So. The week of no sugar was a bit of a disaster. In fact, I would go so far as to say I ate more sugar this week than I have eaten in the last month! A bit disappointing really as I have given up sugar in the past and had no trouble sticking to it for weeks.
So day one, I was all fired up and hyper vigilant checking and double checking packaging until dinner when I ate quorn sausages but didn't check the packet (I didn't think I needed to! Big mistake). Added sugar. For some reason this little blip knocked me for six and the next day I had a slice of cake in a cafe, the day after I ate a bar of chocolate and the day after that (and I am ashamed to admit this...) I ate an entire packet of biscuits.
I'm even eating a bowl of ice cream as I type this.
Sigh.
This sugar frenzy is coming off the back of not eating any sugar for almost a month prior to the experiment and then slowly falling off the wagon the fortnight or so before. Not eating sugar for the month really emphasised how artificially sweet so much of what we eat is. I was mechanically munching through chocolates, cake and so on not really enjoying it but unable to stop. Afterwards, sitting in a fug of self loathing, my mouth coated in a film of sugar I'd mentally berate myself for having zero willpower and vow to be better the next time.
It's frustrating as I know I can do it. When I was pregnant I read an article that caffeine was bad for the baby so I went cold turkey on caffeine - no tea, no coffee and no chocolate. Overnight I went from about 8 (massive) mugs of tea in a day and (at least) a bar of chocolate to decaf tea and no sweets at all and beyond the first week of horrendous caffeine withdrawals I found I didn't miss it at all. In fact I still drink decaf now.
In short, what I'm saying is I don't think this is down to straight will power alone. It will take more than this single blog page to explore the ins and outs of my psyche, food dependencies and fat girl habits but I think it's something I need to look deeper into myself. Off the top of my head I think the following three things have scuppered my no sugar plans:
No-one knows what I'm doing:
I work at home 4 days a week so am alone for a large part of the day. At the basic level this means there's no-one to challenge me as I wander to the kitchen and come back with my 4th cup of tea before 10am or ask where I'm going as I nip over to the shop. Offices can wreck havoc on the most determined dieter with endless cakes, chocolates and Friday bacon butties but at least you are accountable as everyone can see what you're doing. I can hide the wrappers long before my husband comes home from work and no one is any the wiser.
We've both been ill:
The baby has started nursery (or The House of Germs as we have taken to calling it) and we have all had endless colds, viruses and assorted other mystery illnesses none of which are serious enough to warrant time off work and days in bed but slowly wear us down. Coupled with the broken nights associated with teething I personally feel like I'm in need of a little pick me up once or twice a day. We're not quite into a decent routine which allows for the preparation of healthy and wholesome snacks and lunches so when the mid morning or mid afternoon slump happens it's easier to reach for junk.
I'm trying to do a hundred other things:
Apparently we have a finite amount of will power and the more you draw upon it, the less there is for the next thing requiring an iron resolve. There's a lot on my plate at the moment; I've just gone back to work after 9 months of maternity leave and a lot has changed, re-establishing my role in the office is hard especially when I'm only there one day a week. We're trying to sort out the house and garden ahead of a first birthday barbeque we plan to throw which is taking a lot of time and it's a lot harder to keep on top of housework, washing and meals when we're both technically coming in the door after 5. There's just not enough will power left in the tank to swear off sugar as well.
This sounds like a massive blog post of excuses (and, well, it is....) but the long and short of it is; giving up sugar is hard! Planning is key; a well thought out meal and snack plan for the week would have helped as would not having spare change in the house so I couldn't go to the shop.....
I'll chalk this down to poor planning and try again another time.....
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