A very overdue, and very serious post.

I write this post with a fear of sounding like a fanatical, new age – something? but not fearful enough to refrain from posting.

I feel almost enlightened by this pilgrimage in the name of charity – like the first time I read 1984, or when I watched Robert Winston’s documentary on Love, almost as though a fundamental penny has dropped.

I’m two and a half weeks in to the 30 Day Challenge and I’m dreading the end. I’m in a state of turmoil. I feel like an addict who has walked up and over that mountain overlooking everything, and I’m on a steep decline to the ground where I know I’ll encounter my demon again. Sugar.

This is all getting very dramatic. But the more of this journey I travel, the more familiar it seems to the ones I travelled with the (thankfully) few addictions I’ve conquered.

I think back to the gnawing cravings, four, five or more times in a day. Walking past the cake, pastry and sweet isles and using all of my energy to pull myself away from splurging. Tasting each crumb in my mind, each swirl of caramel, each burst of sweetness and counting down the days before I could allow myself that luxurious nibble.

It seems insane to me that people everywhere experience this, and don’t think to themselves ‘wow, this is heavy sh*t.’

Maybe it’s just me that got those cravings! Maybe I’m one of those odd ones, but having realised how many food items that light powdery substance lies in, I would be very surprised.  The amount of savoury, sweet and unsuspecting items that lie along the shelves in our favourite stores laden with sugar, it’s no wonder we’re hooked. What’s worse is, we don’t even know it. Worse than that, our trusted brands encourage our addiction to their food – and that willingness we have to spend money to get our next fix.  Each label competing for your crazed tastebuds, and how do they compete? By slipping sugar into crisps and MSG in to dips. The many ways to make their foods contain that cunning substance, without making it taste sweet – and the worse culprits? Diet foods. Luring people into believing their doing good, eating healthily – when diet margarines contain ridiculous amounts of sugar, low fat cheeses, crisps, cereals and yoghurts of the ‘diet’ variety are the most addictive of them all. Because, after all, you’re being good, aren’t you? And ohhh, how we’re the  tastiest of the healthiest foods (say the brands that make you feel saintly and satisfy your craving!)

I know, I know. I do sound crazed. But honestly, do I care?

Okay, so my skin has only improved slightly, and my head still feels like it’s full of sticky pollen buds bursting to splurge out of my nose and eyes. It’s not cured my aches and pains but without a doubt, it has improved far more important things.

I no longer go from deep troughs of aching cravings, light-headedness and those daily feelings of ‘if I don’t eat I’m going to faint!’ and equally so, I don’t feel the heavenly high from those first tingly bites of a lovely cup cake, followed by that horrible crash in energy and mood.

 I no longer look at sugary treats and salivate, in contrast, I’ve baked carrot cake and chocolate brownie and enjoyed the sweet taste of both using Xylitol. It tastes like sugar, you use it like sugar, it looks like sugar but one thing is missing.

My food tastes exactly like it would with sugar. But I don’t get that ‘ahhhhh’ feeling. I don’t get that relaxed, happy glow or that rush of loveliness that I can only equate to an addicts first drag of the morning.

I’m dreading re-visiting sugar.

 I don’t want those lows and highs that I was so in love with. I want carrot cake that I appreciate as being tasty, but don’t eat the rest of it with each meal because I just can’t get enough. 

For the first time ever, I baked a carrot cake, had one slice and the rest is still in the fridge. I don’t wake up and think ‘ohh I’ll just have some cake’ – I think ‘oh look, there’s some cake….do dooo dooo’ . Though my cake tastes just like cake, it doesn’t have the pull on me that sugar would.

I don’t want to go back to eating sugar.

 Update: 19/04/2013 – I’ve decided to do a piece of art work for my next 30 Day Challenge!! That is all.

 

A post about baking and PMS

Hello!

It feels like it’s been a while!

The journey so far has been enlightening, delightful and seriously tough.  In the first week, I noticed that ALL – seriously – of my IBS symptoms disappeared. I couldn’t believe it. Was it too good to be true? Possibly. Last week, I found a lovely deli down the road had a white Polish loaf that was simply made with no sugar – boom! A week of no bread and here I was, facing the loveliness of loaf. That day, I had a bacon toastie, and it was goooooood. Or was it?

