Sugar message is not new!

I love Gillespie's books, as you will know by now. They have changed my life and I think he's brave to take on getting out such a contentious message. We sure love our sugar and, as he says in his books, the sugar industry is powerful and expensive to us, as tax-payers. As he says at the end of the first book:
"Selling fructose makes you rich, so there are many very well-heeled groups and corporations who will not like the message in this book, and I expect the attacks will come from all quarters. But we now know enough about the chemistry of the human body to be absolutely certain that fructose is a killer of epidemic proportions, and any amount of muddying of the waters by the vested interests should be treated in very much the same way as those of the tobacco industry were. Let the food fight begin!"

I don't agree with every single little thing he says though. I was taught evolution in school but it failed to convince me. I am a Creationist who believes that God created the world in 6 days and was a tad insulted that he assumes that we all believe in evolution by just referring to us 'evolving' this or that way. However, I will not throw out the baby with the bath water and write him off by his incorrect assumption that evolution is fact. He is a hard-working father with an important message to get out. Good on him! I don't mind him charging to join the "How much sugar" website. The Bible says that a worker deserves their wages and he has gone to all this trouble to help us easily find out about sugar so I don't see a problem with it.
http://www.howmuchsugar.com/

Am currently cleaning out my filing cabinet. Found an article written about 2001 which was all about how harmful sugar is, how it's addictive etc   In my book, "7 ways to build a better you", written in 1999 by Sheri Rose Shepherd, I found this:
"Sugar is a drug. If you don't believe me, try to quit for a day. Try to go one day, two days. You literally go through withdrawals just like a drug addict does. You just can't help but think about it. You have to have it - until it gets out of your system.
Recently, a study was done in a mental hospital that showed drastic results. The doctors changed the diet of the patients and took them off all white sugar and all white flour. 80% of the patients completely recovered from their mental illness. How many women are running around right now feeling completely out of control, exhausted, depressed, overwhelmed, anxious, sick and drained?"

Again, good on Gillespie for writing an Australian book to get this critical message out. Yay!

Scales are driving me crazy!

Have lost 500gms since last Monday but really, it is very variable. One day it'll be 900gms less than the day before etc It's very hard to tell what's happening. Just recording the Monday weights but it's crazy how much it can vary during the week. Maybe I should record another day as the Monday ones often aren't as good. LOL It can vary from one day to the next way too much. Very misleading and disheartening. Still, I am doing this for health and not to lose weight, for the most part.

My weight seems to be hanging between two certain kgs and goes up and down between them. Will give it a bit longer and then maybe start cutting carbs???

The reason I'm eating breakfast at lunch, and lunch at breakfast, as previously reported, is so I can use up more of those calories as the day goes on. Probably a fallacy that it'll help but it stops me feeling hungry mid-morning so is worth it even from that perspective.

Today, someone said, at ABA, "I don't agree with that", when I referred to the fructose thing. I said that it's a scientific fact and not some author's hairbrained scheme. Someone else started talking so I didn't get to ask her more. Is her opinion from fact? Has she read the books and is ready to discuss it from an informed viewpoint? I hope so! I hate it when people who are ill-informed go spouting off their opinions when they aren't knowledgeable. My friend once told me that the Harry Potter books were very "badly written shmuck". I asked her how many of the books she'd read, in the Harry Potter series, and she replied that she hadn't read any!!! Oh please...!!!

Accidental lolly!

Today, I was opening the curtain in my son's room and saw his big jar of gumballs on the desk. Without thinking, I took off the lid and popped one in, making sure it was an approved colour as I'm only allowed certain ones, by his orders. Was chewing away on it when I remembered this whole sugar-aware business. It was completely innocent in that I didn't plan to do it. What an accident! Full of sugar - first ingredient - etc Just goes to show that you can do things on auto-pilot, without thinking first. Oh no!

Lately - I can't remember if I've already said this - I've been trying to have lunch at breakfast and breakfast at lunch. Having 4 slices of toast for breakfast and Sweet Poison muesli for lunch with Brewer's Yeast and Wheat Germ. Today, I had avocado in the muesli also. See how much I love it! Surprisingly, it was fine. I'd do that again.

