Oh and be careful eating diet foods, like diet yoghurts they can have double the amount of sugar.
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Oh and be careful eating diet foods, like diet yoghurts they can have double the amount of sugar.
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Thanks girls, I do try to avoid diet stuff. I can't stand the taste of it mostly anyway, like yogurts. I don't like diet cordials or soft drinks if I do have that stuff it will be the full sugar stuff, just limited to once every few days or so. I don't drink alot of it anyway, I have water the majority of the time. Plus, I try to avoid processed stuff too, so the diet stuff is usually fairly highly processed. If I have diet yogurt, its the Jalna one...yummy! But pretty expensive, and we have a pretty tight budget at the mo!
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I think you're fine to have a glass of normal cordial a day, I drink cordial now and it's not too bad, It's never made me put on weight. I just have one glass a day with dinner and drink water most of the time too. I find the more sugar you have the more you want. Don't go cutting out all the sweet things you love all at once or it will be too hard, but little things like sugar in your tea etc, slowly does it bit by bit. ANy little changes you make will make a difference.
Good luck hun, you can do it
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I have just cut out sugar in the last month and without changing anything else in my life it has made a difference! I read "The sweet poison quit plan" and I was really inspired to make a lifestyle change and ditch sugar. It has been really easy now that I understand fully where sugar is hiding and why it is so bad for us. I would highly recommend reading it or just "Sweet Poison" - I managed to find a copy at the local library. I would also suggest that if you find it hard going to cut sugar out (I know that the tiredness of pregnancy made it really hard to make changes like this) try cutting back slowly rather than cold turkey. Just a little less in your tea, watered down juice etc until you don't need any anymore. If you are a hard core type person, you can certainly go cold turkey though!
Congratulations on making real steps to develop healthier habits, you are really inspiring!
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I feel inspired now too lillias!!! Being pregnant i've slipped quite a bit, sugary foods are so easy to eat when you don't feel well.
Going to have a bit of a google on that book
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Quick question Jackrose, does the sweet poison quit plan say to substitute sugar for artificial sweetners? I eliminated artificial sweetners because of all the health concerns, I also used to get constant migraines from them.
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For me it's portion sizes. You'd be amazed at how much more you eat than your body actually needs. We started Lite N Easy recently and was blown away at how much smaller everything was. For example a bowl of pasta was literally 50% than if I had made it myself. I used to eat reasonably well but just far too much of it.
So if I were you I'd think about the quantities of what you are eating. Try and reduce your portion sizes to what your body actually needs and see if that gets you anywhere.
Good luck!
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You won't necessarily need to replace with artificial sweetners, and if you have such a reaction, I would definatly not. You will have to reduce sugar the old fashioned way!
The plan suggests substituting artificial sugars IF you eat a lot of sugar and are really hooked - and then only as an interim measure to help you get off 'the junk'. Eg, if you drink coke or soft drink every day and it has become a habitual part of your lifestyle such as every time you relax after work or as a reward when you get the baby to sleep etc. If it is tied to your lifestyle the author suggests breaking the sugar habit by replacing that sugar drink (or food) with an artificial substitute for the few weeks it takes you to get sugar free. After about 3 weeks of not ingesting any sugar (ie in obvious sweets but also added sugar and secret sugar in things like tomato sauce, mayonnaise, some breads, spreads, cereal, juice, etc) he maintains you will no longer desire sugar as you would have broken your body's desire for it. At that time you will most likely find that the artificial sweeteners taste too metallic and too sweet and should automatically not want them. I personally did not worry about replacing sugar in my diet as I didn't eat that much of it and found my sugar was not really related to lifestyle, more just an ongoing munching habit!! I merely avoided all processed sugar and all foods with added sugar and slowly cut down the amount of sugar in my tea day by day. After about 10 days I was easily turning down tim tams, drinking tea without sugar and for the first time in ages, seeking fruit and veggies as snacks.
And that is what I have found to be really interesting! I have never dieted but have often tried to take a healthier lifestyle approach. I've stocked the house with fresh foods, thrown out the chocolate and sweets etc and attempted but have always failed. The right stuff just did not cut it when it came to satisfying a craving. I found I would inadvertently be eating sugar without realising it as an added in other foods. Reading the book really highlighted how sugar controls your food intake, your mindset and your health. Now the restocked fresh fruit and veggies are cutting it and I am finding it easier and easier to hear my 'inner voice' when it comes to food intake. It helps with portion size too. As the others have mentioned we eat far too much really and really need to cut back on portions. I always found this incredibly hard as I was able to just keep eating. Sugar does that too. It throws off your satiation point so you don't register when you are full. Plus it causes you to always have that gnawing hunger feeling, 'I'll just eat this biscuit to tide me over' sort of mentality. Once you have been without sugar for about 3 weeks (I think the book suggests) your on your way to rebalancing your inner measure of hunger and can make it between meals without the over the top need to snack, plus, when you are full, you naturally desire to stop eating.
I've been getting off the stuff since the end of October and finally I am beginning to see changes in my appetite. In the interim I kept nuts and seeds around to control those sugar cravings. It is really cool to not feel the need to have a cake with my coffee every day, to walk past aisles and aisles of sugar packed products in the supermarket and not be interested and to be proud of myself too. My eyes have also opened to how much processed sugar there is out there!! I have a whole new appreciation. I walk into a cafe and half the products are off the list for me! The glittering packets of chocolate and gum in a service station or the checkout at the supermarket look like a hilarious joke rather than a temptation, it is so liberating!!!
I'm sorry for going on a bit about this but the book and the idea of sugar free has really been cool!
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