No, all my IBS symptoms came back. Sad Face Steph 😦

Since then, I’ve toyed with the idea of whether it was the sugar free biscuits I consumed that day, or it was the yeast in the bread, or was it the flour? Something wasn’t right. So, I gave up bread again and carried on eating sweetener – felt fine. Soon as I had bread, bang! So, no more bread for Stephy.

In better news…. and apologies for anyone reading this who wishes not to know such intimate details of my life….it’s really a woman’s only blog post this one- my PMS has improved dramatically! 70% I would say, at a least. I’m over joyed.

Baking

Today, I baked a lovely carrot and walnut cake! It’s pretty much all gone, but I was delighted to be using my new best friend in the kitchen Xylitol. No aftertaste of normal sweeteners, is actually GOOD for teeth, and doesn’t effect blood sugar levels. Bonus points! Although I’m very dubious of sweeteners and the lack of research in to them so far, I do feel so much better for not eating sugar – so I’m wondering if the lesser of the evils is using sweetener?

Another baking story here now….. I decided to do chocolate cheesecake – OM NOM NOM! Here’s a picture of my chocolate cheesecake of deliciousness….

Whoops.

From the tiny bit left in the tin, I can tell you it tasted LOVELY! Made with Truvia sweetener, sugar free biscuit base, half a jar of diabetic strawberry jam, all natural mascapone & cream and two table spoons of cocoa!

The shoe is currently in the wash.

Nearly half way through and I’m also considering what my next challenge can be. I’m thinking maybe giving up TV for 30 days? Or learning to draw & completing my own masterpiece? Or something else…

 

Craving rating…. 

This is a bit of a complex issue. Yesterday I had a craving for cider! That was probably about a 4 on the craving scale. Today? nil. Nothing. No craving at all. Bliss.

Here’s to week three!! 

 

So what do you actually eat?!

The thing that everyone says when I tell them what I’m doing is:

“But sugar is in everything!”

I know. But have true that is, they might not know.

Today, I realised that Tesco’s own brand of Wheat Biscuits has added sugar. So, fancying some cereal of sorts, that evening when I went to do the ‘big’ shop, I checked Weetabix. On the front of the packet I read:

“100% Wholewheat!”

 

But behold! When checking the back, I saw sugar was also apparent in the trust worthy brand. Along with lots of other stuffs, and this is when I realised I’d been mislead – of the wheat in Weetabix, 100% of it is wholewheat. Ohhhhhh, I seeeeeee. *shakes head*

It’s little things like this that is equally fascinating in this challenge and baffling. 

The second thing I was asked lots of times today, was:

“So what do you actually eat? So, what’ve you eaten today?”

I thought I’d tell it on my blog, you lucky lot! That’s what I said too….

“I’m not going to tell you, you’ll have to read my blog tonight. MWAHAHAHA”

So, today I’ve eaten:

• smoked salmon omlette (om nom nom)
• a tangerine
• plunger coffee with milk (no sugar, obvs!)
• Mackerel salad with olive oil dressing, pistacio nuts and feta
• HOME MADE PIZZAA!!!! OH EMMM GEEEE. Here’s a piccy.

And I’ve got to say, what an amazing pizza it was! Although, it was so nice, I’m not even sure I can leave any for the other half. Om nom nom.

Interesting fact…

Tesco Organic Passata contain added sugar whilst Pizza Express own passata was not only cheaper, but contained no sugar! Only 4 ingredients in fact – tomato, basil, pepper and salt.  Yum. 

I made the base using ‘oo’ flour, water, yeast and olive oil – nothing more, nothing less. Whilst looking, I noticed all pre-made packets of pizza dough mix contained sugar. Booooo. But to be honest, it was absolutely delicious, and good fun to make. Took some aggression out while kneading the dough before cutting it in half and freezing a portion for another day!

