So I Decided it Was Time to Quit the Sweet Habit

 In Lazy Girls Guide to Quitting Sugar

Week 1 – 21/9/2016 – 27/9/2016

Lazy Girl’s Guide to Quitting Sugar, this is my account of my journey along kicking the sugar habit which has sustained me for years. I will be not only talking about me, how I feel, how I handle getting off sugar but also any recipes or other fun things I discover along the way. I call it the Lazy Girl’s Guide because I am not one to follow recipes and advice to a tee, I tend to mix things up a bit cause I can’t be bothered doing everything as I told.

Now here goes, after going to see a kinesiologist to hopeful find some answers about my chronic fatigue all of what she said resonated so much with me, but there were a few things that really kicked me up the arse. So I have a huge sugar addiction, if I don’t have sugar in my food it tastes bland, and one thing my mum has always said is that she is concerned that I would get diabetes like my Pa. Everytime I went to the Doctor to get some answers on my fatigue I was always tested for diabetes and it came up clear. What happened at the kinesiologist was different, she said that not only are my adrenal glands out of whack, but my insulin levels and pancreas (that levels out insulin) is also out of whack. I mentioned my mums concern, and she said well if you don’t have diabetes now your body is heading that direction.

BAM! Stopped in my tracks, I went straight to get the I Quit Sugar book by the fabulous Sarah Wilson and also picked up That Sugar Book from Damon and Zoe Gamau.

Now this was a Wednesday and as I had no time to properly do any sort of shopping or clearing out of the immense amount of sugar products I had in my house. So I opted to just up my water intake, so actually drink some that doesn’t contain a ton of sugar, and see how I went not indulging in my regular sugar cravings. I also switched up my coffee so instead of my usual caramel latte onlactose-freee milk, for my lactose hating stomach, and opted to make my coffee at home as I can make it in a way that I can drink it without any sugar products. These changes also saved me money as I no longer put $5 on coffee everyday, and didn’t automatically grab a soft drink or sugary treat when bored and out and about.

I did well, had my water bottle with fruit infuser (I don’t like the lack of taste in water so needed something) and avoided the easy and open access to sugary drinks and treats in my office. Then the biggest test came when on Friday when we had company presentation and snacks our lovely office manager decided to get a treat in the form of delicious donuts. It was a painful experience to have them all laid out on the office kitchen table and everyone digging in, I took in the scent of the sugar and asked a work mate to describe the taste of one of them I hadn’t tried before. Yes I went that weird, it was just so painful.

I did let myself off a little though as I was having a cider that afternoon and had some wine at an event I went to that night so there was some extra sugar in my diet that day. It was a reward for sticking to it for the couple of days I had.

Then over the weekend I had the time and opportunity to do a shop and also a massive clear out of all the sugary crap in my house. I also had a whole heap of sauces both table and cooking that I never realised had so much sugar in them. I didn’t want to throw more stuff out so I offered them to my brother and his family so they get a lot of this choice by me to drop sugar as well. But at the end of the weekend I hadn’t actually accomplished my 1 goal which was to cook up food for the week to avoid me taking my usual route of opting for take out as I couldn’t be bothered cooking during the week. I chose instead to spend my Sunday night installing my pull out pantry that had been sitting on my balcony for months. I figured I had my pantry pretty much empty and would need to empty it to get the thing installed so took everything out and installed it. I did feel like I accomplished something after I finished and I did cause my body felt it for the next couple of days.

Now I am into my first full week of no sugar in my diet, the only bits there is is in the fruit I put in my water to give it a bit of flavour. Man I miss sugar and the cravings are soooo hard to ignore, I am also pulling myself up for foul mood actions, I can’t say I wouldn’t act like that with sugar but figure why not adjust overall. I am still getting my coffee at home, which is nice, and having my water all day, I am also more conscious of my choices at lunch. See we get lunch supplied at my office and so I don’t want to go and buy more food or cook when all I need to do is pick my food smartly. For instance we had some hot chips and there was tomato sauce there for them, usually I would put a heap of that on the chips but I skipped the sauce this time.

I hope to get through this first part which I keep reading is the hardest as my body readjusts to not getting the hit of sugar when a craving calls and then feel better enough to keep going. No doubt I will slip up and I already have a cheat day planned on Saturday as it’s my puppy’s birthday and I am having a BBQ with friends. I won’t go completely crazy but will probably be drinking something with sugar in it, alcohol only otherwise will stick to water, and have a few food items with sugar.

Check back next week and I will give you an update on how I am handling the sugar cravings and how the party went sans huge amounts of sugar (my favourite part of parties).

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Showing 4 comments
  • Elissa

    Good on you Jodie! I’m on Day 3 of a juice cleanse and my headache is epic 😉

    • Jodie

      Hi Elissa,

      Thanks and good luck with the juice cleanse!!! I missed the headache stage of the withdrawals from sugar but had some killer lethargy.

      Good luck
      Jodie

  • Laskmyoga

    It’s a pleasure to find someone who can identify these issues of sugar so clearly. I’m definitely not ready to quit altogether but I have opted to taking in less. 🙌🏾

    • Jodie

      Hi Laskmyoga,

      It’s definitely a hard option to quit altogether but cutting down is a step in the right direction, I wouldn’t be able to just cut down without cutting it out altogether so that’s the option I had to take.

      Good luck
      Jodie

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