Today, I had porridge for breakfast, with milk, a cut-up pear, Brewer's Yeast, Wheat Germ and some cinammon sprinkled on top (Still missing honey on it, even though cinammon is nice)
Made up my two big mugs of herbal tea and a mug with hot water and 1/2 lemon squeezed in as I do every morning. They were too hot to drink before I went to ABA (Australian Breastfeeding Association) coffee morning/playgroup, so I only had about half a glass of water with my vitamins etc
For some reason, I was absolutely starving before I left! Tried to ignore it. Had nothing to eat or drink at ABA. Ignored hunger there.
Got home starving. Made up a croissant with butter and cheese and then had two slices of toast with butter and peanut butter. Was still starving.
I then saw my 2 herbal teas and hot water with lemon on the bench and remembered something I read recently. I heard that we are often thirsty but mistake it for hunger. So, I drank all 3 big mugs to try and see if that helped.
After a while, I felt OK. Not really full or anything but OK. Not starving hungry. I was probably just thirsty and didn't realise.
Have been trying to sip water this arvo, as well.
For arvo tea, had most of an apple (shared some with Amy), 2 handfuls of nuts and seeds (picked out the currants for Amy as they're dried fruit!) and a small glass of milk. Stew is making handburgers for dinner.
Wonder if I'll get hungry after dinner? If so, maybe we'll make up popcorn?
Annalise, the youngest, has been waking a lot overnight for feeds, like a newborn. I've been feeling not too bad but today it has caught up with me. Last night, I didn't sleep well anyway, then had Annalise waking, the cat meowing, kids slamming the gate on the stairs this morning so waking me up etc etc You get the idea. I am exhausted.
So, maybe when I'm exhausted, I turn to food as well. Perhaps that's why I was starving a lot of today. For energy? Used to turn to chocolate on days like this...
I've read David Gillespie's 'Sweet Poison' and 'The Sweet Poison Quit Plan' books. This is about my journey into sugar awareness. I am the biggest sugar addict out so it should be quite a ride! [I took this photo at Yosemite National Park in the USA. I like the way that the river can go two ways here just like me, at a crossroad, trying to change my whole way of eating]
Monday, February 28, 2011
2 weeks in - Appetite Control Switch starting to work???
We had burritos, for dinner last night. I think that's what you call them. Round things that you put mince, onion, hot sauce, cheese, lettuce and tomato etc in and wrap them up to eat. [People call them different things so never know what to call them] I usually have around 4, even though I often feel full-ish after 3.
Last night, my appetite control switch may have been trying to tell me to stop sooner? I had two and felt pretty full. I 'ignored' it, at first, as I thought, "I can't be full after just two", however, on the third one, I really struggled. I just made it through it and then I stopped. The boys were glad I had one less as they could have more! My boys have big appetites...
Usually, I'm not a milk liker, unless it's in your breakfast etc I h ave never been a fan of drinking it straight. Since we've been on our sugar awareness journey, Stew and I are trying to drink milk on its own. Stew is really missing cordial with his dinner as he did that most of his life, so he has milk now. Sometimes he adds glucose powder but I always have it plain. It's been two weeks now that I've been sugar aware and I've had the odd little glass of milk and it's been bearable. Not sure if my taste buds are changing but today I actually really enjoyed my little glass of milk.
Last night, my appetite control switch may have been trying to tell me to stop sooner? I had two and felt pretty full. I 'ignored' it, at first, as I thought, "I can't be full after just two", however, on the third one, I really struggled. I just made it through it and then I stopped. The boys were glad I had one less as they could have more! My boys have big appetites...
Usually, I'm not a milk liker, unless it's in your breakfast etc I h ave never been a fan of drinking it straight. Since we've been on our sugar awareness journey, Stew and I are trying to drink milk on its own. Stew is really missing cordial with his dinner as he did that most of his life, so he has milk now. Sometimes he adds glucose powder but I always have it plain. It's been two weeks now that I've been sugar aware and I've had the odd little glass of milk and it's been bearable. Not sure if my taste buds are changing but today I actually really enjoyed my little glass of milk.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Liquid calories - beware of juices, fruit or vegetable
Fruit and vegetables have fructose in them, but not that much. Even the sweetest fruit - the apple - has less than 8% per serve. However, the packaged fruit juice business is where we are over-consuming fruit often.
Remember, that the dietary guidelines suggest we have 2 pieces of fruit and 5 serves of vegetables. We tend to think, "I've only had 2 serves of vegetables today so I'll have 5 pieces of fruit to make up for it" but that is not healthy. You can't mix them up like that. Fruit is good for you but in moderation ie. the 2 serves a day.
Rats force-fed fructose had horrible things happen to them - heart disease, stroke, diabetes, liver cancer, pancreatic cancer and breast cancer. However, Gillespie makes this sad but true observation: "...everyone is still too scared to test fructose on humans...except at the local juice bar" (p. 64, 'Sweet Poison)
I love Boost Juice Bars. I have a Vibe card, which is their loyalty program, and used to love getting a Boost smoothie for a treat, after my friends Anna and Theresa got me onto it over 6 years ago. However, the fructose in them is way too high. Same with any fruit or vegetable juice really. You take away the fibre and have mainly fructose. We are eating less actual fruit and vegetables but just drinking the juice, which is less beneficial. As Gillespie says, "Juicing converts fruit and vegetables from a food source containing significant fibre mass, flavoured with fructose, to one containing little other than fructose and water - oh, and some Vitamin C." (p.82) Having the fibre, at the same time as the fructose, is better for your system.
Years ago, I read not to have 'liquid calories' as we eat enough calories without drinking them as well!
The sad thing about the rat testing is that people used to say that it is little wonder that the rats got sick on that amount of fructose as humans just don't eat that much. Sadly we do. "In 1999, every person in Australia ate just under 38kg of fructose of sugar [while Americans were at about 44%]", Gillespie says on p.93 of the Quit Plan. Around that time, the Americans were eating 33kg of fructose a year which is significant as "fructose subverts our appetite control and creates fat immediately, 33kg would be directly converted to almost 15kg of body fat every year". The gyms, fitness crazes and diets can only do so much but it's as if they are "pushing water uphill with a rake ...in the context of the fructose tidal wave"
Back in 1810, our main source of fructose was the occasional piece of ripe fruit and a bit of honey. We had about 1kg of fructose per year. We're having far more than that now, to our detriment.
Remember, that the dietary guidelines suggest we have 2 pieces of fruit and 5 serves of vegetables. We tend to think, "I've only had 2 serves of vegetables today so I'll have 5 pieces of fruit to make up for it" but that is not healthy. You can't mix them up like that. Fruit is good for you but in moderation ie. the 2 serves a day.
Rats force-fed fructose had horrible things happen to them - heart disease, stroke, diabetes, liver cancer, pancreatic cancer and breast cancer. However, Gillespie makes this sad but true observation: "...everyone is still too scared to test fructose on humans...except at the local juice bar" (p. 64, 'Sweet Poison)
I love Boost Juice Bars. I have a Vibe card, which is their loyalty program, and used to love getting a Boost smoothie for a treat, after my friends Anna and Theresa got me onto it over 6 years ago. However, the fructose in them is way too high. Same with any fruit or vegetable juice really. You take away the fibre and have mainly fructose. We are eating less actual fruit and vegetables but just drinking the juice, which is less beneficial. As Gillespie says, "Juicing converts fruit and vegetables from a food source containing significant fibre mass, flavoured with fructose, to one containing little other than fructose and water - oh, and some Vitamin C." (p.82) Having the fibre, at the same time as the fructose, is better for your system.
