Experimenting with Quitting Sugar: Week 2

Or Week 4 of Sarah Wilson's 8 week plan, as I'd skipped ahead a couple of weeks!

So how was it?

Pretty much ok. I did a bit of reflecting on how easy things seem to have been and remembered that when I quit smoking (both times), I had no problems going cold turkey with that either. I don't seem to have an addictive personality; whether that is something that I have learned, or that it is something that I have a genetic predisposition to, I don't know, but it is quite interesting. I wouldn't say I'm a particularly disciplined person when it comes to self restraint, so I must just have some ability to not get properly hooked on stuff.

So week 2/4 was good. I kept up the increased healthy fats (more nuts and avocadoes), and didn't berate myself for eating butter, and fat on meat etc, but in moderation. The challenge came in the form of our trip to Paris - while it has been totally easy to control my food when I'm presented with a huge amount of options (and Austria is a good place to be sugar free), a trip to France meant that the options became a little more limited. But I think I coped as well as I could.

Were there any particular challenges?

Breakfast in Paris. Saturday morning was ok (and thankfully a friend had reminded me that French croissants don't contain sugar, which was a relief!), with eggs, bacon and croissants being the chosen petit dejeuner, but avoiding white bread (which has a small amount of sugar added for the yeast) is not something you can do as the French seem to eat baguette with every single meal. But it is only a small amount and I didn't seem to suffer any ill effects.

Desserts were my next biggest challenge. Initially I had though it would be ok, but after having a cheese plate one night, the following night I realised that I didn't want a repeat of the same cheeses. And the dessert menu looked amazing. I settled for a brioche french toast thing with caramel icecream, reasoning that I hadn't eaten any sugar for at least 2 weeks, so just this little bit was going to be ok. Which is was, and it didn't set me off on a sugar binge, so I guess any feint addiction I may have had is no longer there. It wasn't overly sweet anyway; the caramel icecream was that almost burnt caramel that I love so much, and the brioche and vanilla custard was not of the birds variety and derived much of its sweetness from milk and vanilla. Not the worst thing I could deviate for, by any means.

Have you seen any positive changes this week?

My skin is still clearing, and has done more so this week. This is in part due to eliminating some parts of my skin care routine that appear to have been causing some of the problems, but the number of cystic spots (caused by hormonal imbalances) has dropped right down. This week is my week of PMS, so we shall see whether the quitting sugar has an impact on that as well.

In terms of my weight, I don't think I've actually lost any KG, but I do feel (and my clothes echo that feeling) like I have lost CM. I think my face and neck look slimmer and my bones more defined, and I feel like I have lost some bloat all over. Most significant for me is that the cellulite on my legs seems to have diminished.


How does the next week look?

There will undoubtedly be more challenges this week, but I think they can be navigated successfully.My Mum and Aunt come to visit this weekend which will mean lots of food out and therefore not much control on what I eat. However it should be ok - one thing I have noticed here in Vienna is that there is usually an option for the sugar free diet - even sandwiches in the bakeries have options using topfen (quark) instead of mayonnaise or salad cream. I think I will be able to resist desserts and things, and when eating out will think about using one of Sarah Wilson's tips to order starters as desserts.