Nearly starved by late dinner

Yesterday, I was in a quandry about the Satay Beef. Nothing else grabbed me, on the menu, so I had the Satay Beef after all. Did look at the Quit Plan before I left and it said that satay had 22 fructose. Blah! Naughty satay! Why taste so yummy and be bad for me? Probably the sugar in it appeals to me, I guess. I love peanut butter so that's most likely why.

I've been trying to eat early in the night so I have a big break from eating overnight. Well before 8pm if possible. Usually, we have dinner early - around 6 - so that's usually possible. Occasionally, we'll have popcorn or potato crisps while watching a DVD after 8pm but that's not that often.

However, last night, we got to the restaurant by 7.30pm. Then, had to wait for everybody to arrive and then order. As some people got banquets, I had to wait forever for them to bring out my Satay Beef. (Hate it that they make you wait until those people are a few courses in. I would've been happy to just sit there without eating once I'd finished. I had to do that anyway, as I finished well before their last course.) I didn't get it until 8.30pm. I nearly ate the leg of the person next to me, while waiting, as I was that hungry. I hadn't eaten since lunch, bar a peach for arvo tea. (Lunch was pumpkin soup and 2 slices toast, stuck together in a sandwich, with butter and roast beef sliced meat) I was sooo hungry.

Maybe I still have false ideas from the days of reading "How to lose weight" articles/health articles in magazines - Not that I ever did their diets as they were too prescriptive - but I think it's better not to eat too late at night so your body gets a rest from digestion while it sleeps. (I know it'll still be digesting food but not freshly eaten food at 10pm etc)

Still having those lovely flavoured teas we bought however, breastfeeding mums should have a maximum of 200mg of caffeine per day and tea can have between 20-200mg. Apparently, the loose leaf teas have more caffeine than tea bags. Bother! Probably means that just one mug is the maximum or even over.

Every morning, if I have a lemon handy (which is usually), I am coping well without honey in my mug of boiled water with 1/2 lemon squeezed into it. I didn't think I'd be able to drink it without honey but the lemon taste is bearable. Good for your body to have this, apparently. I believe that this helps give me less colds. They say that you should have it before eating, so it helps with digestion, but I have to have breaky pretty fast in the mornings, due to baby's needs, so I can't do that.

Chinese dinner blues

It's 6.15pm. At 7.30pm tonight, am going to have dinner at a Chinese restaurant with my ABA (Australian Breastfeeding Association) friends.

Even though I'm going for walks nearly every day, I can't be bothered going into my daughter's room and retrieving 'Sweet Poison Quit Plan' to see what I can eat there. Well, I haven't yet but I probably will. [Have lent the book to her as she's only 17. She's my oldest child, of the 5. If she can implement it now, think of the fructose/damage she'll avoid. Yay!]

From memory, he says not to eat Thai (as their sauces etc have a lot of sugar) etc and if you eat Chinese, try and avoid Satay, for similar reasons, I think.

However, the ABA group went there in December last year, for the Christmas outing, and their Beef Satay is to die for.

Should I just have it and think, "Well, it's only every so often as I just about never get to eat out" or should I have something else?

Will go and check the book but even if he does say to not have it, will I succumb to it once I'm there as they cook a delicious Satay Beef? Woe is me! What to do?

Have been doing it for 5 weeks now. Loving it. If I feel hungry, I eat and yet I still lose weight. This is no yucky diet where you starve and obsess about food. Mind you, I did think a little too much about the humble avocado, as I previously shared, but I've got that more in perspective. It's not good to be 'in love' with a food, is it? LOL

4kgs lost so far and Easter's coming!

I've lost 4kgs since I started this on Valentine's Day, 2011. (We've been married for 20 years so no chocolates etc on Valentine's Day. We don't really believe in celebrating it at all so Feb 14th has no meaning for me really.) I am NOT starving myself. Eating pretty much whatever, wherever, as long as the rules of Sweet Poison are respected.