Years ago, I read not to have 'liquid calories' as we eat enough calories without drinking them as well!
The sad thing about the rat testing is that people used to say that it is little wonder that the rats got sick on that amount of fructose as humans just don't eat that much. Sadly we do. "In 1999, every person in Australia ate just under 38kg of fructose of sugar [while Americans were at about 44%]", Gillespie says on p.93 of the Quit Plan. Around that time, the Americans were eating 33kg of fructose a year which is significant as "fructose subverts our appetite control and creates fat immediately, 33kg would be directly converted to almost 15kg of body fat every year". The gyms, fitness crazes and diets can only do so much but it's as if they are "pushing water uphill with a rake ...in the context of the fructose tidal wave"
Back in 1810, our main source of fructose was the occasional piece of ripe fruit and a bit of honey. We had about 1kg of fructose per year. We're having far more than that now, to our detriment.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Avocados - I think I'm in love!
Not trying to replace one addiction with another but avocados are increasingly becoming something I love to death. I think about them, sometimes, and crave their yumminess. Sad, huh, but this is from somebody who used to think about chocolate and crave it, at random times during the day, so this is probably a good thing???!!!
Never used to like them. Until about 5 years ago, I'd tell you that I didn't eat them at all. Then, sushi changed my mind as it's often with the chicken and is so nice. Slowly, I started to try them in things and liked them more and more though I only ever ate them out somewhere and never cooked them myself. A few months back, we bought one and had it in our burritos. Yum! My sister has told me how to know if they're ripe or not, which is handy. Got some hints off friends on FB.
They are often called super foods for their good qualities. Gillespie says, "Clearly, you can't go past an avocado on either the fruit or the vegetable graph. It has practically no fructose and a vast amount of fibre per serve." (p.111, quit plan) Because he says, on page 121, "Fresh avocado smeared on toast is a delicious spread, and you can liven it up with a little salt, pepper and maybe even a squeeze of lemon", I have tried this and loved it. He also says, "As spreads go, it doesn't come any better than avocado" but admits it would be too expensive for the whole family to have it. He has 6 kids and I have 5, so I understand!
Stew had only had avocado in the burritos a while back and in sandwiches, in the last week or so. Whilst he liked it, he couldn't quite see why I was raving about it. Today, I gave him 2 slices of toast smeared with fresh avocado. No salt, pepper or lemon - just smeared avocado. He said it was absolutely delicious and can understand why I like it so much. [Well, nearly as much, as he's more reserved than me! LOL] I've also tried it with salt, pepper, lemon - as suggested - and it was nice, but just on its own is awesome.
Never used to like them. Until about 5 years ago, I'd tell you that I didn't eat them at all. Then, sushi changed my mind as it's often with the chicken and is so nice. Slowly, I started to try them in things and liked them more and more though I only ever ate them out somewhere and never cooked them myself. A few months back, we bought one and had it in our burritos. Yum! My sister has told me how to know if they're ripe or not, which is handy. Got some hints off friends on FB.
They are often called super foods for their good qualities. Gillespie says, "Clearly, you can't go past an avocado on either the fruit or the vegetable graph. It has practically no fructose and a vast amount of fibre per serve." (p.111, quit plan) Because he says, on page 121, "Fresh avocado smeared on toast is a delicious spread, and you can liven it up with a little salt, pepper and maybe even a squeeze of lemon", I have tried this and loved it. He also says, "As spreads go, it doesn't come any better than avocado" but admits it would be too expensive for the whole family to have it. He has 6 kids and I have 5, so I understand!
Stew had only had avocado in the burritos a while back and in sandwiches, in the last week or so. Whilst he liked it, he couldn't quite see why I was raving about it. Today, I gave him 2 slices of toast smeared with fresh avocado. No salt, pepper or lemon - just smeared avocado. He said it was absolutely delicious and can understand why I like it so much. [Well, nearly as much, as he's more reserved than me! LOL] I've also tried it with salt, pepper, lemon - as suggested - and it was nice, but just on its own is awesome.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
More on what sugar is
My last post was about table sugar, sucrose. Here's some fuller information.
Scientists call caster sugar, raw sugar, brown sugar, white sugar etc 'sucrose'. It's made up of two simple 'sugars' (which is what the group of compounds are called) - glucose and fructose. Your body sees and treats these differently. In 5g of sucrose (table sugar), your body sees 2.5g glucose and 2.5g fructose, which it reacts to in different ways.
There's also galactose. In milk, you have lactose, which is the 'sugar' in milk. It's made up of half glucose and half galactose.
Most fruits have some sucrose, some fructose and some glucose. To our digestive systems though, the sucrose is just a bunch of more fructose and glucose as...remember...sucrose is half glucose and half fructose.
Glucose is a very important sugar to humans (essential for our body functions) and it's in most food. Galactose is in small quanitities, being mainly in dairy products. Fructose is pretty rare in nature as it's mainly just found in fruit.
It's the fructose part of sugar that the 'Sweet Poison' book is about. The above is summarised from Chapter 1 of Gillespie's book. I'm up to Chapter 7, titled, "Honey without bees". The first 6 have been:
Stewart's teeth feel cleaner!
I found that I used to get flatulence sometimes. (How embarrassing!) I always thought it was the milk in chocolate that did it as I don't eat/drink a lot of dairy and have teas black etc However, since doing this, far less. Not that it was a major problem but this is most pleasing! Must've been sugar!
If you get varicose veins, haemorrhoids, fissures etc and things like that...I read on the internet last year that a doctor claims that these problems could be pretty much wiped out if people would lose weight. He claims that obesity is the cause of a lot of these problems. Of course, it'd depend if you just temporarily got them after having a baby etc He means the chronic, ongoing issues. I don't want things like that so I'm all in to try and avoid them.
Scientists call caster sugar, raw sugar, brown sugar, white sugar etc 'sucrose'. It's made up of two simple 'sugars' (which is what the group of compounds are called) - glucose and fructose. Your body sees and treats these differently. In 5g of sucrose (table sugar), your body sees 2.5g glucose and 2.5g fructose, which it reacts to in different ways.
There's also galactose. In milk, you have lactose, which is the 'sugar' in milk. It's made up of half glucose and half galactose.
Most fruits have some sucrose, some fructose and some glucose. To our digestive systems though, the sucrose is just a bunch of more fructose and glucose as...remember...sucrose is half glucose and half fructose.
Glucose is a very important sugar to humans (essential for our body functions) and it's in most food. Galactose is in small quanitities, being mainly in dairy products. Fructose is pretty rare in nature as it's mainly just found in fruit.
It's the fructose part of sugar that the 'Sweet Poison' book is about. The above is summarised from Chapter 1 of Gillespie's book. I'm up to Chapter 7, titled, "Honey without bees". The first 6 have been:
- Starting out
- Theories of fatness
- How we turn food into energy
- Using stored energy
- Fat makes you fat...or does it?
- Biochemistry 101
Stewart's teeth feel cleaner!
I found that I used to get flatulence sometimes. (How embarrassing!) I always thought it was the milk in chocolate that did it as I don't eat/drink a lot of dairy and have teas black etc However, since doing this, far less. Not that it was a major problem but this is most pleasing! Must've been sugar!