I’m a convert 🙂

Here’s a picture of my lunch for tomorrow:

 

Rocket, watercress, and spinach with olives, mozerella, kapers, and some parma ham! Delicio. 

Craving ratings: 10!!!!

Today, my colleague Emma came back from her honey moon and presented the team with *deep breath* chocolate doughnuts, flapjack things, cookies, nibble things. OM NOM NOM. I found myself starring at it all, longingly, imagining every tiny taste. 

It was worse than giving up smoking. When I gave up smoking, I’d sit with people smoking, living every inhale but I never liked smoking as much as I like cookies and doughnuts. It was so hard. 

Pizza Hut visit!!

Sunday saw a visit to Pizza Hut and all I want to say is:

“Congratulations Pizza Hut People!”

On their website, they have a nutritional breakdown of all their foods! So I realised there was only three things I could have, and opted for the salmon pasta bake. It was lovely. So going sugar-free doesn’t mean a lifetime cooking for oneself. No, it’s full of lovely foods all waiting to be eaten, so dig in!!

Till next time sweet-peas! 

 

Way too many tags for one post

I’ve been compelled to write this blog post for two days now, COMPELLED I tell you!

Since Friday’s ‘SugarGate’ – which involved the following:

• Dreaming of cakes
• Spending an hour on the interweb looking at cake
• Waking up with

A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down, medicine go down..

in my head..

I’ve had a breakthrough! (HURRAH!)

Today (Saturday), instead of feeling nervous about the days impending events; I felt calm and unphased. I tackled driving to Wythenshawe Forum with clarity and confidence. I handled road obstacles with agility and calmness likened to that of the Dalai Lama. I checked mirrors, blind spots and manoeuvred hazards with almost third sight expectation. A triumph I’ve never felt before. 

My head feels free of fog and crystally. 

Now I’m not saying

this is because of giving up sugar, this is!

It could be a placebo effect, or something entirely different. But, having kept my life routinely familiar, minimising variables and changing only my sugar intake may encourage me to conclude that this giving up malarky might actually be doing some good!

Now on to the more hardcore stuff.

Saturday saw the intro of drinking/socialising events into the 30 Day Challenge calendar. Having met a lovely bunch of friendlings, who ritualistically celebrated the first warm(ish) day of spring by drinking that lovely honey coloured nectar (larger/cinder/stuff) and there I was…with water. H of the two oh. A glistening glass of ice cold water.

I felt no great loss.

I enjoyed exchanging wonderful hours with people who made me gasp…

I’m in the bath, what are you wearing?

And who made me laugh:

Don’t get a Galaxy 4GS – that thing could cause actual galaxies to collide the amount of gadgets it has!

I was well enough to take the puppy for her evening walk after (along side a somewhat tipsy other half…)

It was so lovely, I may even consider (sometimes) being T-Total forever.. Now, now Steph!

Further updates include:

After much research, I’ve concluded that Stevia is the sweetener of choice. Not for my bank balance, but for my health as studies suggest it can reduce blood sugar levels. So I’ve vowed to make some sweet (sugar free) treats for work on Monday to further highlight the cause.

Craving Rating: (1 being non, 10 being unbearable) I’m going for a 3 at the moment.

Survival: So far, I’ve survived Farero Roche,  2 cake websites, 5 episodes of Master Chef, 1 occasion of social drinking, an Indian Takeaway (see below) with Pizza Hut tomorrow!

The Indian Takeaway challenge!

I fancied a treat. So, on good recommendation we went to Kushoom Koly in Heaton Moor. What a wonderful experience it was. They were so welcoming of my sugar needs, that I had a  Fonz like character (who I admit I now have a soft spot for) catering to my every sugar related question…

Fonz recommended a lovely dish which suited my taste of spicy but creamy, and we came away with some tasty, and some complimentary lovelies. I was over the moon. It was, by far, the best takeaway I’ve ever had. Tasted totally fresh and the chicken I had was YUM. 

I dedicate this blog post to you guys! We had half on Friday and half tonight, and it was beautiful. Will definitely be returning! 

That’s all for tonight guys and dolls (see, carrying on with the Fonz theme here!)

