Sugar Free Week 2

Week 3 is much, much easier as I have established a pattern of finding foods that are suitable and the craving for things like sauces and normal bread is diminishing.

I'm not craving sweet things like chocolate or lollies, in fact they seem the easiest to get rid of so far. It's all the foods where sugar is listed as an ingredient and are savoury.

Again, 3 weeks in and I'm shedding some weight - no idea how much, but i feel lighter and better overall.  Now I need to find me some scales and see how much I may be different from the last time I weighed myself some 6 months ago.

I've also started cutting back on eating in the evenings, and reducing snacks. Given that next month it will be zero calories after 7 pm every night, regardless of whether I go out or not.

I've also noted that I can stop eating whenever I want. I can be full or partially full, I feel no compulsion to finish whats on my plate even if I like it. At lunch yesterday I skipped my fries and got them to take away and had them as a snack later on. Previously I would have eaten all of that, with sugar rich tomato sauce and then had a snack or two later. And probably a cup of tea/coffee with biscuits too.

Week 3 has already begun, I'm over halfway and feeling good. Pretty sure that when this is over I'll be much more conscious about sugar content all together even if it's not zero, but will try and keep it low.

No calories after 7 will be interesting. Have to get drunk early and cruise through the night when Newby is back for the obligatory catch up session and night out.

Sugar Free Week One

Blog Week One: 126 Kilos (Well I was last time I checked, I'll go with that)

Diet One Week One: Sugar Free

The day after Easter I started Sugar Free and weird psychological effects started happening - I was feeling hungry because I was obsessing about sweet things, and I am now obsessively checking the labels on everything.

The Rule: No Added Sugar. Natural Sugars are ok, but am still going to watch I don't overcompensate. If it has over a gram per serving of natural sugars I will avoid. Everything else I'll be going by the ingredients list on the label. If it has sugar as an ingredient or anything that sugar might be masquerading as (fructose, dextrose, sucrose etc...) then it's off the list.

So the first few days and all I want is bread. Not chocolate or sweets or anything else, just bread. I tried Gluten free for a month a few years back and had exactly the same issue. Commercially made bread is abundant in sugar, lots of things are.

Fresh fruit and loads of non ready made things for me it seems. So it's fruit and veg, easy enough - but no sauces as most have them in it.

What I was not expecting was Corn Chips. Corn Chips have sugar in them. So do any potato chips other than plain ready salted ones.

Week one and I feel lighter and a bit healthier already. Probably mental, but there you go.

Also hungry a lot.

Did I mention hungry? Again probably mental as I am not skipping meals and they are not small, just hard to choose.

The Premise: 12 months, 12 Diets

So my great plan for self improvement didn't really gel that well, not for lack of willpower so much as lack of focus.

I learned basic Spanish, but got easily distracted. I wrote every week for a while, but soon reverted to review writing only which comes in fits and starts, and didn't really get off the ground in the exercise stakes mostly because I find exercise really, really dull.

A few weeks ago though I read an article about how sugar was poison and evil and in everything, and while I didn't agree with the premise I was curious to see how I would survive without it. So I decided after Easter that I would try life Sugar Free for one month and see how that goes - I will probably lose weight, and I will probably go nuts for sugary stuff afterwards and put it back on again - but mostly I wanted to know what it was like.

So my best motivation it seems is rabid curiosity and stubbornness.

So I started living Sugar Free from Tuesday 10th April 2012. The last thing I had was a Cadbury Creme Egg at 9 pm on Easter Monday, cold from the fridge.... mmm I can still almost taste it.

2 weeks in and while I'm fairly sure that the effects are somewhat psychosomatic, I feel lighter and healthier than I did two weeks ago. Wether this is a placebo effect because I believe I should feel a change or not is irrelevant, this is not trying to be scientific. I feel better - I'm accepting of that and don't care why so much as enjoying the feeling.

So then I was talking with a woman from my work who heard this diet where you eat whatever you want but you can't eat after 6 pm. Curious. Maybe I'll do that next thought I...

And there we have it 12 diets over 12 months, a new one each month.

The point is not to lose weight (though bonus as I probably will on most) or to prove one better than the other - but just because it seems like and interesting thing to do and I'm kind of stubborn enough to pull it off.

The Rules:  No stupid or harmful diets, like a water only diet, or remove all carbs (you do need some) or anything like that. Not going to worry if I accidentally consume something I shouldn't - but will consciously avoid the avoidey bits of the chosen diet for the month. I'll choose a diet based on it's interest to me, not on it's supposed efficacy and I'll mark any weight and attitude changes and any challenges in this blog as I go.

I'm almost two weeks in and I'm hungry.

Wayne.