Corinne's sugar-free lifestyle diary! :D

K

korikun

New member
Okay, Tomble seriously inspired me to start this, so here goes...

This won't be a traditional weight loss journal, but more a health-based one. So I'll start being less focused on calories and MORE focused and the types of food that I eat.

I eat extremely unhealthily and am highly prone to binges. Most of these involve SUGAR, and lots of it. Most of my daily calories come from the evil substance, and I know that it can't be healthy... Marathon runners are only supposed to get a maximum of 40 grams, and I probably eat five times that much every day, if not more!

The worst part is, every time I eat it, I want more of it, and end up going way over my healthy calorie limit. Which, as many of you probably know, is followed by extreme guilt and self-loathing, wondering why I simply cannot have a bit of self control.

Well, tomorrow (or today, since it's already 2 a.m.) I'm going to try going cold turkey... This stuff isn't good for me and I wan't it gone! Meaning, no added sugars, treats, or anything like that for a while at least... The only sugars that I will consume will be from fruits and other natural sources, the type that aren't so bad for you.

I'd love help in this, so any comments would be awesome =D If anyone wants to share their own stories about sugar-free eating, that would be great too, I love reading inspirational things!

Eventually I'll let myself eat a bit of sugar again, but only as a rare treat... I really want to see if these cravings actually can disappear, allowing me to eat healthily for the first time in my life.

Well... REALLY looking forward to my first day!

Seeya all soon ^_^

~Kori
 
Oh wow! Good for you! I'm really flattered that you took my example to heart :) :)

It's really a one day at a time thing, and if you do fail, try not to think `well, I've eaten some sugar, today is ruined, I'm just going to go crazy and eat as much as I want'.

I think if you can get a week or so without sugar behind you, you will start to find it much easier. Perhaps get a jar and put all the money you would spend on sugary snacks into it. I estimate I'm saving maybe $30-$50.00 a week on snacks alone, mostly of the sugary variety. Think of it, a sugary drink, a donut or two, a chocolate bar. $6 dollars or more easily - DAILY.

I am also mostly avoiding artificially sweetened things. I don't want to know about super sweet flavours, other than what I can get from fruit!

If you're really tempted to start eating sugar, get to your computer, type "diabetes epidemic" into google, and read a half dozen articles. It scared the hell out of me. I was overweight (still am) and binging on sugar (not anymore!), and at more risk than I liked of developing diabetes.

Oh, and get sugar out of your house, if you can! I don't keep anything snackable in the house other than fruit, and I particularly avoid keeping anything sweet and snacky in the house. The temptation is too great.

After a month or so on a basically zero sugar diet, I've found that I feel a lot better in general. I used to have days when I felt hungover - tired, a bit sick, headachey, awful in general. I now believe firmly that these were some sort of sugar crash, because I would often eat three of four chocolate bars a night. Not just bad for me, it got me up to 121.5 kg (267lb). Awful. Those unpleasant days are gone now, and I only noticed in the last couple of weeks.

I'm finally under control, and without the calories of sugar, it takes a surprising amount of healthy food to hit 1400 or more calories for the day!

More power to you, I think you're going to enjoy it! I'm really looking forward to seeing how you go with this.
 
I hate artificial sweeteners anyway, so that won't be much of a problem :) They leave a disgusting taste behind in my mouth that I'd rather just do without XD

Yeah, I'll try not to do that whole "today's ruined, let's eat a three pints of Ben and Jerry's" thing. And I know what you mean about the money. I'd withdraw 100 hard-earned dollars from the bank, for the SOLE purpose of doing laundry, (I'd tell myself that this should last the whole semester on landry) but it would gradually, or quickly, be spent on sugary snacks.

That's a lot of money, which could be saved for things that I actually need, or enjoy. 300 dollars wasted on stuff like candy and magazines is already gone... And that needs to change, as a part of my lifestyle.

I don't live in a house, but I'll definitely keep it out of my dorm room, and try to avoid even looking at the vending machines as much as possible. Sadly, your laundry money is on a card, which can also be used to purchase sugary snacks from the vending machines ): Horrible, lol.