Till later x

Artificial sweetners and insulin levels?

Today the cravings started. 

First it was fizzy (sugar free?) flavoured water. I don’t ever drink fizzy water! Then it was cake, but only because I was looking at a new cake shop website. Daft thing to do, really.

I’ve been eating a hand full of grapes, and the odd tangerine to taper off any sweet cravings and so far that’s been fine. I’ve been (un)lucky enough to have vertigo for the last week, which hasn’t encouraged eating particularly! But I’m already planning what I’m going to eat when I finish the challenge. I’m thinking scones, with jam! Om nom nom!! 

I’m thinking I might cook some sugar free rhubarb muffins or a crumble with frozen yoghurt at the weekend, as a treat. 

I’m even contemplating looking at sweeteners, but I’m not the biggest fan of those – I’m not entirely sure they’re good for insulin levels. Maybe I can read about them!

 

Brain Farts

So, it begins. I’ve been attempting to write this blog a few times, but every time I come here my brain does a fart and I can’t think!! Maybe it’s the lack of sugar. 

I’m just about wrapping up day two, and a number of things are very starkly starring me in the face…

1. How much sugar makes up my usual diet?!?! 

Lots…apparently. Yesterday, I ate bacon, tomato, mushies and egg for breakfast…see photo —->

I had a rice cake and a tangerine for lunch and then this lovely dish for dinner….

a nice bit of River Cobler with butter bean cassoule! YUM. But on realising I had 10grams of natural sugar allowance left, I thought – GREAT! Let’s have some fruit. Only to find that my 10grams of fruit was made up completely of three grapes. THREE! Three grapes and a spoonful of natural, not messed with at all, yoghurt. 

One thing that scared me, was that all day, I’d only consumed 664 calories, but had reached my sugar limit. In a last ditched bid to see if I could bring my calorie intake up, I started munchelling on some roasted nuts.  So in answer to question 1) yep, my previous diet must have been make up of some serious sugar. 

Today, I’ve managed to up my calories to an acceptable level 🙂

I realised today that I need some measurements – I need to be able to establish the change in myself from pre-sugar challenge. So, because of the research I’ve done, there’s a number of factors I’m going to measure along the way that are strongly attributed to too much sugar in the diet. They are:

• Fatigue
• Mood swings (and for me, Rosacea of the cheekles!)
• Headaches
• Cravings
• Sleep quality
• Sinus problems

I think that’s all, though I may edit with more tomorrow when my brain is working better! Main symptom today = tiredness only cured by a strong cup of black coffee! And brain not working very well. 

On the plus side – I’m not having many cravings at all, and I feel surprisingly sedate, more sedate than normal! 

Want to know a little fact?

Apparently, food standards dictates that Demerera sugar and Muscovado sugar can be called this, even when the actual sugar is white sugar covered in white sugar caramel! So some of them aren’t as good as you think! Look for ‘unrefined Demerera/Muscovado’ to be sure it’s not white sugar in disguise! 

L’Enclume

Hello all!

Well, this week, in the run up to giving up sugar, I’ve found it easy giving up all foods – mainly due to being sick for two days straight! Hurrah! (urgh)

This weekend saw a visit to The Lakes (a first for me) and to the Michelin star restaurant L’Enclume for a 17 course extraveganza. Which means, in the run up to tomorrow, I’ve had a 17 course meal, sticky toffee pudding at Alberts in Didsbury and an Easter egg my mum promised not to buy me but couldn’t resist. 

To be honest, I’m looking forward to having an excuse to say ..

No!

…to all things sugary and indulgent. In preparation, I’ve already checked out a bread recipe which I can chuck together from things in the house, and after being persuaded by the free Kindle sample, bought Pure, White and Deadly: How Sugar is Killing us and what we can do to stop it by John Yudkin & Robert Lustig. 

The support from family and friends has been amazing – I was a bit embarrassed telling people what I was going to do, I’m always the first to caution people against such extreme diet changes, but everyone has been brilliant. 

Having such support has made me more determined to do this, document it and see it though. So much so, I had a nightmare that I’d eaten a KitKat for breakfast on Monday and woke up completely devastated by my dream-self! 

