Giving up sugar?

[khalloc]

What does this entail exactly? Was contemplating it because I recently saw pictures of my younger cousin on facebook and she lost alot of weight and I remember her posting about giving up sugar. Then i just saw something online about Alec Baldwin losing 30 pounds by giving up sugar. Maybe I should try it?

Can you still have diet coke? What about drinks with sugar substitutes? Is there sugar in 'skinny' drinks at Starbucks or are those just sugar substitutes?

Not sure if this is possible for me since I am pretty much addicted to chocolate.

[stinkyfeet]

I did this on two separate occasions in the past 3 years for health reasons vs trying to lose weight.

The first time I cut out sugar was bc I had a really bad case of ductal thrush when nursing DS1. I had tried the doctor prescribed medicines for both DS and myself, but it didn't work and Mae back with a vengeance. Anyway, I decided to cut out sugar, sugar substitutes, dairy (which has milk sugars), and most white starches. DH said I was losing a lot of weight fast and was unhappy with it since he likes me a little soft and squishy. :ROTFLMAO: I was just happy bc I wasnt in pain anymore when I was nursing.

The second time I cut out sugar, I was pregnant with DS2 and was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. I consistently kept my blood sugars low by eating a very low carb, but nutritous diet. I'm a smaller petite person to begin with, and I was gaining very little weight towards the end of my pregnancy. I would even lose weight week to week unintentionally, And the doctors would be concerned. I was frustrated bc I was still confined to my diet for the health of the baby, so I couldn't go out of my way to eat a ton of food. Anyway, my point is that yes, cutting out sugar snd artificial sweeteners makes A BIG difference, but it is REALLY hard.

[Radosti]

I've given up sugar almost completely. But I am pre-diabetic, so I needed to do it.

I'm down 17 lbs so far, but I am also watching what I eat and the amt of calories I am taking in. If I go over, I work out.

I switched to Coke Zero and am limiting that to a treat, not a daily thing.

I bought a big box of True Lemon packets and put that in my water to make it taste better. It works very well.

I put splenda in my tea and coffee. It's not the greatest, but it tastes good to me, so I am using it because sugar is not an option and I can't stand the taste of Stevia.

If I eat something with sugar, I make sure it has protein in it as well. So, I switched to Chobani Greek yogurt. 14 grams of protein!

Fruit is a problem because I like it a lot and will pile it on. And while the sugar is natural and in the form of fructose, it's still too much for my pre-diabetic state.

I have turned to smoothies a lot. My favorite is the green monster smoothie (my three year old LOVES it, so we call it that for fun)
Chobani Yogurt 6oz
Cup of Frozen Strawberries/blueberries/peaches/whatever you have
frozen banana
3 ice cubes
cup of skim milk
scoop of vanilla protein powder
4 cups of fresh raw spinach (fill up the rest of the blender with it)

Blend until smooth and enjoy. Pour the leftovers into popsickle molds and enjoy frozen later :)

I still will eat a random piece of chocolate or the occasional piece of birthday cake. But I don't buy it and it does not enter my house...

[american_mama]

I think you can do it however you want to define it. Inspired by a thread about this in the fall, and in the spirit of experimentation, I "gave up sugar" for January. For me, I was interested in palate and behavioral change, not physiological change, so I defined it as giving up anything sweet except fresh fruit. I was not interested in giving up carbs or giving up foods that had sugar but didn't taste sweet.

Results: I lost about 5 pounds, felt my waist/tummy was a bit smaller, added cream to my cereal milk and found that richness alone made unsweetened cheerios taste a lot better. I ate a little more fruit than usual, and found a surprising number of really enjoyable snack-y foods that kept me away from sugar.

For instance, the first week, I ate a lot of roasted hazelnuts, which I adore, plus avocado with salt and garlic powder. I also ate dried cherries, but decided to give them up because they were too much in the sweet camp and not enough in the fruit camp. Second week, I snacked on natural peanut butter on Triscuits, cheese, popcorn, and clementine oranges. Third week, I bought traditional salted peanuts and mixed nuts, although surprisingly, I prefer the unsalted hazelnuts that I roast at home. I also have hummus and pita chips somewhere in there. Fourth week, I descended to Tostitos (see BP post) and unsweetened yogurt with cream and (cheating) about 1/4 tsp maple syrup.

