I Quit a little bit of Sugar

February 11, 2016 Explorer Gabor 0 Comments

I could have called this post "My greek yoghurt addiction" or "I'm a bit of a JERF". I've been on the road to quitting sugar.  It's harder than you might expect, that stuff is hidden in everything.

About a year ago, thinking I should eat more healthy, I bought Sarah Wilson's e-book "I Quit Sugar" as well as David Gillespie's "Sweet Poison".  Both convinced me sugar, mainly fructose, is bad and I need to take the life-saving step and quit sugar.  I thought about it for a while, then work became really busy, stress and tiredness crept in.  For most of the year I happily ate chocolate and other sweet treats, completely forgetting about the evils of sugar.

Until the end of the year.  I'd been following I Quit Sugar on Facebook for a couple of months, looking at a few of the articles, and figured it couldn't really be that hard.  So after reading the main principles behind quitting sugar, I took the plunge last month....after we finished all the Christmas chocolates, as they were too good to go to waste!

Luckily I don't add sugar to my tea or breakfast cereal and I'm not a fan of lollies or fruit juice.  But I do love chocolate, teriyaki chicken, fruit yoghurt, dried fruit, chilli jam and smokey BBQ sauce....all of which contain a lot of sugar. So I had to look for alternatives. Instead of fruit yoghurt, I've switched to plain full fat greek yoghurt with no added sugar. Careful with the low-fat stuff - in sucking out the fat they often add sugar to make it look and taste better - though I have found Jalna offers a low fat version without added sugar, it just doesn't taste as good.

Plain greek yoghurt is plain, tart and not exactly dessert material.  To make it tastier, it's suggested you add toasted flaked almonds, toasted coconut shavings and cacao nibs.  This is divine. I'm eating two serves a day and could eat more but I limit how much I take to work.  If you haven't heard of cacao nibs, they look like tiny bits of dried chocolate and don't taste very nice. Unless you add them to greek yoghurt, then they add a nice crunch and slight cocoa flavour.

Yum:  Greek yoghurt with almonds, coconut & cacao nibs

Within a month, I've given up my chilli jam, fruit yoghurt, dried fruit, high-sugar sauces and, the hardest of all, chocolate.  Still haven't given up teriyaki chicken and don't think I will as it's my weekly lunchtime treat. The I Quit Sugar plan also recommends you give up fruit.  I continue to enjoy fresh berries on my weetbix and have cut out other fruit, though I wasn't one to eat heaps of fruit anyway.

I'm quite enjoying having less sugar in my diet, it feels good.  In fact, I wouldn't mind taking the next step and being a full-on JERF, but don't think I have the time or perseverance to Just Eat Real Food all the time, with nothing coming from a packet, bottle or can.  It's very time consuming preparing every meal or snack from raw ingredients and at this stage of my life, it's just not going to happen. For now, I'll settle for a low sugar, kinda JERFy eating regime.

The I Quit Sugar website features people espousing how quitting sugar changed their life, cleared their skin and they lost so much weight without really trying.  Whilst I haven't followed the plan precisely, it certainly hasn't been life changing and my skin looks the same.  I lost about 0.5kg in a month and feel really good.

I also gained a greek yoghurt addiction that shows no sign of easing up.

If you want to get on the I Quit Sugar bandwagon or just reduce the amount of sugar you're eating, it's worth exploring quitting sugar further.  Who knows, you might end up a bit of a JERF.

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