If you get varicose veins, haemorrhoids, fissures etc and things like that...I read on the internet last year that a doctor claims that these problems could be pretty much wiped out if people would lose weight. He claims that obesity is the cause of a lot of these problems. Of course, it'd depend if you just temporarily got them after having a baby etc He means the chronic, ongoing issues. I don't want things like that so I'm all in to try and avoid them.
What is sugar and why low fat diets are a scam!
Gillespie's summarised over 100 years of research and the publisher checked out all his facts. Here it is:
Sugar (meaning sucrose, which is table sugar) is half glucose and half fructose.
Our bodies need glucose to survive, especially our Brain, so it's essential.
This is the deal on fructose:
"Every piece of food we consume stimulates the release of one or more of the 'enough to eat' hormones once we have had enough to eat. There is one substance that does not stimulate the release of any of the 'enough to eat' hormones. That substance is fructose. Fructose skips the fat-creation control mechanism in the liver (PFK-1) and is directly converted to fatty acids (and then body fat) without passing through either of our major appetite-control gateways (insulin or CCK). Fructose is also invisible to our built-in calorie counter (the hypothalamus). We can eat as much fructose as we can shove down our throats and never feel full for long. Every gram of the fructose we eat is directly converted to fat. There is no mystery to the obesity epidemic when you know those simple facts." (p.78)
Fructose makes fatty acids and body fat!
He goes on to say, on page 75, "Small quantities of fructose don't have any serious effects...But put a lot of fructose into that loop and it doesn't matter how long the glucose system is shut down for, frutose will still keep pumping up the ATP volume and the fat production...it directly creates vast amounts of circulating fatty acids (including LDL cholesterol)."
He helpfully tells us that in 1977, Dr George Mann described the low-fat diet - which I never liked - as "The greatest scam in the history of medicine" but the politics of it was that everybody believed the proponents of it. It has been disproven many times since but led the way in nutrition for 50 years though people tried hard to let the truth be known. We're all eating heaps less fat these days but the obesity is just growing and growing. He explains why in interesting detail. However, there is a "strong relationship between rapidly rising sugar consumption and obesity-related diseases", that nobody can deny.
Sugar (meaning sucrose, which is table sugar) is half glucose and half fructose.
Our bodies need glucose to survive, especially our Brain, so it's essential.
This is the deal on fructose:
"Every piece of food we consume stimulates the release of one or more of the 'enough to eat' hormones once we have had enough to eat. There is one substance that does not stimulate the release of any of the 'enough to eat' hormones. That substance is fructose. Fructose skips the fat-creation control mechanism in the liver (PFK-1) and is directly converted to fatty acids (and then body fat) without passing through either of our major appetite-control gateways (insulin or CCK). Fructose is also invisible to our built-in calorie counter (the hypothalamus). We can eat as much fructose as we can shove down our throats and never feel full for long. Every gram of the fructose we eat is directly converted to fat. There is no mystery to the obesity epidemic when you know those simple facts." (p.78)
Fructose makes fatty acids and body fat!
He goes on to say, on page 75, "Small quantities of fructose don't have any serious effects...But put a lot of fructose into that loop and it doesn't matter how long the glucose system is shut down for, frutose will still keep pumping up the ATP volume and the fat production...it directly creates vast amounts of circulating fatty acids (including LDL cholesterol)."
He helpfully tells us that in 1977, Dr George Mann described the low-fat diet - which I never liked - as "The greatest scam in the history of medicine" but the politics of it was that everybody believed the proponents of it. It has been disproven many times since but led the way in nutrition for 50 years though people tried hard to let the truth be known. We're all eating heaps less fat these days but the obesity is just growing and growing. He explains why in interesting detail. However, there is a "strong relationship between rapidly rising sugar consumption and obesity-related diseases", that nobody can deny.
Why Sugar Awareness lifestyle appeals to me...
Have finally got on my computer again at a time to be able to write!
I finished Gillespie's second book, the quit plan one, and have started on his first book - called 'Sweet Poison': Why Sugar makes us fat'. It's superbly interesting, even for someone like me who dropped Science at the end of Year 10 and made sure her music lessons were in Science, before that. He explains it well and is a humorous writer. Boy, has he done his homework. It all makes sense to what I've previously read about health, GI diets etc
I've never really dieted before. I've tried to eat healthier, many times, but haven't ever followed a diet because they prescribed exactly what you needed to eat and I don't have turkey or waffles etc in my cupboard. I have always been interested in health, like many of my family members. I don't think diets are healthy, wise or practical. I once couldn't eat for 4 days due to a reaction to an injection and I ended up fainting. It was horrible! So, I'd try to eat healthy and then blow it, eventually, due to Chocolate etc
For the very first time, I've come across something that makes sense and appears do-able. I've always suspected that it has to be a lifestyle change or you'll just gain the weight back when you go back to your 'usual' style of eating. What he says makes sense and it does not prescribe what you have to eat. Anything extreme is unhealthy.
He lost 40kgs avoiding most of the fructose from what he ate. He still had 2 pieces of fruit a day, as you need some fructose. It took him 2 years to lose the 40kgs. He lost it slowly and healthily, about 1/2 kg a week.
I finished Gillespie's second book, the quit plan one, and have started on his first book - called 'Sweet Poison': Why Sugar makes us fat'. It's superbly interesting, even for someone like me who dropped Science at the end of Year 10 and made sure her music lessons were in Science, before that. He explains it well and is a humorous writer. Boy, has he done his homework. It all makes sense to what I've previously read about health, GI diets etc
I've never really dieted before. I've tried to eat healthier, many times, but haven't ever followed a diet because they prescribed exactly what you needed to eat and I don't have turkey or waffles etc in my cupboard. I have always been interested in health, like many of my family members. I don't think diets are healthy, wise or practical. I once couldn't eat for 4 days due to a reaction to an injection and I ended up fainting. It was horrible! So, I'd try to eat healthy and then blow it, eventually, due to Chocolate etc
For the very first time, I've come across something that makes sense and appears do-able. I've always suspected that it has to be a lifestyle change or you'll just gain the weight back when you go back to your 'usual' style of eating. What he says makes sense and it does not prescribe what you have to eat. Anything extreme is unhealthy.
He lost 40kgs avoiding most of the fructose from what he ate. He still had 2 pieces of fruit a day, as you need some fructose. It took him 2 years to lose the 40kgs. He lost it slowly and healthily, about 1/2 kg a week.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Craving Sugar but a little lost weight!
Stew and I sure are craving sugar...so badly sometimes!
We crave different things. He craves jam on his toast and biscuits etc. I crave chocolate, ice cream, flavoured yogurts etc I told him that he has good willpower and can stop at one square of chocolate so he can have one sometimes, or a little jam on his toast etc I think he's telling himself that this is like a competition and he will NOT be the one to cave! I am pretty stubborn when I want to, so we'll see how we go.
It's very hard sometimes. We get headaches, feel grumpy, have these cravings etc
I have lost 2kgs since last Monday. However, I'm not limiting portions really, just concentrating on getting through withdrawal. Then, I may find that my appetite control switch is working better so I can eat less overall???
The kids are still stunned with the thought that I'll never eat sugar again. I said, "I may have it every now and again but not for quite a while. I need to get over my addiciton first!"
We crave different things. He craves jam on his toast and biscuits etc. I crave chocolate, ice cream, flavoured yogurts etc I told him that he has good willpower and can stop at one square of chocolate so he can have one sometimes, or a little jam on his toast etc I think he's telling himself that this is like a competition and he will NOT be the one to cave! I am pretty stubborn when I want to, so we'll see how we go.