Thanks for the diabetes tip, and I feel for you on the hungover thing. Sugar gets me on a rush and keeps me up all night, and I end up sleeping in until 1 pm and missing all of my classes...

In fact, I missed English for the 4th time time, it's 1:34 and I've only been awake for a half an hour :eek:h

Not a very good way to start the day, since I'm already getting failing participation points in all of my classes ;__;

To start off, I weighed myself today so that I could better assess my calorie goals... 5'8" and 126.5 pounds. I've been bingeing on sugar the whole past week, so I thought I'd gain at least a little bit, but I actually lost some... I'll have to keep my calorie intake high, I guess.

Anyways, off for 'breakfast'! I think I'll have an all-fruit smoothie, and maybe some whole grains. Then off to the store to get my healthy food ^_^ Will report back later!
 
Okay today = TOTAL BUST >_<

I won't even say what I ate... Let's just say it was awful and I feel extremely nauseous right now. I just had three large cookies, and that was only the tip of the ice berg... So sick o_o Nor did I exercise, because I slept for too long and the gym closed :\

Well, I'm going to keep trying until I get this right. I did go to the store and get healthy food... I just got bad food too, that I thought I could eat in moderation but couldn't.

Sorry to dsappoint whoever reads this ):
 
No more food for me till after I wake up, but I'll take you up on that tomorrow :) I've got as many tries as possible till I can make it to my goal, I guess! Just going to keep going on.
 
Hey hon and welcome!

When you are properly addicted to anything, going cold turkey is incredibly hard! Of course it depends onthe individual, but do you think maybe for you phasing it out gradually might be more realistic?

Eg 40g per day for 1 week. If this is the recommended limit (I don't personally know!), and you are going way over, this would be a great start!

Week 2 = 20g sugar per day

Week 3 = 10g sugar per day

Week 4 and 5= zero sugar!! (except from fruit)

Week 6 = occasional treat.

What do you think?
 
Sounds good, kezzy :D

I broke it again today, because I didn't sleep last night and only recently took a htree hour nap... So two candy bars and two ice cream cones >_< Not a huge binge calorie wise, since that's all I'm going to eat today, but unhealthy nonetheless.

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow XD
 
:) Hi korikun and welcome.

I agree with Tomble about the one day at a time thing.

It does make weight loss easier for sugar addicts like you and me.

It sounds to me like you are in a cycle of massive sugar highs and sugar lows right now - the high automatically creates a low and the low makes you crave a high. It's a vicious cycle that also leads to depressing binges, and eventual obesity.

A diabetic style eating plan should help you. If you replace the simple sugars in your diet with more complex carbohydrates, more protein and more vegetables you will find you feel heaps better, and your sugar levels will be more stable, so that you don't feel such a pull towards those sugary snacks. I know this sounds boring to think about, but in practice it doesn't need to be. It does take some effort.

Is 126 lbs your goal or your starting weight? I know BMI is an imperfect tool, but I put 5'8" and 126 pounds into a BMI calculator and it comes up "malnourished"! BMI Calculator - Body Mass Index

Good on you for bringing your eating issues to a place like this where you can get some help with them. Lots of luck!! :)
 
Careful with that sugar, I'm watching you!! :cool:

Ha ha, it's okay. It will probably take you a while to get over it, the first weeks were NOT easy for me, and from what you say I think you've got a bigger sweet tooth than I had. Cold Turkey doesn't work for most people, so just try and reduce the amount of sugar you eat until one day - you eat none at all! Then two days and so on. You can definitely do this!
 
126 around is my weight right now.

Yeah, its been hard, I've binge eaten every day since I started this diary ;_; No more food for me today, but tomorrow I'm going to really try and crack down, just not eating the food even if I want to... It's going to take willpower, and I guess I have to grow some >_<

I think i HAVE to go cold turkey, because any amount causes a binge :\

Will update tomorrow.
 
korikun said:
126 around is my weight right now.