Easter is coming. I love Darrel Lea nougat eggs, coated in chocolate. Have loved them since I was a kid. I am debating whether to buy one and hold it over to eat on my b'day in August. Or should I allow myself some chocolate 3x a year or something? Christmas, Easter and my birthday - which are roughly 3-4 months apart so are spaced nicely.

Sugar, too much fructose etc are akin to poison so should I eat any chocolate at all ever?

Party food is for parties, Gillespie says, so I guess he means it's OK occasionally but really, maybe I should just keep it totally off limits to stay feeling healthier.

The only thing I've eaten that's 'naughty' since this started is 1/2 a date scone from Baker's Delight. Hubby had the other half. No chocolate, ice cream etc

I sure get sick of people at playgroup saying, "Oh you can have some of this. There's no sugar in it." However, when you ask what IS in it, they usually say dried fruit so there is the blessed fructose!!!!!

Breastfeeding does NOT help!

[Warning! This post includes tasteful breastfeeding photos. Why? Because it fits in with the topic and is also thumbing the nose at Facebook, who won't let you put up breastfeeding photos. Honestly, you can see more at the beach so what's the fuss...!!!]

I am currently breastfeeding my 23mth old and my 10mth old (8 months corrected as she was premature). You'd think this would help with losing weight, wouldn't you! Yet, my body must just use every calorie very well, as Gillespie talks about, as the weight doesn't melt away. I stay the same weight. I think my body hoards all the calories it can and just won't burn up any fat stores, if it can at all help it.

Daughter 2 feeding, 3 months old, 2009

 I'm one of those people who would last well in a famine. Lots of fat stores. My hubby is tall, lean and athletic. He would not last well. If we lived in a famine, I'd be glad of my shape but...as we don't...I tend to bemoan it.

There was a mum breastfeeding twins in the Special Care Nursery where my youngest spent over 7 weeks. She was thin to begin with, she told me, and I believe her as she was that body type. Feeding the twins, her pregnancy weight gain just fell off and she was soooo skinny. Seems to me, if you're thin to begin with, b'feeding just makes you thinner. If you're overweight, to begin with, it just seems to leave you the same.

 

Oh, the joys of having this kind of metabolism! My hubby can burn off food so easily. He used to eat heaps when he worked at McD, as a younger man, but would not gain weight.



Daughter 3, 9 1/2 weeks prem, feeding at 5 days old

Still, this is no excuse to be a pig and eat whatever I like. I can't just say, "Oh well, it's my metabolism!" I have to do the best with what I've got!

Re-evaluation week

What a week I've had! Weight issues really made me consider carefully my reasons for doing this.

Say, I weighed...let's pick some fantasty figure out of the air...55kgs when this started. I then got down to, say, 51.6. So that's comparitively, the 3.5kgs loss I reported to you. Then, it went down to 51.3 last Monday. I thought, as I wrote in the blog, "Oh well, 300gms is better than nothing, or a weight gain." Then, for the next few days the scales were all over the place. I only write down what I weigh, once a week, but hop on most days now, just outta curiosity. It went up to 51.8, then 52kgs etc. Finally, on Friday, it went down to 50.8, and today it was 50.6. Who knows what it'll be by Monday, when I have to write it down again. I only bought the scales a few weeks ago. I was wondering if they were faulty? Was I all clogged up inside so the weight only went down when that all unblogged itself? (I hadn't felt constipated or anything???)

I must say I was quite depressed when the scales showed a weight gain for a few days. I was wondering what was going on. I felt like a big pig or something, who eats too much, and despaired of ever losing more weight. As I've said, I'm not really concentrating on cutting down carbs much yet so I began to wonder if it was time. I've been walking a lot more. Maybe I've developed more muscle and muscle weighs more than fat??? I wondered many things and worried myself about it all.