I did not do a perfect job staying away from sweets. The first week, I'd give myself an A, second week a C-, third week a C-, and fourth week a B-. I had some dinners/retreats this month where I knew I would have dessert, and I allowed myself those, but I did find that once I gave in, it was harder to maintain willpower on the days after (and even the day before). But I came back to it again every day, and some days hit my ideal. Some things I was 100% on.... no sweetened cereal all month, no sweetened peanut butter all month, no jelly all month, no sweet snacks at church.

I wondered if sweet things would seem too sweet after a month away. That does not appear to be true, although it may be because of my cheats and my eating fruit, especially the clementines. There are a few things that didn't previously taste sweet (unsweetened cereals and full-fat dairy) that now does.

I'm glad I did it. I have never been a dieter and have a huge sweet tooth, especially for desserts/cookies/granola bars/yogurt/etc. I felt better about myself exercising some self-restraint, and having substitute foods and a curious attitude helped me not feel like I was losing out on things.

[kmkaull]

I'm doing infertility treatments and wanted to eat as cleanly as possible to get my body in balance.

At the first of the year I started the Whole Living Action Plan.

http://www.wholeliving.com/153124/how-2012-challenge-works/@center/152870/2012-whole-living-action-plan

Basically, the first week you have nothing but vegetables, fruit and nuts. The second week you add back beans and seafood. It goes from there for 28 days. You completely eliminate sugar, caffeine, sweeteners, meat, gluten, eggs and dairy.

The first few days were hard. Ok, the first week was hard. But then I started feeling SO good. I feel like there's nothing in my stomach, yet I'm not hungry. In fact, I still am eating mostly just veggies and fruit with occasional seafood. When I eat fruit now, it almost tastes too sweet. I don't weigh myself regularly, but today I put on my "skinny" jeans and they are too big.

If you're looking for a pretty easy way to detox off sugar, I would suggest this plan. The fruit really helped me when I was dying for something sweet!

[mommylamb]

I've got gestational diabetes now, so I'm on a very low sugar/low carb diet. but I haven't given up sugar entirely, nor do I think that's necessary for healthy eating. My carb intake has been drastically reduced though and I can really tell the difference. This pregnancy I've only gained 15 lbs. And all 15 of those lbs were gained before my GD diagnosis. I haven't gained a single lb in the last 11 weeks (I'm 38 weeks 4 days today), which I think means that the baby has been gaining, but I've been losing weight. My baby is also growing at a regular speed according to the ultrasounds I have every week, which has been a huge relief for me.

I'm planning on trying to stick to the diet to an extent after I give birth. it's really not that hard once you get used to the portion sizes.

[BayGirl2]

First you need to isolate your reasons for giving up sugar and then determine which types of sweet substances you need to give up. You should understand the difference between:
Refined Sugar (Sucrose)
"Natural" type sugars like Honey and Maple Syrup
Fructose (the sugar in fruit)
Artificial sweeteners (Splenda, Nutrasweet, etc.)
(I know there are more, past threads had good articles on this)

I gave up sugar for about 8 months because it is a trigger for me. When I eat sugar I tend to decline into unhealthy eating behaviors - sort of like the spiral an alcoholic goes through with "just one tiny drink". I think this is true for many people who have a history of disordered or compulsive eating.

I did lose a lot of weight in that period - like 30 lbs and it barely felt like I was trying. I started back up in the 3rd trimester of my last pregnancy and I'm just getting back on the wagon again. I avoid refined and natural sugars but do not eliminate artificial sweeteners and have fresh fruit within reason. (Dried fruit is like methadone to me:ROTFLMAO:)After eliminating refined sugar I stop craving it and the rest of my eating habits tend to fall in line.

Starbucks "skinny" drinks use their sugar-free sweeteners which are artificial, skim milk, and they exclude whipped cream. However most/all of their blended drinks have sugar in them. You really need to go to their website to read the ingrediants list of the drinks you like to determine if they include what you are cutting out.

Most Chocolate has sugar but if you stick with high quality, dark, unsweetened chocolate it can be minimal. For me, if I feel something like "I can't live without chocolate", that's a sign that I need to give it up because its not healthy for my eating habits. But that's just me, not everyone has those issues.