It's very hard sometimes. We get headaches, feel grumpy, have these cravings etc
I have lost 2kgs since last Monday. However, I'm not limiting portions really, just concentrating on getting through withdrawal. Then, I may find that my appetite control switch is working better so I can eat less overall???
The kids are still stunned with the thought that I'll never eat sugar again. I said, "I may have it every now and again but not for quite a while. I need to get over my addiciton first!"
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Blood Test Results
[I've had computer 'issues' so no blog for a couple of days.]
I got my blood test results back. The doc that ordered them wasn't my usual doc, as she wasn't on that day, so he didn't order iron tests. In the past, my ferritin (iron stores, I think) count has been down so I had to take supplements for a while. The blood bank notified me of this after I'd donated blood!
Amazingly, my fasting glucose test was 5.1 which is fine considering all the sugar I ate last week. Stew reminded me that we read that your body can cope for years, with sugar overload, and then...one day...it won't! So...no excuse to eat added sugar again! The normal range for fasting is 4.0 to 6.0 so I was pretty much in the middle. Of concern, was my liver enzyme ALP which was 151. The normal count for that is between 20 and 105 so I was quite above. (A few years back it was 134 so has gone up) She wants to test me again in April. I should ask for iron as well.
The doc weighed me and said that I was at least 12kgs overweight! And that was to take me to the upper range of fairly healthy for my height! Blah! I could do with losing 15-20kgs. Gillespie lost 40kgs. I don't need to lose that much, thank the Lord.
My blood pressure was 99 over 67. I'm usually on the low side (like 100/60 or 110/70) as I believe that 'normal' is 120/80 to 140/90 so nobody was worried.
I did some research on the Internet about liver enzyme high counts. I also told my sister who is interested in medical things and has done some studies in this area. She said it could be my gallbladder due to all the sugar/carbs that I've always eaten.
One site said:
As there could be a plethora of underlying medical conditions which may manifest themselves through a high liver enzyme count, the diagnosis is done by reviewing the medications taken by the patient, his signs and symptoms, including other kinds of abnormal liver function tests and procedures. Factors which have been fount to be the most common high liver enzymes causes include medical conditions like hepatitis A, hepatitis B and hepatitis C. Then comes obesity and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Liver enzymes level may shoot up in response of use of certain medications such as those used to control cholesterol, and pain. While these were the common causes of elevated liver enzymes, there are some more which are although not common but do occur in some cases. These may include Celiac disease, heart attack, liver cancer, Wilson's disease, underactive thyroid gland, and inflammation of the gallbladder. Alcoholic hepatitis and a condition known as hemochromatosis are also associated with high liver enzyme count.
I rarely drink. Only once or twice a year, if that, and only a glass or two. Don't think I have those hepatitis illnesses! Obesity - yes! Those other things sound nasty so don't want them. Hopefully, my results are better in April!
I got my blood test results back. The doc that ordered them wasn't my usual doc, as she wasn't on that day, so he didn't order iron tests. In the past, my ferritin (iron stores, I think) count has been down so I had to take supplements for a while. The blood bank notified me of this after I'd donated blood!
Amazingly, my fasting glucose test was 5.1 which is fine considering all the sugar I ate last week. Stew reminded me that we read that your body can cope for years, with sugar overload, and then...one day...it won't! So...no excuse to eat added sugar again! The normal range for fasting is 4.0 to 6.0 so I was pretty much in the middle. Of concern, was my liver enzyme ALP which was 151. The normal count for that is between 20 and 105 so I was quite above. (A few years back it was 134 so has gone up) She wants to test me again in April. I should ask for iron as well.
The doc weighed me and said that I was at least 12kgs overweight! And that was to take me to the upper range of fairly healthy for my height! Blah! I could do with losing 15-20kgs. Gillespie lost 40kgs. I don't need to lose that much, thank the Lord.
My blood pressure was 99 over 67. I'm usually on the low side (like 100/60 or 110/70) as I believe that 'normal' is 120/80 to 140/90 so nobody was worried.
I did some research on the Internet about liver enzyme high counts. I also told my sister who is interested in medical things and has done some studies in this area. She said it could be my gallbladder due to all the sugar/carbs that I've always eaten.
One site said:
As there could be a plethora of underlying medical conditions which may manifest themselves through a high liver enzyme count, the diagnosis is done by reviewing the medications taken by the patient, his signs and symptoms, including other kinds of abnormal liver function tests and procedures. Factors which have been fount to be the most common high liver enzymes causes include medical conditions like hepatitis A, hepatitis B and hepatitis C. Then comes obesity and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Liver enzymes level may shoot up in response of use of certain medications such as those used to control cholesterol, and pain. While these were the common causes of elevated liver enzymes, there are some more which are although not common but do occur in some cases. These may include Celiac disease, heart attack, liver cancer, Wilson's disease, underactive thyroid gland, and inflammation of the gallbladder. Alcoholic hepatitis and a condition known as hemochromatosis are also associated with high liver enzyme count.
I rarely drink. Only once or twice a year, if that, and only a glass or two. Don't think I have those hepatitis illnesses! Obesity - yes! Those other things sound nasty so don't want them. Hopefully, my results are better in April!
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Hungry!
Today at lunch, I was hungry as! Had two bits of toast with butter and Peanut Butter (No added salt or sugar) but just had to have two more. I also had two handfuls of nuts and seeds (cashew/almond/sunflower/pepita).
Guess that's part of withdrawal. Also, my appetite control switch would not be functioning normally so I'll have to wait until it can.
This morning, I actually craved sugar, I think. I was feeling bit bored, restless so usually I think I must be hungry then and search for something sweet. I used to turn to dates, if we had no chocolate in the house.
Guess that's part of withdrawal. Also, my appetite control switch would not be functioning normally so I'll have to wait until it can.
This morning, I actually craved sugar, I think. I was feeling bit bored, restless so usually I think I must be hungry then and search for something sweet. I used to turn to dates, if we had no chocolate in the house.
Surviving sugary offerings and mistake?
At ABA (Australian Breastfeeding Association's coffee mornings/playgroup) yesterday, and today at playgroup, there were such many sugary offerings like cakes, slices, biscuits, muffins etc yet I told myself that they were poisonous foods that I used to eat. I am removing this toxin from the food I eat. Makes you realise, though, how much we all rely on those kind of foods when we take a food offering! All sugary 'treats' that are poisoning us!
I temporarily got excited today as somebody told me that their slice had no sugar in it. Wow! However, she went on to say that it had dried fruit in it, which is mostly fructose so is not allowed. The two pieces of fruit a day are less sugary than the dried versions.
For breakfast this morning, I had a small tin (220gms) of 'Heinz Baked Beanz in Ham Sauce', which is the only type of baked beans that I like/buy/eat. After I'd eaten it, I thought to look at the sugar content per 100gms. It was 6.1gms. Is this too high? Not sure, as the book doesn't mention baked beans in there. Stew suspects that 6% may be too high but it's better than other options, isn't it? Sugar is the 4th ingredient! I really hate the baked beans in tomato sauce - yuk! - so would love to stick with this one to give me more breakfast options.
Speaking of breakfast options, in another post to this blog, I mentioned not wanting to have porridge without a little honey, especially before I'm finished withdrawal as I can't have dextrose yet. (By the way, we found some glucose powder/dextrose in the supermarket tonight so we're all ready) Friends have suggested having cinnamon sprinkled on it. This may be a good alternative. Will try it. One suggested cinnamon and banana. Sounds promising!