Then, I made myself re-evaluate my whole reason for doing this. Is it weight loss or health? I have to say that it's mainly for health reasons so even if the weight loss halted forever, I'd be happier with the few kgs lost as I'd not be risking dementia, CVD, dental decay etc [All of the nasty things Gillespie links with sugar in his books] I had to get a grip of myself and say that the weight loss is sure to continue. I knew it'd be slow so what am I worrying about. I visited some of the other blogs that Gillespie 'advertises' on his Sweet Poison FB page, and in one of them, someone said that she lost nothing for the first month and then it started to gradually come off. So, maybe one can hit a little plateau patch, for a while, and shouldn't despair??? It took Gillespie himself 2 years to lose his 40kgs. Be patient, Fi, be patient!

I don't want to return to the sugary piggy I was. Sure, I have the odd brief moment of longing when someone mentions a former favourite treat of mine but am feeling better and doing well, overall. It'll slowly get there, I hope. I'm definitely eating less and feeling full much more often. Still have those times when I want to eat for...I don't know...just because I feel like it etc However, I can't expect a lifetime of incorrect eating to just change instantly. I don't even realise that I'm doing some bad habits so I must allow for discovery and time to change.

Other good blogs

If you 'like' Gillespie's FB page called 'Sweet Poison', you'll get notifications of things from his FB page. Useful stuff, like other blogs, info in the news etc

Here's some blogs that he has advertised:

http://alllittenup.blogspot.com/2011/03/sweet-sweet-poison.html

http://www.sarahwilson.com.au/2011/03/readers-sugar-storiestips/

Maree ads a great new recipe for Sugar Free Muesli Bars http://sugar-is-poison.blogspot.com/2011/03/sugar-free-muesli.html

Check them out and see what you think!

David Gillespie Sweet Poison Quit Plan

Here's David, speaking at his second book launch!

He's on Facebook also. Go to 'Sweet Poison' in the search bar. It has 'author' under it. He has 'advertised' my blog there. He often 'advertises' other blogs there, which are interesting.

1 month in & Sugar and Tooth Decay

It's now been a month on this journey, by calendar date. I'm so glad we're doing this and am happy with how it's going, thus far. It's gotta be permanent so must keep going strong!

When I had my sugary bonanza week, one of my teeth started to hurt. It hurt for a few weeks after that. When I read further into Gillespie's first book, I found out why!

Here is the summarised info but I will quote from Gillespie frequently:

Since the 60s, they've known that SM (Streptococcus mutans) causes tooth decay. It's just one of the 200 to 300 species of bacteria inside our mouths. Rats fed table sugar (sucrose) invited their SM give them decay but pure glucose or fructose, alone, did not. They had to be combined/both present, to provide, "the perfect environment for SM to do its destructive work." Table sugar is not present in nature, as you need to process sugarcane, therefore before the 1850s, "dental cavities were not a significant medical problem...SM loves a constant supply of sucrose rather than big lumps at intervals...tooth decay is not so much dependent on the quantity consumed, but rather the frequence of consumption." This is where tooth decay differs from the other conditions caused by sugar.

He goes on to say that, "constant snacking on sugar and sugar-laden drinks provides the perfect environment for SM, but a large amount of sugar at a meal-time doesn't help it much at all, especially if you are in the h abit of cleaning your teeth after a meal. SM likes a sludge of sucrose to be present on the teeth at all times."

This presents major costs for the government in treating the symptoms of SM's activity, for the last 5 decades, especially since soft drinks have been widely drunk in that period of time. Their solution? Put flouride in the water supply, which is just a "quick-fix" solution.

We really do spend a lot of money fixing and treating the damage done by sugar, don't we!!!

Weight

When do you weigh yourself? I try to do it first thing in the morning, before eating, after going to the toilet etc (A gym instructor I used to see was told, in her training, that doing no. 2 first can make a difference, in your weight, of up to a kilo! Wow, if true!)

Rarely used to weigh myself. Since doing this, I'm doing it most days but only recording what it is on Monday mornings so it's realistic and consistent. It can fluctuate too much otherwise.

