Experimenting with Quitting Sugar: Week 5

Almost in the final stretches of the experiment! And only a week to go before my holiday - this time next week I will be lying on a beach in Tunisia sunning myself.

So how was week 5?

Well, as I mentioned last week, I was away on business all week. Which turned out to be ok really - I turned down desserts at lunch, and that was really the only thing I had to do. Well, breakfast wasn't quite the level of food I'd normally go for - most of the offerings were fruits, yoghurts and cereals, so as I'm trying to cut back on dairy as well that wasn't going to fly. Luckily there was some cold meat and nice, fresh dark bread, so I could enjoy that with my tea every morning.

The break offerings from the venue during the meeting weren't greatly me friendly - lots of fruit and pastries! I did have half a kiwi one morning and a single small pastry on two afternoons. The kiwi was lovely but the pastries while nice, didn't completely float my boat. Which is a very good thing.


I have tried a couple of new things this week as well. Spar in Austria makes a couple of ice cream flavours using Stevia, so I thought I'd give the Latte Macchiato flavour a go.And very nice it is too. My attempt at baking with Stevia did not go so well on the other hand. It is quite frankly disgusting. I have never had to throw something away without eating at least some of it before, but yesterday I did just that. Evidently you can't do a straight substitute for sugar with stevia. I need to find some properly adapted recipes, and I have some dextrose powder to try with as well. I will figure it out!

On the cutting back on dairy front, I've tried very hard to limit my consumption to just milk in my tea, and not eat too much cheese, but I did give in to temptation with the ice cream. I'm not sure I'm ready to go cold turkey on the dairy front.

Have you seen any benefits this week?

Overall I think my skin looks clearer. I'm still struggling with some persistent spots on my jaw, neck and chin, but they are starting to ease up as I have reduced the amount of exfoliant I use, and am switching my foundation to an oil free one. However, the amount of spots on my cheeks are greatly reduced (read virtually none), and my skin texture is much much better. Even without foundation, above my mouth my skin is smoother and clearer.

I have absolutely no idea about my weight, as I haven't stepped on the scales, but I still feel slimmer and healthier. That is the most important thing really!

Next week?

Final week of the experiment! Will I continue on? I will definitely be continuing on this no sugar life, even if my skin hasn't cleared up completely but I feel healthier overall.

I know that there will be plenty of challenges while I'm on holiday - cocktails laden with fruit juice etc, but I'll cross that bridge as I come to it and see how I feel when I'm there. Hopefully my skin will clear up completely, but who knows. I am a little fearful that my skin issues cannot be resolved in a simple manner, no matter how much I would like that!

We have a couple of nights out this week, but eating out has been the least of my worries so far - I can usually find something on a menu to suit my dietary needs! I'm a little bored of snacking on nuts though, so I need to work this week on finding alternatives.