A new mum at playgroup has read his first book - called just 'Sweet Poison' - and liked it. She, at least, understood where I'm coming from though she does eat occasional sugar and hasn't fully implemented it successfully. Mind you, she is very slim but said she lost a lot of weight doing a similar thing - the Liver Cleansing Diet by Sandra Cabot. However, this is about health, as much as it is about losing weight, or else Stewy, as supportive as he wants to be, wouldn't be able to do it with me. He's already slim, trim and terrific!
I temporarily got excited today as somebody told me that their slice had no sugar in it. Wow! However, she went on to say that it had dried fruit in it, which is mostly fructose so is not allowed. The two pieces of fruit a day are less sugary than the dried versions.
For breakfast this morning, I had a small tin (220gms) of 'Heinz Baked Beanz in Ham Sauce', which is the only type of baked beans that I like/buy/eat. After I'd eaten it, I thought to look at the sugar content per 100gms. It was 6.1gms. Is this too high? Not sure, as the book doesn't mention baked beans in there. Stew suspects that 6% may be too high but it's better than other options, isn't it? Sugar is the 4th ingredient! I really hate the baked beans in tomato sauce - yuk! - so would love to stick with this one to give me more breakfast options.
Speaking of breakfast options, in another post to this blog, I mentioned not wanting to have porridge without a little honey, especially before I'm finished withdrawal as I can't have dextrose yet. (By the way, we found some glucose powder/dextrose in the supermarket tonight so we're all ready) Friends have suggested having cinnamon sprinkled on it. This may be a good alternative. Will try it. One suggested cinnamon and banana. Sounds promising!
A new mum at playgroup has read his first book - called just 'Sweet Poison' - and liked it. She, at least, understood where I'm coming from though she does eat occasional sugar and hasn't fully implemented it successfully. Mind you, she is very slim but said she lost a lot of weight doing a similar thing - the Liver Cleansing Diet by Sandra Cabot. However, this is about health, as much as it is about losing weight, or else Stewy, as supportive as he wants to be, wouldn't be able to do it with me. He's already slim, trim and terrific!
Monday, February 14, 2011
Summary of Gillespie's rules
- Believe you are not being deprived or Have the right attitude
- Do not snack on sugar
- Once a sugarholic, always a sugarholic: you can't afford to have even a little
- Don't concern yourself with fat content other than to steer clear of low-fat foods
- Party food is for parties
Headaches are part of withdrawal/About withdrawal
Got into bed last night and, bang, a headache started. All on the right side of my head and running down towards the back of the right side of my head. Blah!
Today, I've had more headaches in the sense that my head mildly hurts all the time. Gillespie includes a list of symptoms you may have when withdrawing from an addiction but everybody is affected in a different way so it's hard to generalise. He says that, when he went through withdrawal, he had "a perpetual (but not severe) headache."
Eventually, I'll be free of the desire to eat sugar. Yay! Completely free. Apparently, the deisre will just vanish. It sounds unbelievable but will happen.
He explains how addiction works by "developing a reward-and-punishment system. As soon as you stop taking the addictive substance, its euphoric effect begins to decline, creating a mild depression in the process. It feels like an emptiness, or even a boredom...makes you crave the hit that you know will relieve it. Eating sugar in moderation for the rest of your life is the worst of all worlds. You're not eating enough to truly relieve the craving (and so noreward for you), but you are eating enough to maintain the dopamine response that keeps the addiction circuit alive in your brain."
That's why you must go cold turkey and can't go along, hoping to cut back. "You can't drift into stopping an addiction. Because your lust for sugar is a chemical addiction, there will be a chemical withdrawal. And that is not going to be pleasant. You have been addicted to fructose since before you could talk, so getting unaddicted will take a modicum of effort...what it will not take is willpower...You will henceforth not touch a food containing sugar. This will not be fun, at first. Bur starting is half the battle. Hold the line. There is no moderation. You have stopped poisoning yourself. If you can just get past the next few weeks of danger, you will enjoy the health sugar has sucked from your life to date."
Today, I've had more headaches in the sense that my head mildly hurts all the time. Gillespie includes a list of symptoms you may have when withdrawing from an addiction but everybody is affected in a different way so it's hard to generalise. He says that, when he went through withdrawal, he had "a perpetual (but not severe) headache."
Eventually, I'll be free of the desire to eat sugar. Yay! Completely free. Apparently, the deisre will just vanish. It sounds unbelievable but will happen.
He explains how addiction works by "developing a reward-and-punishment system. As soon as you stop taking the addictive substance, its euphoric effect begins to decline, creating a mild depression in the process. It feels like an emptiness, or even a boredom...makes you crave the hit that you know will relieve it. Eating sugar in moderation for the rest of your life is the worst of all worlds. You're not eating enough to truly relieve the craving (and so noreward for you), but you are eating enough to maintain the dopamine response that keeps the addiction circuit alive in your brain."
That's why you must go cold turkey and can't go along, hoping to cut back. "You can't drift into stopping an addiction. Because your lust for sugar is a chemical addiction, there will be a chemical withdrawal. And that is not going to be pleasant. You have been addicted to fructose since before you could talk, so getting unaddicted will take a modicum of effort...what it will not take is willpower...You will henceforth not touch a food containing sugar. This will not be fun, at first. Bur starting is half the battle. Hold the line. There is no moderation. You have stopped poisoning yourself. If you can just get past the next few weeks of danger, you will enjoy the health sugar has sucked from your life to date."
How will I cope without honey?
In Proverbs Chapter 26, it says: "Do you like honey? Don't eat too much, or it will make you sick" and "It's not good to eat too much honey"
My son Adam keeps saying, "But honey is good for you. This author can't be against honey, can he!". However, Gillespie states on page 120 that, "Honey is often sold as the 'natural alternative' (although it's not clear what it's an alternative to). But it doesn't matter if honey has been hand-farmed by your neighbour's grandad, it's still likely to be in the 80 per cent range for total sugars (and 40 per cent for fructose).
Oh dear! I love honey. Since last year, when I lost my voice several times, nearly every single day - unless we run outta lemons as our tree is too newly planted to give us any yet - I have hot water,with 1/2 lemon squeezed in and a half teaspoon of honey. Hot water with just lemon is not as nice. I had it like that today. Blah! However, it was kind of bearable. Some days, even with the honey in, the lemon tastes sooo strong!
When I have Vita Brits or Porridge, I usually put a tablespoon of honey on, as the only sweetener. Don't want to eat these foods without honey, I think. You can have glucose syrup on them once you're over your addiction. We'll have to see. Really limits my breakfasts, though. I wonder if a little honey would be that bad.
I also love honey on pancakes and crumpets but we don't have them too often.
Have I mentioned that my favourite sandwich spread is peanut butter and honey! Ahhhhhh!!!!!
My son Adam keeps saying, "But honey is good for you. This author can't be against honey, can he!". However, Gillespie states on page 120 that, "Honey is often sold as the 'natural alternative' (although it's not clear what it's an alternative to). But it doesn't matter if honey has been hand-farmed by your neighbour's grandad, it's still likely to be in the 80 per cent range for total sugars (and 40 per cent for fructose).
