I know you’ve experienced that yourselves, but good to know you’re completely normal 🙂
Happy and Fast, I heard an interesting interview on the radio this afternoon about a guy who had done some research into sugar in the diet by consuming an enormous(for him) amount of sugar but within the realms of average for most Australians. The outcome was quite frightening with one outcome his heart being affected. He said sugar was as addictive as heroin. The good news was as soon as he stopped consuming the sugar he was able to reverse all the negative results. I’ll see if I can find the link, it made for very interesting listening but now I’m over 60 I’ve got CRAFT! Lol
Hi Carol
This is the man who made That Sugar Film, and is releasing it now. Scary what sugar does to our bodies. 😮 I have not craved it at all since I went through 3.5 days of sugar withdrawal. I found withdrawal so hard, that I now don’t have any sugar at all. I miss dark chocolate, but prefer not to eat it in case I get hooked on sugar again.
Lichtle, you did the right thing by your colleague. Kindness is a virtue! 🙄
Cheers, Bay 🙂
Hi Lichtle and Fast
The psychology of this sugar free Lent is very interesting, isn’t it? We tell ourselves that it’s okay to fast, or to give up sugar, because we do it one day at a time. We don’t have to face the rest of our life in one go! It feels doable, as SAMM says. 😉
Some more very enjoyable golf today.
Cheers, Bay 🙂
Hi Lichtle,
I’m frequently amazed by people who have half a brazil nut (yes, really !) or 5 almonds as a snack. I tend to eat quite a few (OK, a lot) more…
Howver, my nut habit isn’t doing any harm to my weight maintenance.
The calories in nuts are not all available to you, and the less processed they are the better (so you can extract more of the calories from ground or roasted nuts than you could from the equivalent raw).
If you eat 200 calories of raw nuts, it will not be the same as eating 200 calories of cake or biscuit.
And as you say, nuts are full of healthy fats and nutrients, unlike sugar.
And if you aren’t adding nuts in on top of sugar, you might not actually be upping calorie consumption at all, and they may have no effect on your weight.
I wouldn’t get too hung up on the stated calories in nuts, or look for alternatives just yet. See how it goes. If they keep you away from excess sugar that’s a good thing. If you find you start to gain weight you can always have a rethink…
Lichtle, Happy’s right, I’m sure. I didn’t know about nut calories not all being available (thanks for that info, Happy) but even if that weren’t true, and every single one were being digested and used, that’s each calorie full of protein, vitamins and good fats – so a really good exchange for the empty (ie nutrition-free) calories of added sugar. Your fruit tastes will provide all the intrinsic sugar your body needs, so it’s win-win, I reckon! Sounds like a good swap to me!
Good fast day yesterday; today began late last night with an email from youngest DS just off to foreign parts and offering us breakfast before departing, and ended with cooking dinner for a friend’s birthday. Neither meal was abstemious, but (if I ignore the 2 small glasses of red) the day came in short of TDEE (no desire for lunch, and a big bunch of grapes and some fancy cheese, plus the fact that friend has no sweet tooth, avoided pudding and cake-related temptation!). I’m constantly amazed, these days, by how what seems like a vast amount of food can be within TDEE, if carefully chosen and cooked!
Hope everyone else’s day has been good, too.
Happy
I’m with you, one nut is not enough. I eat lots of raw almonds and Brazil nuts, and I don’t put on weight. However, I eat one sweet treat, of sugar and wheat, and I put on weight. 😮
Purple
You’re so right about travel being the perfect time to fast. We drove for four hours yesterday, and then played 18 holes of golf. And I fasted for a whole 24 hours, with just water. It felt great, and I didn’t want any food. Hope your trip went well.
Cheers, Bay 🙂
Whoops! Sorry Carol! What restraint.
Apparently the absorbable calories in raw almonds are only 75 – 80% as they aren’t readily digestible. So you could perhaps allow yourself another one or two… 🙂
Bay, on the subject of travelling making fasting easier, I definitely agree! These days there’s very little on planes or in service stations to tempt me.
I’ve taken a day off work today, and am fasting. It’s so much easier not to eat than when I’m sat in front of a computer. I suspect there’s an element of it being harder to ignore hunger when I’m just sat down, but also perhaps using food as a diversion/ distraction from work!