Today being a Monday, I weighed myself this morning. I'd only lost 300gms since last week but that's OK. It took Gillespie two years to lose his 40kgs, which Stew worked out meant about 1/2 a kg per week. So, my 300gms is OK. I know I probably need to cut back in total calores per day but I'm still getting used to this style of eating. I'm no longer really craving sugar but the habits/social customs bit is hard. Like I said recently, we eat for reasons other than hunger or addiction, such as boredom, socially etc

Any loss is better than none, or a gain, huh!   (-:

Sore today after 1000 steps

Not trying to turn this into 'Fitness Fi' but I thought I'd write about our exercise yesterday. We walked from our house to the 1000 steps and up the hill to the start of the steps. We took turns pushing the pram and Stew had the youngest on him, in a sling. At the start of the steps, we parted company. Stew went up the steps and down again whereas I, who couldn't go up them due to the pram, walked down the hill to the arch/playground and then up to the bottom of the steps. I met Stew coming down the start of the hill, so he waited for me to go up to the start of the steps again, and then down. With a pram, that hill was a killer! 

All in all:

• we walked 7.2kms (according to Stew's iPhone)
• we walked for 1 hour and 48 mins
• I burnt 873 calories (according to my HR monitor, set for my height/weight)
• My heart rate averaged between 135 and 168 (according to my HR monitor)

Stretched afterwards but am still sore today. Couldn't do that everyday but it was good to have a big exercise burst like that.

Pushing the pram up the hills was hard. Poor Stew and the baby got so sweaty as she was against his chest. Showers for all!

Habits and crumpets

This morning, we had crumpets. Usually I have these, buttered, with honey as the honey dribbles down into those holes and is just delicious. However, can't have honey! The boys had it on theirs. Stew and I had...wait for it...mashed avocado on it. Much as I love avocado, it just wasn't the same. Crumpets are usually sweet - ie. honey - affairs!

Older son thinks we should all still eat honey because it's so good for you. We don't get the watered down, processed stuff at the supermarket. We get ours from a supplier and buy it either directly from his house or at a market he goes to. Yellow box - yum!

I think I've said it in this blog before but Gillespie says, about honey, this: "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.) p. 121 Quit Plan
Our honey was up in the 80s for % of sugar, so he's right! He suggests glucose syrup, if you want something similar but without fructose.

I may ask Gillespie about honey. All of us, in our family, love honey so wonder about the health benefits. These benefits probably don't outweigh the damage done to your body, by fructose, so I guess that Gillespie would say it's not worth it. {Have I answered my own question! LOL}

Habits are hard. Sometimes, I'm not hungry, but just feel like something to eat. I may just feel like eating popcorn or chips or something. I'm OK, with not wanting to eat chocolate and sweets, like ice cream, most of the time now, but sometimes, I want to eat for other reasons. Boredom? Habit? Shared activity with others?

If you eat more than you can burn up, you will not lose weight or...worse...you'll gain weight! So, I must be careful.

Gillespie covers what to do about habits, when in withdrawal, but what about when you're through that and still sometimes want to eat for reasons other than hunger? I must work out strategies for those times too...

Stew wants me to hurry up and finish this so we can walk up the 1000 steps. Me, I'll just walk to the first step as the preliminary hill is a big killer. I'll see how I'll go. Haven't actually walked up the steps since 2009, when I was pregnant with second youngest, as it got my heartrate up too high. He is fit! I am not! Will see how I go...

My exercise plans and hunger status

Following on from yesterday, I learnt that my main goal of exercise should not be to lose weight. Anyway, I am unable to put in hours at a gym, due to family needs at present. I am breastfeeding my two youngest babies - which is full on - so just cannot get there.

Essentially, I don't need to exercise in order to lose my excess weight. If I don't eat added fructose, I can hope to gradually burn into my fat stores if I don't go crazy on portions, fat etc

I love to walk and I live in such a pretty area, at the foothills of mountains. There are lovely views all around us. Hence, I plan to walk. I have a double stroller for the babies so can walk here and there.