Oh dear! I love honey. Since last year, when I lost my voice several times, nearly every single day - unless we run outta lemons as our tree is too newly planted to give us any yet - I have hot water,with 1/2 lemon squeezed in and a half teaspoon of honey. Hot water with just lemon is not as nice. I had it like that today. Blah! However, it was kind of bearable. Some days, even with the honey in, the lemon tastes sooo strong!
When I have Vita Brits or Porridge, I usually put a tablespoon of honey on, as the only sweetener. Don't want to eat these foods without honey, I think. You can have glucose syrup on them once you're over your addiction. We'll have to see. Really limits my breakfasts, though. I wonder if a little honey would be that bad.
I also love honey on pancakes and crumpets but we don't have them too often.
Have I mentioned that my favourite sandwich spread is peanut butter and honey! Ahhhhhh!!!!!
Day 1 of being sugar aware
Today, thus far, I've had:
I was OK all day except for after I'd had the nectarines. I went a bit hungry and thought, "Gotta eat, what's about". Overcame that with the nuts/seeds until dinner.
Probably won't eat anything else unless Brooke brings home something savoury from Baker's Delight, where she's working this arvo/night.
I had way too much sugar last week. My body is probably dying to get rid of the poisonous stuff.
- 2 boiled eggs with iodised salt (iodine needed for my breastfeeding children's brains)
- Several cups of herbal tea. One hot water with 1/2 lemon squeezed in.
- 2 cups Terry's Blend tea
- 3 bits Chia bread with butter and ham.
- 2 nectarines (you're allowed 2 pieces a day)
- 2 handfuls nuts & seeds (pumpkin, sunflower, cashews and almonds)
- Simple Beef Casserole (consisting of diced beef, large tin of tomatoes, onion, carrot, celery, mixed herbs and salt and pepper) and brown rice
I was OK all day except for after I'd had the nectarines. I went a bit hungry and thought, "Gotta eat, what's about". Overcame that with the nuts/seeds until dinner.
Probably won't eat anything else unless Brooke brings home something savoury from Baker's Delight, where she's working this arvo/night.
I had way too much sugar last week. My body is probably dying to get rid of the poisonous stuff.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Short quote about attitude
Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Summary of why sugar is bad for you
"It makes you fat. It is converted directly to fat by your liver and it destroys your appetite control so that you want to eat more of everything. The more sugar you eat, the fatter you will be."
Further info summarised from 'The Sweet Poison Quit Plan':
Further info summarised from 'The Sweet Poison Quit Plan':
- It's as addictive as nicotine ie highly addictive yet eating is not optional like smoking is, essentially. You don't just get to stop this substance that is killing us in multiple ways.
- Sugar is everywhere, in most products (even savoury ones) yet the number of overweight people in the population has doubled in just five decades.
- We are told to eat sugar in moderation but this is too difficult for those addicted, which is most of us. Rats fed sugar developed heart disease, type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease and testicular atrophy.
- Fructose doesn't trip our appetite control switch so our bodies do not detect it as food. Our livers convert it immediately to fat. We eat so much fructose these days that the fat levels in our arteries is too high, triggering hormones like insulin etc, switching that appetite control system at half-off. So not only is fructose undetected and turned to fat, it actually increases the amount of other food we eat. Insulin-resistance is the first stage of type 2 diabetes, affecting about 40% of the population.
- Very strong relationship between type 2 diabetes and dementia. Even early dementia (15,000 Australians under age 65 now have dementia). The longer you have had diabetes (or insulin-resistance), the more likely you are to develop it.
- It also impairs cognitive function. The higher the blood sugar level, the lower the score on all tests, in testing. One per cent rise in blood sugar takes you two whole years closer to dementia.
- Fructose effects on the body:
- Mineral depletion. Interferes with copper metabolism which affects collagen and elastin duties resulting in impaired muscle growth and problems with vein and artery wall formation (leading to varicose veins). Prematurely ages skin. Inhibits absorption of iodine which can lead to enlarged thyroid gland, cretinism in unborn children. Iodine is also important when breastfeeding for babies brain development.
- Blood triglyceride elevation which is perfect environment for cancer growth. Strongly associated with depression, anxiety, polycystic ovary syndrome and dementia. Sustained levels of cholesterol increasing heart disease and stroke.
- Cortisol elevation meaning depression of the immune system making us more prone to contracting disease. Let breast cancer patients be more vulnerable to both their tumours and outside infection.
- Uric acid elevation. This can elevate blood pressure (hypertension), and lead to gout, kidney disease, and affect erectile function.
- Central adiposity. Fat increases around primary organs leading to fatty liver disease and ultimately to cirrhosis of the liver and liver failure.
- After a dose of fructose, there is a definite dip in the ability of white blood cells to fight infection, reducing the effectiveness of the immune system by 50% in the first hour, taking 5 hours to get back to almost normal. Besides running your immune system permanently at half-mast, this constant fructose infusion creates the building blocks for chemical addiction.
Right attitude/mind flip
'What would your attitude to a substance that, if ingested, would immediately double your waist size as well as your risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes, and make you a candidate for Alzheimer's disease and a range of cancers...sugar won't do that to you immediately you need to remain addicted for 20 years (in most cases)' [pg 40, Quit Plan]
Bother, I'm over 20 years old!
He goes on to say that 'once you are no longer an addict, it's very hard to see any benefit at all...The sugar hit momentarily returns you to normal; it doesn't lift you to a better place. If sugar wasn't part of your life, you would feel 'better' all the time. You want sugar because it takes to a better place (for a moment or two), but the very act of taking it pushes you to a worse place until you have it again."
Please forgive me for quoting so much from his book but it really is so crucial to my journey. I have to see my addiction another way. I have to reconsider my whole relationship to sugar.
On page 42, he talks about the need to 'Perform the flip', in regards to your attitude. I quote:
"So, there are a lot of downsides to sugar addiction and the only upside is that you feel normal when you have a hit. Do you really have cause to feel deprived? No, but willpower diets demand that you feel deprived...The only way to break the addiction is to perform a Necker Cube flip and see the co-called deprivation as a desire not to be poisoned. Or you could consider yourself to be suffering from an intolerance to fructose, and when you consume it you become fat, bloated, lethargic and sick... In that sense, we are all fructose-intolerant, and if thinking about it like that helps you stay away from the addictive toxin in your diet, then it is an important mental tool in your armoury for getting through withdrawal.
If you want to succeed, you mustn't feel you are being deprived of anything. You need to take pity on the poor hopeless addicts who are all around you ingesting poison. You need to view any offering of sugar not as a temptation to be overcome but as an attempt to poison you (perhaps a little extreme, but you get the idea).
So don't feel deprived. You are not giving up anything. You are simply stopping a dangerous and harmful addiction. If you have the right attitude, staying sugar-free becomes a lot easier than you could possibly imagine."
Rule 1: Believe you are not being deprived or Have the right attitude.
Bother, I'm over 20 years old!
He goes on to say that 'once you are no longer an addict, it's very hard to see any benefit at all...The sugar hit momentarily returns you to normal; it doesn't lift you to a better place. If sugar wasn't part of your life, you would feel 'better' all the time. You want sugar because it takes to a better place (for a moment or two), but the very act of taking it pushes you to a worse place until you have it again."
Please forgive me for quoting so much from his book but it really is so crucial to my journey. I have to see my addiction another way. I have to reconsider my whole relationship to sugar.
