I quit sugar for 10 weeks & this is what happened.

I quit sugar for 10 weeks in 2014. And I mean ALL sugar - fruit, booze, bread the lot..

It’s still completely changed the way I eat now.

Why would I quit sugar

The majority of us eat too much sugar. My consumption wasn’t even in the conventional way. Never ate sweets. I defo liked the odd chocolate or biscuit, however I’ve always been a savoury over sweet person but it didn’t mean I wasn’t taking in loads of hidden sugar. My hit was in my condiments. Ketchup was a small swimming pool on the plate, sriracha, sweet chilli sauce, chutney’s, pickles & really anything in a jar!

I went cold turkey. This is what happened

You get to week 3 and you want to give up it’s hard, like really hard. But as time goes on somehow you get used to it and it honestly feels AMAZING!

1) No peaks and troughs - just a stable feeling all through the day

2) You wake up like you’ve never felt before. This one was the best part of it for me!

3) Clarity like a sharp pin

4) Weight loss

5) You never crave, or to be honest even feel hungry. By lunchtime I had to remind myself what that time was for. (Not saying that part is a good thing)

6) You feel so flipping well!

What happens when you stop & revert back

The good bit is you never really revert back fully. Your palette changes. It feels like a reset! And that’s what I wanted to achieve. Vegetables like sweet potatoes & beetroot taste super sweet. You don’t need it as much. As the saying going it takes ‘6 weeks to change a habit’. I intended to do 8 weeks but carried on for another 2 as I liked the challenge & how I felt. Both my husband & I gradually overhauled the cupboards in the following weeks and months & they still look mostly the same. ( I have to say he didn’t partake because he is a chef and needs to try his kitchen teams food and eat what they produce which will always contain sugar.) Although he has snuck a few things in and I’m cool with that. But we definitely reduced our intake. I’ve never bought a packet of pasta since & only a rare loaf of bread when we have visitors mostly. Ketchup eventually came back but the intake is a 5th of what it was. I taste the actual food now.

I learned to adapt my cooking. Cooking from scratch becomes the only way because most things contains sugar. You make your own salad dressings, Fresh herbs & spices move right up the list & feature highly. And then as a side effect the diet becomes way more healthy because you are removing any food that comes in a box - processed food! Instead of ketchup with my poached eggs I switched it for avocados (as I don’t think the two go together) or sometimes I’ll even have pasata a tomato puree. Yoghurt works in some places instead of Mayo! There’s loads of healthy hacks to switch up. TRY IT.

Alcohol

Oh yes Alcohol another reason I felt so good. But I switched from vodka & lemonade to a skinny bitch AKA Vodka soda. I literally cannot imagine how I would drink lemonade now. Back to the old 6 week habit. And only a hangover to be had if I stray to a sugar drink like an Aperol or a cocktail now. WINNER WINNER!

80 / 20 - rule

Disclaimer: I went on holiday with some friends in October and they looked at my breakfast plate including hash browns & sausages and laughed… On holiday I’m on holiday and I loveeeee I full English. When I come back I go back to the lifestyle and type of home cooking I LOVE. It suits me. And to be honest I got so sick when I got back I was quite glad to eat clean again and what feels like nourishes me.

The hilarious thing about this book I Quit Sugar by Sarah Wilson.. is after having it on my shelf for 8 plus years. I’ve realised on taking of photo of it that I’ve possibly never even opened it. Lol! But it does seem to have some good recipes in it.

World Diabetes day today Monday 14th November

I wanted to write this today because it’s world diabetes day and once this disease, never existed. And now we have 422 million diabetics world wide! Type II diabetes is brought on by an unhealthy diet. Insulin levels will be normal in the person but the gauge is literally moved out of range by over consumption & and the bodies cells become resistant to insulin. The metabolism of Carbohydrates, fats & proteins are altered. In other words Diabetes can be PREVENTED by a healthy diet and some reverse their Type II by switching to healthy home cooked food. 100 years ago we ate 1kg of sugar, now we eat 60kg a year.