Today, I walked to playgroup and back, pushing both girls. Yesterday, I got to ABA (Australian Breastfeeding Association) early and walked for 20mins, in the streets around it, before  the coffee morning started. On Monday, I took the single child 3-wheeler pram out, with the youngest, for a 30mins walk around here.

My husband goes up the 1000 steps, not far from here. I used to do it when fitter. However, I've had 2 caesareans in the last 2 years so am taking it slowly. Those steps are a killer, even when I was very fit. I hate them but love them at the same time. I may go with him but just walk to the bottom of the first step and then back down again. The hills up to there will still push me hard. When I was pregnant, I had the heart rate monitor on and just getting to the bottom step, I was already nearly at the maximum heart rate allowed for a pregnant person. Hardly up the stairs at all, and I was exceeding that maximum. Like I say, those steps are killers! [Thankfully, there's not actually 1000 of them. My youngest son set out to count them but lost count! I've heard it's less though, by those who would know]

Exercise makes you feel good so I want to do it for the fresh air, the baby girls to get to see the sights/sounds, Vitamin D etc It's a blessing to be able to move and enjoy walks. I listed many of the benefits of exercise yesterday.

One day, I'd like to do weights again. I miss the equipment at the gym and I miss weights, in general. The toned muscles they create. I do have some home weights here so should try and do some. However, one step at a time...

Am I as hungry these days? No way! I'm definitely getting used to eating less, especially sweet foods, packed with glucose. If I find myself thirsting for a nice, cold soft drink, it means I'm thirsty and I have water or herbal teas. My appetite control switch seems to be working and I'm feeling much more full than before.

Being a woman, I even made it through the PMS time OK, when I'd normally just HAVE to have chocolate. My daughter, aged 17, says I should remove from the fridge the magnet my sister gave me - 'I'd give up chocolate but I'm no quitter' - but I keep it there to remind myself how far I've come...

Exercise is not for losing weight!

Gillespie reminds us, in 'Sweet Poison', that we are the only animal that does deliberate exercise just for the sake of it and not just to chase our food etc He says that it's great for the body and has health benefits that none can deny. However, the main reason that it's done should not be to lose weight. It's been proven that exercise makes you hungrier so if you are eating the wrong food - like fructose - it'll be worse for your health.

Exercise, according to Gillespie and the Mayo clinic, can help with:

• improving your mood
• fighting heart disease by improving blood circulation
• strengthening your heart and lungs
• helping you get a better night's sleep
• weight loss
• put the spark back in your sex life
• just for fun
• endorphin rush
• gives you 'head space'
• for you ('me' time)
• just to feel well

Years ago, being fat was blamed on lack of exercise as doctors and researchers noticed that fat people rarely exercised. However, they could've come up with a more sensible conclusion, Gillespie feels, which is that fat people don't exercise because they're fat. Who wants to try and exercise if you're really overweight etc? It's much harder work than for those who are trim, taut and terrific. Also, there's the psychological aspect of it all. (Riding your bike might show off your fat body more etc) Poor fat people! Instead of doctors looking at their own bad advice telling us to eat low-fat foods that were majorly sweetened with fructose, to hide the lack of taste that the fat took with it, we were blamed for being overweight as we were, apparently, lazy slobs...

In 2002, I joined the gym and worked out 4-6 days a week. Most days, I was up at 5.30am and at the gym at 6am. Cardio, bike classes, weights, Abs/Butts/Thigh classes etc Serious weights workouts too. I lose 11 kgs and was much more fit. I mainly lost that weight through exercise as I refused to do much with my diet. (Never liked dieting) Then...I hit a plateau and couldn't lose anymore. I had done as much as I could with exercise alone. I just stayed at that weight/fitness for a few years. Alas, I changed jobs to one where I had to start an hour earlier, in the mornings, and couldn't get to the gym then. I hated going at night, in family time, so I went less and less. The weight slowly crept back on, and brought friends along for the ride! Sob sob! I weighed more than I did before I started, as is often the case. Have since had two more babies by caesareans, and am breastfeeding so getting to the gym is out. If I do return to work next year, as a teacher, marking and preparation time, plus 5 kids, will mean no time for the gym. I could not feasibly lose the weight via exercise alone so I HAVE to do something with my eating patterns!