Yeah, its been hard, I've binge eaten every day since I started this diary ;_; No more food for me today, but tomorrow I'm going to really try and crack down, just not eating the food even if I want to... It's going to take willpower, and I guess I have to grow some >_<

I think i HAVE to go cold turkey, because any amount causes a binge :\

Will update tomorrow.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the willpower is not easy. I didn't change overnight into Captain Willpower (Able To Refuse A Sweet Snack Anytime) - heck, I never changed into that guy, it's still a strugglle. It was a bit more gradual, I guess I gained confidence in myself being able to go shopping without buying junk. Before that I could NOT get out of the shops without a bunch of sugary food.

I really despaired of ever getting away from my bad eating habits, and felt that sense of `why bother'. At least you're keeping your goal in mind, I am sure you can do it. If you can cut down, perhaps get yourself into a state where you never snack after dinner. Master that, then never snack before dinner either. Try and expand it.

Here's an idea - write down everything you eat tomorrow. Everything that goes into your mouth, you write on a piece of paper, then tomorrow evening you post what you ate here. No cheating, no missing out on writing anything.
Writing down my daily eating made me really think about what I was doing and start to get perspective on how wildly my daily diet varied from that of a normal, healthy diet. (Good heavens, a normal person doesn't eat a whole block of chocolate in 10 minutes for an after dinner snack?!)

Good luck!
 
BAD >_<

I ate three packets of whoppers and two ice cream cones...

KICK MY ASS GUYS XDD

Thanks for visiting my journal, Tomble, thinking about being a disappointment ALMOST stopped me from eating the three whopper packets... But then I did it ;__; I was sooo close too...

Okay, tomorrow, i SWEAR I won't binge >_<
 
Okay, give it your best shot tomorrow! I look forward to reading about it!

Would you say what you ate today would be more or less than normal?

If you're about to eat junk, try to visualise how good you will feel if you can sit down and post to your diary that you went a whole day without! Best wishes for tomorrow!
 
Last edited:
About normal... I do this pretty much every day.

I ate other things aside from the treats, but if you added those up, it would be a healthy amount of calories, not way over what I should be consuming.

And thanks, I'll be sure to do better tomorrow =D
 
Hi! Great work on not binging yesterday! A little gelato is nothing, from what you wrote in my diary it sounds like you managed to eat a lot less sugar than normal! Like I said earlier, it's not going to be an overnight process, you have to whittle away at it!
 
I binged horribly today... I think I need to get professional help :(

I'll keep visiting the forums, but I porbably have to see a doctor to find out if there's anything seriously wrong with me. I can't go for more than one day a week without bingeing, and that isn't natural :\ I hope it's not just that I have zero self control, because then I'd never be able to stop.

Thank you for all of the support so far.
 
:) Good on you for keeping at this korikun. :)

:D You will be so happy with yourself for persisting once you get a bit further along. :D

You may be right about having to go cold turkey, but if you are trying to do that and finding yourself going off the edge. You might try these things that others (including me) have found useful:
- time shift your sugar to the end of a full meal, so that it doesn't all hit your blood stream at once. (That's another way to try and break the cycle of highs and lows).
- make sure you get 3 meals a day with at least some protein in each one.
(Hunger is a route into bingeing).
- especially never skip breakfast.

Good luck. You are doing such a great job of keeping up your determination despite the attacks you're getting!! :) :)
 
You might find it helpful to read something about sugar addiction.

I found the books by Kathleen Des Maisons helpful, though I don't totally agree with her. (Her first one was Potatoes not Prozac - I just got her books from a library.) She has a website. I just checked it and see that she runs a support program you can join for a fee. However without doing that you can see all her basic ideas for free if you go to this page and just read there and click along the icons at the bottom of the page.


I joined something free online there a couple of years ago and have been getting a free monthly newsletter ever since (not reading it though - I should unsubscribe). Also at that time I thought she had a free forum - but was scared to post on the net at that stage. Things may be different there now.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top