I say that’s no big deal, just get back up on that horse and keep trying!
Quitting junk food is like quitting smoking. I have a friend who ‘practiced’ quitting for years til it finally took.
That’s how i’m treating this. It feels like the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I’m back teaching for the fall, and just today I had to walk past a dozen donuts, a plate of bagels, a box of cinnamon sugar pretzels, and a bowl of Fun Size Snickers.
Aaaaaaaargh!
“Hi, I’m digs and I’m a donut addict…”
I need to tie myself to a mast when cravings hit and sweet foods are around.
Well I have Strep Throat and am on antibiotics. Dr’s orders to have lots and lots of liquids so I’m forced to have Ginger ale and juice.
But that’s all so I don’t actually feel like I really “cheated”. I’m not having anything else with sugar other than the liquids and meds.
MichaelEmouse try to 'white-knuckle" it when those cravings come along. Literally stay sitting where you are and hang on to the chair and repeat “Don’t get up, don’t get up”.
MichaelEmouse*, can you replace sweet cravings with other cravings? (I mean, besides fondling large… never mind)
I was on a long drive today, and I never used to do that without 1000 calories of junk food. I had cravings galore, but I’d loaded a great audiobook** on my phone and brought crunchy stuff*** instead of sweet stuff.
*Tales of the City reference? If so, I found the real-life Barbary Lane (got up at dawn and walked across San Francisco… and it was worth it).
**JK Rowling wrote a trilogy of detective tales (as Robert Galbraith), and now suddenly there’s a fourth one out! Was nicely distracting.
***Carrots, red peppers, and mixed nuts (the good stuff with lots of cashews and pecans and salt).
Digs- thanks for the laughs from your first line.
That’s my job here… and I figured fondling works for any persuasion. Who doesn’t need a good fondle?
But there’s a kernel of truth there. I’m in my third week of No Carb Hell, and I’ve gotten desperate and thought “Could abject lust distract me from donuts?”
Narrator: “Sadly, abject lust did not distract him from donuts…”
This is why I wanted to be strict: I’d bought a large box of oatmeal packs before seeing this thread. I found myself eating from it often. Then I realized that the oatmeal bowls I was making for myself had had about as much sugar as two cans of soda. I threw out the packs and I’m waiting to see how the cats like the box before I decide whether to throw it out too.
I know that if I make it past 2-3 days of very low sugar, i’ll feel great and I’ll wish I’d done this sooner. It’s like climbing a very rough hill that gives access to a great park.
I will try something like that. I’m thinking that meditation or intensely focusing on something else might be effective. I might do alright if I can give myself runner’s high early in the morning but I’ve had difficulty with my energy levels.
I’ve been having plain oatmeal with blueberries and banana added. I add a bit of cream as well. It’s so delicious that I like it more than the flavoured packs that I normally have. I definitely will continue with that rather than going back to the flavoured ones.
I’m sure we have a sugar bowl somewhere in the house. But I haven’t seen it in years.
Diet 7’up will have to be my methadone. The flesh is weak and failure so sweet!
I’ll rid my body of high sugar levels using Diet 7’up as a crutch and then I’ll see, even if that may well have drawbacks. Once I’m in ketosis, I will likely have much better willpower.
I rarely have much sugar but I had blood tests on Thursday so the day before I was pretty careful. It was stinking hot and I thought of the can of coke in the fridge (we buy a six pack at Christmas in case people drop by). Anyway I had cold water. Fast forward half an hour and I forget totally and get stuck into some Swiss chocolates Damn! Anyway, blood tests came back and the results were great. I could have had the coke after all.
Well it’s getting to the end of the challenge and you know what I’m looking forward to? Nothing sweet or sugary - I want a toasted English muffin!
I am not planning to continue no sugar. But I am going to continue with low sugar. I’ll stick with no sugar in my tea - that’s a big one. And maybe have a pop once a week or less.
For February I’m going low sugar, low carbs. Cutting out white bread/rice/pasta and replacing with healthier versions.
I’ve thought of chili con carne as a kind of Latin American spaghetti with a healthier base than pasta. I guess a lot of vegan protein sources like lentils could be substituted with arguably more interesting taste and texture.
I’m not sure the mods will allow that type of challenge thread.
Could be very interesting though 
Good work!
Well I’m down 5 lbs by doing nothing but removing all added sugar and sugar replacements from my diet. I did nothing else. Portion sizes were the same except for breakfast, which was even bigger than normal, lots of butter on my food and cream in my tea.
It was way easier than I thought it would be but I am definitely looking forward to the end of the challenge. Reading labels gets a bit tiresome. Mind you, I guess I’ll still be doing that with the low sugar/low carb thing I’m doing next.
I think low carb will be significantly more difficult for me. I love bread, pasta and rice. I’m not giving up my morning oatmeal with fruit and cream though - too tasty!
Eh, I love bread, pasta and rice but simply going from the “white” varieties to “high-fiber” ones (preferably from local baker / companies which I know to actually use wholegrain) isn’t terribly difficult and it does wonders for my sugar lows. I already discovered in my teens that leaving pasta al dente meant no sleepiness after the meal and also that the fullness lasts longer; using wholegrain materials behaves similarly, for the same reason.
Cooking carby foods is about hydrolizing them: breaking up the carb chains, so our body has to do less of that work. Al dente and wholegrain are less broken-up: more work for the body, longer digestion times, less of a sugar rush but more time of a steadier sugar supply from the gut to the blood. A handful of gummy bears or a bowl of overcooked pasta is a peak; the same amount of carbs from a high-fiber source is a mesa. And, if you’re using the same weight as when you used white, part of that weight is now indigestible fiber, so you’re really eating less carbs while eating the same amount of carby food.
I was frustrated because for the first two weeks, the scale didn’t budge. And I was wondering “Am I so old and set in my ways that I’ll never lose weight?”
But week three it started to, and I’m down 8 lbs. Quite a relief, because it gets me down into my usual range. I still have farther to go, but my goal really isn’t just the weight, but to have a healthier life.
Fun side effect: bonding with my daughter. She mentioned she was doing less carbs and we spent ten minutes rhapsodizing about our favorite low-carb snacks… carrots in PB, prosciutto and trader joe’s Unexpected Cheddar FOR THE WIN!