On page 42, he talks about the need to 'Perform the flip', in regards to your attitude. I quote:
"So, there are a lot of downsides to sugar addiction and the only upside is that you feel normal when you have a hit. Do you really have cause to feel deprived? No, but willpower diets demand that you feel deprived...The only way to break the addiction is to perform a Necker Cube flip and see the co-called deprivation as a desire not to be poisoned. Or you could consider yourself to be suffering from an intolerance to fructose, and when you consume it you become fat, bloated, lethargic and sick... In that sense, we are all fructose-intolerant, and if thinking about it like that helps you stay away from the addictive toxin in your diet, then it is an important mental tool in your armoury for getting through withdrawal.
If you want to succeed, you mustn't feel you are being deprived of anything. You need to take pity on the poor hopeless addicts who are all around you ingesting poison. You need to view any offering of sugar not as a temptation to be overcome but as an attempt to poison you (perhaps a little extreme, but you get the idea).
So don't feel deprived. You are not giving up anything. You are simply stopping a dangerous and harmful addiction. If you have the right attitude, staying sugar-free becomes a lot easier than you could possibly imagine."
Rule 1: Believe you are not being deprived or Have the right attitude.
OK, I've gone too far/Nature of addiction
Well, I have got through a lot of the stuff on my list, plus some other stuff the boys just knew I had to eat before I start tomorrow (!), that I shared with the boys, Brooke (if she's here) and Stew (a little) To be honest, Stew thinks I have gone way overboard and may have done damage to my body this week. I feel like that guy in 'SuperSizeMe' who shows his girlfriend, doctor etc worrying about what it's doing to his body.
I guess, in a way, I wanted to be sick of sugar. Totally over it. I am. Still, I agree it will make the withdrawal harder. Stewart is so right that I have gone too far. With me, it does seem to be all or nothing, sometimes! This is not what Gillespie would've intended!!!
Gillespie says that Step 1 in breaking the addiction is:
"1) Have the right attitude. If you treat this as an exercise in deprivation, you will never succeed. You are ridding yourself of a dangerous toxin..."
He goes on to say, "Addiction is not about enjoyment. Addiction is about compulsion...Addiction is not a choice we make. People don't choose to keep doing something that will kill them...food manufacturers are quite happy to ensure that we get our sugar fix in just about everything we eat...It couldn't be easier.
Make no mistake: the task you are about to undertake will not be easy, but it is not an exercise in willpower...diets that require willpower just don't work...You cannot overcome an addiction by feeling like you are depriving yourself of something. The nature of addiciton is that it makes you feel deprived...If you add to that by consciously feeling deprived, then you are in fact feeding the addiction. A diet that asks you to exercise willpower is doomed to fail because it tells you to feel deprived every minute you do not have access to sugar.
YOU ARE CHEMICALLY ADDICTED TO A SUBSTANCE IN THE FOOD SUPPLY CALLED FRUCTOSE. AND UNTIL YOU TREAT THAT ADDICTION AS THE POWERFUL BIOCHEMICAL FORCE THAT IT IS, YOU WILL NEVER LOSEN ITS GRIP"
I guess, in a way, I wanted to be sick of sugar. Totally over it. I am. Still, I agree it will make the withdrawal harder. Stewart is so right that I have gone too far. With me, it does seem to be all or nothing, sometimes! This is not what Gillespie would've intended!!!
Gillespie says that Step 1 in breaking the addiction is:
"1) Have the right attitude. If you treat this as an exercise in deprivation, you will never succeed. You are ridding yourself of a dangerous toxin..."
He goes on to say, "Addiction is not about enjoyment. Addiction is about compulsion...Addiction is not a choice we make. People don't choose to keep doing something that will kill them...food manufacturers are quite happy to ensure that we get our sugar fix in just about everything we eat...It couldn't be easier.
Make no mistake: the task you are about to undertake will not be easy, but it is not an exercise in willpower...diets that require willpower just don't work...You cannot overcome an addiction by feeling like you are depriving yourself of something. The nature of addiciton is that it makes you feel deprived...If you add to that by consciously feeling deprived, then you are in fact feeding the addiction. A diet that asks you to exercise willpower is doomed to fail because it tells you to feel deprived every minute you do not have access to sugar.
YOU ARE CHEMICALLY ADDICTED TO A SUBSTANCE IN THE FOOD SUPPLY CALLED FRUCTOSE. AND UNTIL YOU TREAT THAT ADDICTION AS THE POWERFUL BIOCHEMICAL FORCE THAT IT IS, YOU WILL NEVER LOSEN ITS GRIP"
Friday, February 11, 2011
Sugary Blues
Feeling quite sick from all the sugar I've been consuming, though I've been sharing a lot with the kids. (They think I'm being nice but I really feel like I'm leading them astray). One of my teeth is hurting a little too, when I drink. At this stage, I'm looking forward to getting started and getting over this addiction. Apparently, the sugar in drinks is worse for your teeth than actually eating sugar. Oh no! We don't usually have soft drinks - just the odd bottle in the cupboard for if visitors drop in - but occasionally have Vanilla Coke as a treat. Woollies had 4 bottles for $7 so I got some this week. Oh dear!
Went up to Tea Leaves in Sassafras and checked that their teas are sugar free. A couple are not and she pointed out which ones. Glad she did, as I'd been looking at buying one of those.
Went up to Tea Leaves in Sassafras and checked that their teas are sugar free. A couple are not and she pointed out which ones. Glad she did, as I'd been looking at buying one of those.
Teenager's Perspective
Adam, my 14 year old son, said after dinner tonight, "I'm loving this sugar bonanza you're on this week" as they get to share things with me. This was when we were eating the custard tart I bought for dessert. Will he be grateful if he gets tooth decay, Diabetes etc
Made me think, though, how my kids seem to be chocaholics, just like me. Brooke is more like Stew, and knows when she's had enough. The boys and I, though, are piggy wiggys. I have been very bad and given them the same food bad habits I have. I remember Brooke, when she was about 2, saying, "More cocoa, please mummy", which was was how she described chocolate. She used to try and pronounce it 'chocolate' but then we started talking about it in code, using 'cocoa', and she quickly learnt what we were talking about and started to call it 'cocoa' herself. I would sneak around the corner and try and unwrap some chocolate. She'd hear the Cadbury foil be unwrapped and from around the corner, and down the hall, she'd come running, demanding some. Right at the end, hoping for more, she'd say, "Little bit more, Mummy. Little bit more!"
I only used to eat it once a week then, or so. However, when I was doing the Dip Ed., I got into bad habits. It was hard, working all day and studying at night, so I gradually got into the habit of having a choc bar many nights. Boo!
While I was typing the above, my sister rang to say she has Diabetes. She is the oldest of us 5 siblings and the first to get Diabetes. So horrible. I guess some families have other health issues to plague them and, by genetics, ours is Diabetes. At least I don't have mum's high blood pressure but have dad's low blood pressure. It was about 100 over 60 this week, when the doc took it.
Made me think, though, how my kids seem to be chocaholics, just like me. Brooke is more like Stew, and knows when she's had enough. The boys and I, though, are piggy wiggys. I have been very bad and given them the same food bad habits I have. I remember Brooke, when she was about 2, saying, "More cocoa, please mummy", which was was how she described chocolate. She used to try and pronounce it 'chocolate' but then we started talking about it in code, using 'cocoa', and she quickly learnt what we were talking about and started to call it 'cocoa' herself. I would sneak around the corner and try and unwrap some chocolate. She'd hear the Cadbury foil be unwrapped and from around the corner, and down the hall, she'd come running, demanding some. Right at the end, hoping for more, she'd say, "Little bit more, Mummy. Little bit more!"