Now to decide what my Last Supper will be! 

Recommended Daily Allowance of Sugar?

So there I was, telling everyone that the recommended daily intake of sugar for a woman is 20 grams, when I stumbled upon this….This packet of Walkers Sunbites says that the guideline daily amount of sugar for a woman is 90 grams! That’s 4 and a half Cadbury Creme Eggs! That’s when I thought:

Gosh, have I been telling everyone it’s 20grams (one Cadbury Creme Egg) when in fact it’s 90grams!

Where did I get the 20 gram thing from?

1. The NHS claims it’s 50g for a woman
2. LiveStrong.com claims women should limit their intake to 30g a day
3. GDA Labelling suggests it’s 90g per day for women
4. Wiki says it’s 40g a day, no more
5. At My Fitness Pal it sits around the 26g mark!

So, with the recommendations ranging from 26grams a day for women, and a whopping 90grams a day – what do we actually go with?! Hashtag CONFUSED!

It’s only three and a half days till I start my 30 day challenge and I still don’t know my limits. Answers on a post card! I suspect some labelling food people might use the highest recommendation (90g) so that their percentage on the front looks a lot lower….

If we used the lowest recommendation (26g) – it would make this packet of ‘healthy’ crisps nearer to 10% of the daily intake, rather than 2%.

Hopefully, before Monday, I will have a conclusive answer from someone?

In other news….

I’ve been asked recently;

What exactly will you do?

So, here’s a little run down of the challenge. All ‘added’ sugars, and refined sugars are out. So any labelling that shows the following:

• glucose
• sucrose
• maltose
• corn syrup
• honey
• hydrolysed starch
• invert sugar
• fructose

…is out. This will include a lot of white bread, all chocolate and sweet treats. I’ll also be declining all ‘concentrated’ fruit juices, with or without added sugar and all sweeteners (as they can act just like sugar in the body and on insulin levels)

In a nut shell, I’ll only be eating naturally occurring sugars i.e. fruit, milk, some cheeses and will only consume my recommend daily allowance in those. Whatever that may be come Monday!!

Welcome to Naureen who has decided to join me in my challenge!

Free Yoghurt

Today, our workplace got a lovely delivery of free yoghurt from @Chobani_UK and because of my crusade, I proceeded to annoy all of my fellow workmates:

Did you know? That one yoghurt you’re eating contains ALL of your recommended daily sugar intake? A woman’s is around 20 grams and that yoghurt contains 19!!

 

Shut up, Steph. 

 

I also realised that instead of promoting a reduced sugar diet to the office, I was inducing type 2 diabetes in them all by feeding them the brownies I made. It was like a zoo at feeding time, and I raised £5.40 for Diabetes Research & Wellness Foundation. 

Adding that to the £69 raised in sponsorship from my colleagues, and a £10 online donation by a lovely lady called Lizzie – It’s all looking great!! 

In a quest to be even more annoying to everyone around me, I’ve started reading free kindle sample chapters from books like Beat Sugar Addiction Now! and Fat Chance: The Bitter Truth About Sugar.

I’ll let you know if any of them tempt me to buy!

Interesting facts of the day:

• Chapattis don’t contain any sugar, nor do many curries (thanks for this one Naureen!)
• Chobani yoghurts contain 19grams of sugar 
• Global use of high-fructose corn syrup has increased by 250% in the last 15 years
• Our rate of diabetes has increased by 45% in that time

 

Chocolate Brownies!!

I made a batch of chocolate brownies last night. I used 550g of sugar! Wow. Though I used golden sugar which stated it was ‘unrefined’ on the packet – but I’m not entirely sure I’ll be ploughing into a bag of that when my challenge starts. But it just goes to show, sugar isn’t just sugar. It comes in all forms, and what is good and what is bad? I’ll avoid brownies, that’s for sure, and stick to naturally sweet fruits for my fix. But if someone was told that only refined sugar was bad, they might be tempted by a brownie thinking it was good for them!

 

Wow – pandora’s box, or what?