DeadVim

I believe in everything in moderation. My day does not start until I have my mug of tea with 3 sugars in the morning. After that it's camomile for hot drinks, usually. I have the occasional Coke Zero but it's a lot of water for me otherwise.

As for sweeteners, I think using actual sugar would be better for the body than the chemicals in those things. Even if it meant using less of it. My Coke Zero is an exception but I just can't drink full-sugar soft drinks any more.

Since I've been tracking my dietary habits with the MyFitnessPal app I mentioned elsewhere I can see the cumulative effect of what I consume so I've been adjusting accordingly.

For instance, if I want to drink booze then I know it will need to be balanced with some exercise. Park further away on the school run, take a brisk walk around the place, that kind of thing. Seems like a fair deal and one that does not involve walking into one of those God-forsaken gyms.

It's working too, flab-wise, I think, I'm not a big fan of scales so go by the feeling of my clothes.

Rambling again, I'm just putting off finishing cleaning the garage

spartacus

Low fat yogurt lies.

http://today.ninemsn.com.au/healthan...t-yoghurt-lies

iamthecreaturefromuranus

http://today.ninemsn.com.au/healthan...th-about-sugar

Same page.

TiddlyPom

I worry that you're all quoting ninemsn. Sugar consumption appears to be down in Australia from previous years, yet people are still getting fatter... hmmm.

Kooky.

Patrick Holford (nutrition god or nutrition quack, opinions vary) once told me, along with a lecture theatre full of other people, to "eat your fruit, don't drink it". If you must drink it, dilute with water, is advice I've had from several doctors and naturopaths.

Vegetable juice is a much better option. Fizzy pop is not, even diet pop. I drink mostly filtered water (or sparkling wine ).

I fell for the "low fat" rubbish in the 80s. Probably contributed to my later/current poor health.

When we did the 7 day detox the other year they gave us coconut water, gallons of it. It's low in natural sugars but obviously does contain some so it might be a good stepping stone for anyone wanting to wean off sugar without suffering bad headaches. Worked for me. Didn't even miss caffeine either.

themerlin

What about moderation in moderation?

DeadVim

Ah, well there ARE exceptions

Already looking forward to my well-brewed tea with 3 sugars tomorrow morning

Nectar from the Gods ... Doubtless there is research out there that says drinking it will increase my chances of developing cancer by 300% but hey ...

Cheetah7

I am not allowed sugar at all, I have sweetener in my tea/coffee, if I have any fruit whatsoever I have to brush my teeth immediately and sweets/chocolate is a distant memory now due to illness.

Personally I think the so called experts go a bit overboard and it is easy to become paranoid about what not to eat.

Eat plenty of fresh fruit and veggies, cut back on red meat, alcohol in moderation, plenty of water, good exercise regime - it isnt rocket science.

DeadVim

<backpeddling>

There are, of course, medical conditions such as yours that mean you have to cut a food group out. In general I agree, it's not rocket science and most of battle is in the head.

I actually like my new found habit of tracking what I consume because it makes you think. I would assume it would be a constraint but it's actually the opposite.

A bit like financial planning/budgeting I guess.

Cheetah7

Oh deffo, I have an iphone app on my phone for diet tracking, tell you one thing though - I SO regret taking eating the crap stuff for granted because now I cant have it, I want it.

DeadVim

Hehe, yup, that's a psychological thing ... I guess the thing is to try and replace the craving with someghing that is better for you and convince yourself the old habits weren't the way to go.

My biggest issue is getting started with exercise, I enjoy it and know I feel better for it during and after but my procrastination skills are very well developed

Safin

I too have been doing the sugar reduction thing for the last month - along with limiting major sources of wheat and lost nearly 7kg.

After 2 weeks the cravings died down significantly. I now appreciate the few sweet things I have. Fruit never tasted sweet before now it does. Any any fruit is better than a choc bar or biscuits !! I still have to have a tsp in tea but drink lots of green tea instead. Its hard but I am convinced that whatever you crave most is likely to be the thing that's doing you damage.

For the record I think its added sugars we need to be most careful of rather than the natural ones. It's kind of hard to eat enough apples to rival a packet of custard creams for sugar.

And I agree it seems to go against the grain but I am now avoiding almost all the low fat stuff as its full of sugar (except skim milk and the now very occasional diet fizz)

macy

Yep day 5 and the cravings are subsiding, even toothpaste this morning tasted sweet. Hubbie loves a spoon of sugar in his coffee so did as suggested in the book and bought some dextrose sugar (the stuff you find in beer aisle in woolies) and it's half a sweet and bit like icing sugar but apparently it just takes the edge off of the tea without sugar. The sugar free life is something that I am going to stick to where possible as the health benefits without anything else seem to be huge.

koalakim

Looks like we're all doing the sugar reducing thing!

I've managed to cut out a lot and if I'm going to have a treat then it's a much smaller portion than usual. However, it does seem to be the hidden sugars which are harder to remove as it's surprising how much of it is in other foods.

I also went to a Patrick Holford seminar a few years back and he explained that fat cells grow and multiply, when you loose weight you still have the extra fat cells but they are just smaller....which I guess might explain why it's easy to put weight back on, your extra fat cells are still there and they expand and multiply again so it's a case of there is no going back, the damage has been done!

After going to his talk I too learnt about fruit juices, we had just bought a juicer and was merrily downing large glasses of neat fruit juice every day! (how I got up at 6am and made fruit juice is still a wonder to me!), he said to water it down but to be honest it ruined the taste. I love fresh fruit juice so now it's a treat about 2 times a year and the juicer sits in the cupboard collecting dust. Otherwise I never touch the bottled stuff or if I do I water that down but I'm very aware of the sugar in drinks and only have a tiny amount as sometimes they are a little more instant thirst quenching than water. The only time I allow myself fizzy drinks (apart from wine ) is when I'm shooting a wedding and need a liquid and a sugar fix at the same time!

As for all the low fat foods etc, they do taste pretty yuk. Low fat mayo is one, give me a blob of the real stuff any day as the diet stuff is too vinegary. I have swapped to skinny caps as I did have a cholesterol increase a while back but then I can't do without my chocci on top of my coffee, it's the best bit and I'm sure the pleasure is better for me than that bit of sugar !

Anyway, I'm a good girl and have rejoined the gym in the last few weeks and so I think with that and the sugar reduction (not total ban) I'm starting to see some improvement!

TiddlyPom

I juice every weekend... carrot, apple, celery, ginger, maybe some kale or broccoli in there... and I eat a high protein breakfast with it...
If I drunk the juice on its own, I'd probably have a meltdown with the carbs in it, but combining it with a protein breakfast works really well.