The no-sugar diet 5 months on

Five months ago I embarked on a no-sugar diet which I wrote about here.  When I say a no-sugar diet what I actually mean is not consuming any foods with artificially added sugar.

I thought it was going to be a lot harder than what it was but I also expected the results to be more pronounced than what they are so far too.

Five months on, I am still successfully on my no-sugar diet though it isn’t really a diet any more but more of a permanent life-style.  To a certain degree it hasn’t impacted on my enjoyment of food at all as many of the most sugary foods I previously consumed such as bran flakes, low-fat yoghurt and fruit drinks I was only eating because of their supposed health benefits.

I prefer weetabix to branflakes, roasted vegetables to yoghurt and most of the time water to fruit drinks.  As I’m not being overly strict on things, I do have the occasional Diet Coke which for the various bad things it contains, it doesn’t have any sugar.

When I started the no-sugar diet I was shocked that many every day food products were virtually overdosing us on sugar.  I have all but eliminated these products and don’t miss them, more so when I think of all the spoons of sugar I am missing out on.

For a few weeks, I did notice that I had cravings for sugary products but not so bad as many people on the internet complained of.  A few head-aches and aches or pains but a piece of cake compared to the chest infections I can get with my asthma.  Perhaps I just have a better will-power, something I am often told but I always took the idea that just because I want something it didn’t mean I have to have it.  I’d like to spend all my money on a convertible Audi but it doesn’t mean I ever will.

One of the benefits of cutting out sugar is that my taste-buds have flourished.  I now have a much more refined sense of taste and can pick up and enjoy the natural sweetness and other flavours in foods which I didn’t always pick up on before.  There is no food that tastes as good as feeling good does.

Also as we always try to home-cook our meals using fresh produce that is another big help.  If we have to buy something vaguely pre-packaged or in a tin as we always go for the budget own brand products we find by the very definition of them being cheap and to many less appetising is a big help too as the expensive brands that taste better usually do so as they have bad bits in them that everyone likes.

Many no-sugar diets require you to be careful with fruit and to concentrate on vegetables which is just perfect for me as to be honest I only like 3 or 4 fruits but I can eat roasted carrots, parsnips, sweet potato, leek every day and actually miss them if I don’t have any for a day or two.

Because I’m more aware of sugars now and not just fats I tend to enjoy my food more too.  If I do want something unhealthy but tasty, I can have that pizza for pretty much the same sugar as the yucky bran-flakes or yoghurt and actually enjoy them knowing that it is a treat rather than trying to eat healthily with fat but unknowingly going wild with sugar.

So five months on has it all been worth it.  The answer of course is a resounding YES!  I’m not sure how much weight I have lost but it is around 3-4 inches on my waist for very little effort.  I also go on 4-6 mile walks 3 or 4 times a week too but I am sure it is the no-sugar that has done most of it and with just my new breakfast alone saving me 16kg / or 29 pounds of sugar per year (4,000 tea spoons), it’s likely that I will lose more in the next 7 months too.