Thanks, everyone. I have been in London for two days and instead of going out for a meal in the evening as I was so tired, I bought a packet of peanuts and a bunch of grapes in a small local supermarket which I munched in my hotel room whilst reading a good book. It was a total binge, I just could not stop, but today my weight was not changed. Happy, I hope you are right with your theory. Normally I stay away fom peanuts and have mixed, raw nuts, also I need to seek out 50g bags of nuts (mine was 150g)
Hi everyone –
Bad news: I have to confess to falling off the wagon today. Was feeling sh***y for other reasons, and when DH opened a Christmas box of my favourite dark choc caramels, I ate two, and even lied to myself that they were ‘medicinal’. I shall pay for that on the scales; but I shall first grovel, then up I get and start again!
Good news: I didn’t enjoy them – (had to eat the second one to check!) I don’t think I like them any more – result!
I’m sure your peanuts and grapes went down much better, Lichtle. And if they were instead of a meal, why are you beating yourself up?
Material for a new discussion: if you live / or did live alone, with no constraints of other people’s tastes/diets/needs, ( and for purposes of argument, money!) what does / would your meals mainly be? (I don’t mean to ignore the fact that some may live alone for reasons other than choice, and those of us who don’t are certainly not all hankering after the single life – just picking up on Happy’s comment about her fast day meal, and remembering some of the interesting things I’ve eaten when DH has been absent . Is it differnt if an evening alone is a rare treat, or a chosen way of life, as opposed to a sad circumstance? How does it affect diet?
Well my food preferences have changed, much less meat and less pasta, spuds and white bread. Unfortunately, OH’s have not. He’d still rather have a big plate of mash with his meat, while I’d rather have a plate of vegetables… with my beans!
I think if I lived alone I would probably eat very little meat (except bacon 🙂 ), but more fish (he’s not a big fan 🙁 )
He’s been away 5 days, and I’ve eaten vegetarian/ vegan. He’s back tomorrow, so I have to revert to cooking and eating meat… Or cooking separately…
I wouldn’t be without him, but ideally he’d eat somewhere else most nights!
I understand! When we bought our retirement home we were downsizing considerably, but the three things top of our shopping list (apart from obvious ones like being within the budget) were: enough garden to grow veg, but not enough to be a burden; enough rooms downstairs for me to continue to have a study/office; and separate bath/shower rooms! Fortunately DH is a big fish fan, but he does like carbs and high-fat stuff (would eat cheese by the 1/2 lb if left to himself, and his cooking was, I suspect, one of the reasons I put the weight on in the first place. He can no longer do it, but I think I might ban him these days, even if he could!)) he’s definitely less keen than I am on raw veg, nuts, fruit etc. I’m far too greedy ever to give up cooking – and ditto about bacon, and a well-roasted chicken, Happy – but I’d probably eat an awful lot of sprouting beany things, raw veg and nutty (in every sense) salads if I lived alone.
If I lived on my own I’d probably exist on tea and toast! I really only cook for my husband. If he wasn’t here I’d just be having egg on toast or something. I dare say I would get fed up with that diet in time and then I would eat mainly vegetarian and raw foods. Can’t be bothered cooking most of the time. My husband is a bit of a foodie and I love food too but he likes to make each meal an experience. Maybe because I’ve been cooking for the family for the last 40 years I’m just a bit over it and would happily sink into crazy old lady mode, eating a can of beans!
7 almonds Happy- LOOXURY! (That’s me saying luxury in an English accent, think Del Boy) 🙂
FFS, 2 chocolates is nothing, stop beating yourself up and you learnt something from the experience- win win!
Loving the English accent, Carol. Spoken like a true native 🙂
Re: toast and egg or beans. Yes, sometimes that hits the spot! But OH would think it was breakfast not tea…! Similarly he doesn’t really like soup in the evenings.
He also doesn’t like fruit with savoury…
He is on some levels very traditional, although he’d hate to think so.
Oh, and I don’t know whether those of you in the UK have seen the BBC trailers for a programme (series?) on 19th March ‘The Truth about Sugar?’. Should be interesting viewing!
Just lying in bed feeling pleased with myself for a good fast yesterday. 0.4kg lighter than yesterday, not my lightest ever, but gives me a decent amount of wriggle room below my upper limit.
Well done Happy for a great fast and pleased you should feel indeed.
I think when it comes to living alone I would be like Carol. Not really bother much until I suddenly crave a certain dish or get fed up with eggs in all shapes and forms. My DH is exactly like your DHs: Meat, carbs, token vegetables but above all curries, curries, curries. He has taken over the cooking due to my bland tastes.
Despite all this I don’t think overall I would eat more healthy as I would probably open the fridge at the end of the day, after I couldn’t be bothered to cook and pull out some cheese and bread and anything that has to suddenly fill the hunger gap. I find it very hard to plan meals until I get hungry and then it has to be cooked/eaten within twenty minutes.