Our body is very efficient at using up the calories we eat so that burning them off through exercise is very difficult. Gillespie says, "our enormously efficient energy use means that all we need to travel 8km on a bicycle is the energy contained in the 10 teaspooons of sugar in a can of soft drink. To do the same thing in a car, we would need the energy contained in 1kg of sugar (200 teaspooons). Put in this fashion, riding a bicycle 8km and not drinking a can of soft drink both have approximately the same energy effect. I know which I would rather do" (p.138) So, burning off what we eat, particularly the excess is an uphill battle. If you're overweight, like me, you want to eat into your fat stores, not just try and work off the latest fructose you've ingested. He points out that the food we eat makes it hard to lose weight, no matter how much exercise we do.

"Exercise and dieting help us lower that weight gain but it will always be a losing battle for as long as we dontinue to consume fructose...staying thin in an environment where almost all food is now flavoured with fructose is like trying to row a canoe with a barbed-wire paddle. Exercise is good for all sorts of reasons, but losing weight shouldn't be one of the motivations. Exercising at a level that would even begin to undo the weight you put on from consuming fructose is almost impossible (if you still want to do anything else in your life). A far saner approach is simply not to consume the fructose in the first place...[Exercise] is a spectacularly inefficient means of achieving [weight loss]...Don't exercise if your dominant purpose is to lose weight: let a lack of fructose do that instead." (quoted from Chapter 10)

He lost his 40kgs doing no particular kind of exercise and has now happily lost his lethargy so feels more like it. Once you lose the weight, any exercise you do, with a fructose limited diet, will be far more effective and the exercise will be "financed from your fat treasury."(p.146)

Since Gillespie lost his 40kgs, he has felt much more like exercising.
What he says makes sense from what I have experienced with exercise...

Weight loss

As I've said, my main goal is to get  healthier and minimise my chances of damage to my body from eating fructose. However, I do need to lose weight so to lose some weight as well would be great.

I started on Feb 14th, Valentine's Day, so it's been 3 full weeks now. When I weighed myself this morning, I was quite pleased. I've now lost about 3 to 3 1/2 kgs in weight. [I can't be more precise as I swapped scales due to the need to update my old ones and have to guesstimate what I would've started at on these] I hopped on the old dodgy scales - that are about 2kgs under what they should be but should still be consistent for any weight loss - and that said I'd lost 3.5kgs also.

Yay!

Today, I ate:
Breakfast: Sweet Poison muesli with milk, Wheat Germ and Brewer's Yeast
                   1 mug hot water with 1/2 lemon squeezed in
                   1 mug decaffinated green tea
                   1 mug Rosehips herbal tea
Lunch:        2 slices of buttered toast with no added salt/sugar Peanut Butter
                   2 slices of buttered toast with cheese
Arvo tea:   small glass milk, 1 1/2 mugs flavoured tea (Earl Grey with Jasmine)
Dinner:      Lamb Ragout (diced lamb, onion, carrots, beans, etc), brown rice,  steamed  veggies, banana and most of a pear (shared some with the baby)

I am happy to have your feedback - you won't offend.

Somebody I know sent me this message privately on FB:

 

a tip to share with you...if you don't mind!
Just read your blog. Milk is a meal as you may know (baby's live only on milk and it suffices them) so having milk after a meal is a meal x 2. Try drinking mineral water with no flavours and slice a lemon into it. A croissant (sp) is so full of butter you are better off with a rye salad sandwich (use avocado as the butter, tomato, lettuce, grated carrot, cucumber and add cheese or tuna/salmon if desired. If your food satisfies your cells (nutrition wise) you will not be hungry. I try to stay away from bread but if I do eat it Burgen rye is so nice...but being in Melb you probably have more choices! Bakers Delight does not do rye over here.

 

Somebody else commented, after a previous blog, that I was eating too many carbs and not enough protein, so that is why I get so hungry sometimes. They wisely pointed out that protein makes you feel more full whereas carbs don't satisfy for long.