I only used to eat it once a week then, or so. However, when I was doing the Dip Ed., I got into bad habits. It was hard, working all day and studying at night, so I gradually got into the habit of having a choc bar many nights. Boo!
While I was typing the above, my sister rang to say she has Diabetes. She is the oldest of us 5 siblings and the first to get Diabetes. So horrible. I guess some families have other health issues to plague them and, by genetics, ours is Diabetes. At least I don't have mum's high blood pressure but have dad's low blood pressure. It was about 100 over 60 this week, when the doc took it.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Blood Tests and attitude requirements
I had a blood test this morning. I had to fast since the night before to test for Diabetes etc Then, I went to Knox City and had a Choc/Honeycomb shake from Wendy's and two cinammon donuts. Still in my week's swan song to sugar thing.
Feeling over sugar this week. I go to bed feeling sick in my tummy but that could be because of a tummy bug that seems to be in the family lately.
Gillespie says that you can't see it as being deprived of sugar, when you go sugar aware, or it won't work. Willpower, dieting etc is counter-productive. You have to do a mind shift where you look at it that you're getting rid of this dangerous toxin from your diet. Why would you willingly ingest something that is poisoning you?
Hence, I wonder why I feel the need to have this 'Sugary Bonanza' week. Do I feel the need to 'stock up' on sugar? Am I worried that I'll feel deprived if I don't. Do I want to have this to look back to?
Stewart is reading the second book, 'The Quit Plan' one, too. He wants to start ASAP. He is not overweight, has good control when it comes to sugar, but has been convinced of the dangers of sugar by Gillespie.
Feeling over sugar this week. I go to bed feeling sick in my tummy but that could be because of a tummy bug that seems to be in the family lately.
Gillespie says that you can't see it as being deprived of sugar, when you go sugar aware, or it won't work. Willpower, dieting etc is counter-productive. You have to do a mind shift where you look at it that you're getting rid of this dangerous toxin from your diet. Why would you willingly ingest something that is poisoning you?
Hence, I wonder why I feel the need to have this 'Sugary Bonanza' week. Do I feel the need to 'stock up' on sugar? Am I worried that I'll feel deprived if I don't. Do I want to have this to look back to?
Stewart is reading the second book, 'The Quit Plan' one, too. He wants to start ASAP. He is not overweight, has good control when it comes to sugar, but has been convinced of the dangers of sugar by Gillespie.
Why avoid sugar when the dietary guidelines say it's OK 'in moderation'?
As Gillespie says in the 'Sweet Poison Quit Plan', it's almost impossible to moderate sensibly your sugar intake if you are sugar addicted.
Saintly people - like my Stewy - can stop at just one square of chocolate. He knows when he's had enough. The rest of us have our appetite control switch blurred by a sugar fog so we just eat and eat and eat.
True sugar addicts have to go 'cold turkey' and give it up.
You can never fully be without sugar. It's naturally in fruit etc However, fructose is added to everything. So, am grateful that his book tells you how to work things out. You can subscribe to his site called something like, "How much sugar?" but I haven't done that yet. First things first!
On Monday, 14th Feb, it's the big day. One calls it being 'sugar aware'.
Saintly people - like my Stewy - can stop at just one square of chocolate. He knows when he's had enough. The rest of us have our appetite control switch blurred by a sugar fog so we just eat and eat and eat.
True sugar addicts have to go 'cold turkey' and give it up.
You can never fully be without sugar. It's naturally in fruit etc However, fructose is added to everything. So, am grateful that his book tells you how to work things out. You can subscribe to his site called something like, "How much sugar?" but I haven't done that yet. First things first!
On Monday, 14th Feb, it's the big day. One calls it being 'sugar aware'.
The greediest list ever - Sugar Bonanza
In the 'Sweet Poison Quit Plan', David suggests you have a last sugary thing - like glass of Cooke or Mars Bar - before you start. This is not for me. I wrote up this big wish list in this, my WEEK of sugar bonanza. I know, I'm totally crazy. Stew thinks it'll make the sugar withdrawal harder.
Here's my wish list for this week:
Thankfully, I have 5 kids to share it with. Well, the older 3 could share some as the baby girls are too young, both being under 2.
If you know me personally and never knew I was a greedy pig, then you do now! Now do you see why I have to do it?
Here's my wish list for this week:
- Cherry Ripe
- Stunner meal at Hungry Jack's with frozen Coke
- Apple & Custard scroll from Baker's Delight
- Coke Float from McD
- Cadbury Chocolate bars: Crunchie, Snack, Fruit&Nut, Dark Chocolate Peppermint, Dark Chocolate Crunchy Toffee and Old Jamaica
- Mars bar lines: Mars Bar, Snickers, Caramel Mars, Triple Choc Mars
- Vanilla Coke
- Toblerone
- Boost Shake
- Cinnamon Donut
- Cheesecake Shop cheesecake
- Woolworths Mud Cake
- Custard Tart
- Vienetta
- Heaven ice cream on stick with Macademia
- Slurpee from 7-Eleven
- etc
Thankfully, I have 5 kids to share it with. Well, the older 3 could share some as the baby girls are too young, both being under 2.
If you know me personally and never knew I was a greedy pig, then you do now! Now do you see why I have to do it?
A Journey to Sugar Awareness begins!
In 2010, my sister suggested that I may be suffering from sugar addiction. I wanted to read more about it but my local library service didn't have any books specifically on that. I found a book called, "Addiction-free naturally : liberating yourself from sugar, caffeine, food addictions, tobacco, alcohol, prescription drugs" by Brigitte Mars but would've preferred one specifically for sugar addiction. It was OK, though.
This year, 2011, my friend suggested that I read 'Sweet Poison' (1st book) and 'The Sweet Poison Quit Plan' (2nd Book) by David Gillespie. I placed a hold on it at the library but the second book came in first, which is all about how to implement it. Check out his site at: http://sweetpoison.com.au/
For once, an Aussie has written something about something I'm interested in, health-wise. It mentions Vegemite and things that we know about. Yay! I liked what I read so much that I went out and bought a copy of each book.
I absolutely love sugary foods and have a majorly sweet tooth. I'm still reading the book on how to do it but plan to implement becoming 'sugar-aware' on Monday, 14th February. It is a journey that I must take. My mum died of Diabetes related complications, as did her father. Her sister and brother - both still alive - have it too. Am over 40 now so it is time!
My husband suggested I write this. Thanks Stew! Hope I don't bore anybody with the journey. If all else fails, it should help to keep me on track!
This year, 2011, my friend suggested that I read 'Sweet Poison' (1st book) and 'The Sweet Poison Quit Plan' (2nd Book) by David Gillespie. I placed a hold on it at the library but the second book came in first, which is all about how to implement it. Check out his site at: http://sweetpoison.com.au/
For once, an Aussie has written something about something I'm interested in, health-wise. It mentions Vegemite and things that we know about. Yay! I liked what I read so much that I went out and bought a copy of each book.
I absolutely love sugary foods and have a majorly sweet tooth. I'm still reading the book on how to do it but plan to implement becoming 'sugar-aware' on Monday, 14th February. It is a journey that I must take. My mum died of Diabetes related complications, as did her father. Her sister and brother - both still alive - have it too. Am over 40 now so it is time!
My husband suggested I write this. Thanks Stew! Hope I don't bore anybody with the journey. If all else fails, it should help to keep me on track!
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