Hi Happy – thanks for that. I think it’s a repeat; if so we watched it the first time and it was well worth the time – very informative, not just about sugar but also about the commercial interests vested in getting/keeping us addicted. I might watch it again, to renew my bloodymindedness quotient!
Carol – I know what you mean about cooking for the family – for me it was always about balancing large appetites/nutritional value/small income, and in the last few years, when I was working all God’s hours plus a few, getting us fed fast before rushing out again got added to the mix. Not conducive to enjoyable cooking! But I’m finding retirement (and just 2 of us here!) has renewed my enthusiasm, and I’m enjoying it once more – time to experiment and a permanently enthusiastic co-eater are great factors.
You were right: the caramels haven’t shown on the scales. But I’m like Bay: can happily overeat other things with little effect, but sugar usually shows immediately.
Lichtle – where have you gone? Are you ok?
Hi FFS,
I wondered whether it was a repeat, as the title seemed familiar, but they don’t normally give big billing to repeats so wasn’t sure!
Glad to hear it’s as if you never even looked at a caramel yesterday! I guess it goes to show that these things eaten occasionally are OK. It’s just about being satisfied with a bit less and having the control to stop?
Lichtle, I still work full time (day off today!) So plan the week ahead and shop for as much as I can at the weekend. If I hadn’t organized I would probably similarly fall back on bread and cheese (with pickles…).
Interesting on tastes, I wouldn’t say I do bland although I do do subtle. Whereas OH only likes strong flavours, so subtle to him is bland!
Exactly Happy, of course I think I am still able to enjoy the subtle flavours of a leek or a potato – One of my favorite foods is a jacket potato with butter. Don’t have it often enough – glorious. If it has a side salad all the better. DH has to have all sorts of fillings and seasonings on it. You are of course right about forward planning, which I did when the children were small… and could of course do again if necessary.
Will definitely watch on 19th March. I definitely need to watch a shocker programme about the damage sugar does to me.
FFS, I am glad you don’t like the caramels any more. Good for you. If you can keep up this discipline of only having a few treats you should be fine after Easter. If you only eat two treats (moderation) you can have treats every day. I am definitely not there (yet). I will have to give myself two permission days one of which is obviously Sunday.
Hi Lichtle,
On the subject of jacket spuds, I picked up a tip for making tasty mash from a TV cookery programme. Cook jacket spuds (microwave will do), remove skin and mash. They take more milk/ butter than boiled spuds, but retain all that lovely potato flavour.
You might know it already of course, but it was a revelation to me!
Hi All,
Nothing to report except continued maintenance… 58.8kg, so nicely below my upper 60kg limit.
Another visit to Holland and Barratt today, in search of a healthy snack. Most nut based snacks were at least 400 cals per 100g. Fair enough. But truly surprising to see how much added sugar there is to most products. I would have thought that banana chips were free from added sugar, but no. Cooked in coconut oil, with raw cane sugar and honey…
Am I being cynical to think this is less about flavour and more about addiction and sales?
Stick to the nuts, Happy – you get a lotta nuts in 100gm, and think of all that calcium, warding off osteoporosis! And yep, it’s about sales, and appealing to our taste for sweeties, even if it’s not quite in the dope-peddling league…
Like you, I fail to understand why bananas need any extra sugar!
Out for lunch today – quiche and a fantastic salad – and v impressed that DH passed on sticky toffee pud. Thanked him for his consideration and he said his prime motivation was that it would be cruel to eat it in front of me – but then he’d realised that it would do him no good,, and he didn’t really need or want it anyway, after a large plateful of fish pie. Seems my sugar fast may be helping him too, indirectly.
Later this afternoon DD – who will be working on Sunday – turned up with flowers and a huge box of chocolates for Mothering Sun. Have hidden them until Easter! She is off alcohol for Lent, so got my (loving!) revenge by giving her a bottle of rather nice red as an early Easter present!
Hi everyone,
Hope you’re all doing well.
Happy to report that I’ve stabilised all this week at under 132lbs (that’s under 60kg – yay!) so very happy overall. Also doing 5km on the gym treadmill twice a week in under 30 minutes to help with the fitness.
Mr Rainbow is walking 6km with me a couple of times a week at a good pace but he needs to put on weight not lose it (joy to have such a problem!). As I think about it, its since we met 11 years ago that I started putting on the weight due to adopting his poor eating habits. I’m pretty sure if I lived alone this wouldn’t have happened, but no matter, all is well now, and we’re both eating much better and leading healthier lives which is what it’s all about.
Cholesterol results are due back this week so fingers crossed I’ll see an improvement on the November results – wish me luck!
All the best for now,
Ellie
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