 

I am grateful that they sent me this feedback.. I will never take offense to any well-meaning advice or criticism. Unless you're outright rude etc  (-:

 

At the moment, I've been doing this for 3 full weeks now but am still getting over my addiction so I have relaxed many rules. I have always been a bread lover so I know I probably have to cut back from the 4 slices I usually have per day. [Occasionally, more than this but that's rare]

 

About milk - they are right that it's like a meal. I have read read this too. It's a 'complete food', isn't it? I only rarely have a little glass of milk between meals as I don't like the taste of plain milk much. However, I've also read that we shouldn't just have 3 square meals a day but should more graze. So, is it OK to have milk as a snack/little meal or not?

Hmmm...I must try this mineral water. Brushes with it, when I was young, made me think it was not nice but I should try again as an adult. That rye salad sandwich sounds nice. I really should eat more fish and do like tuna. [Not a big salmon lover, though]

 

The person that said I need to eat more protein, especially for breakfast [as I wrote in my blog that I got hungry again before lunch], is also right. However, I need quick breakfasts with my two baby girls to care for. The youngest can just sit on the floor and cry all during breakfast (teething at present) so it's gotta be quick. Boiling eggs etc is out. If you can think of quick protein breakfasts, I'd love to hear your ideas.

 

So far, breakfast is usually the Sweet Poison muesli with milk, Brewer's Yeast and Wheat Germ (with plain yogurt, if we have it) or porridge (microwaved) with Brewer's Yeast, Wheat Germ, Cinnamon and a cut up pear with milk. The Sweet Poison muesli, a recipe from the Quit Plan, is yummy. It has unsalted peanuts, macadamias and wanuts (partly blended up), rolled oats, dessicated coconut and sunflower seeds. [Stew loves it too but he's currently helping me by using up the three bags of store bought muesli so he mixes the two mueslis together.]

 

As for croissants. Does anybody know if they are that bad for you? Isn't butter good for you? I'm confused. Anyway, my daughter works at Baker's Delight casually, around school. She used to bring me home date scones, apple and custard scrolls etc She cannot do that now so I've told her that I will have croissants just so she can bring me home something! She can't always bring anything home but it's nice when she can. If I need to give them up, once I'm well into this, well I will. But I hope they're not too bad for you????? I love them with butter and cheese. Yum!

Thinking that helps

Years ago, when I joined the gym, they suggested I read, "If not dieting, then what?" by Rick Kausman, a medical doctor. It was a good read, from memory. I read it in about 2002 so my memory of it is not perfect. 

I remember that he had a really helpful saying in it. It went something like, "I can eat it if I want to, but do I really want to?" I only remembered this saying, recently. I wish I could remember exactly how it goes but it was something like that. [Added a few hours later: I contacted Rick by email and he told me that it's: "I can have it if I want it, but do I really feel like it?"]

It's helpful because you are not really being deprived of sugar, or fructose. It's all around you. You can eat it if you really want to. It's just that you are choosing the better way. You are now choosing to pass such foods for a higher good.

It's actually liberating to think like that. It helps me. Yesterday, I went to Mainly Music and there was a lemon meringue pie slice thingy. It looked delicious. Lemon meringue pie is one of my favourite desserts. However, I thought to myself, "Yes, I COULD eat it but it wouldn't help me in any way" so was able to resist. The thought that I could've eaten it if I really wanted to, was kind of comforting. I'm not being deprived of such food - I am choosing to not eat it. I am in control!

If you are on a sugar awareness journey and want me to pray for you, let me know. Your prayers for me would be appreciated also.

[Rick's website is http://www.ifnotdieting.com.au/cpa/htm/htm_home.asp
and it is very helpful, in many ways. His book is still available in shops and the local library. Well, it is still in mine as I checked today. I remember finding Rick's book, when I read it in 2002, very interesting. He broke food up into better categories than just 'good' and 'bad' food. Rather he'd say, 'Everyday' food or 'sometimes' food etc This is far more sensible!]