No-added sugar challenge - January

laurenq1991 wrote: »

My husband and I are working on reducing added sugars. It's been two days so far. He is training for a marathon (goal sub-3 hrs) and he watched a video about some guy who cut out added sugars, instead eating fruit whenever he had sugar cravings, and vastly improved his marathon time and overall quality of life. Of course, there may not be a correlation, but I'm going to keep silent about that since he eats way too much refined sugar and there are many other health benefits of cutting down.

I find that the more refined sugar you eat, the more you want to eat. After Christmas we were binging on sugar to a ridiculous extent and I was feeling like crap. For me not eating right affects my anxiety disorder and sleep which are two things I struggle with a lot. I've tried many times before to cut down added sugar but I always end up not succeeding because there are so many sugary foods everywhere. I think now that my husband is on board I have a higher chance of succeeding.

So far it's been two days and the only added sugars I ate were a small amount in the multigrain toaster waffles I have with breakfast, and a small amount in breads. He did have some added sugars such as a latte with whipped cream but a lot less than usual. I find that the one or two week mark is when it gets difficult. Hopefully I can push through it especially if I start making some good fruit-based desserts without refined sugar.

I added up my husband's calories for a day on MFP and I realized that part of why he eats so much junk food is because he eats only a latte with whipped cream for breakfast. He works out a lot and eats a lot of calories and so he ends up eating a bunch of junk food later instead of actual food. He doesn't like most breakfast foods so even if he does have breakfast, it's usually cereal with milk. So today we came up with something he can eat every morning. I made him a combination of whole wheat and lentil pasta and he got different types of sauce with no sugar added to put on it. It is an unconventional breakfast but it works for him. For lunch I also make him two sandwiches on whole-wheat bread, one with natural peanut or other nut/seed butter and dried fruit on the side, and one with cheese and vegan lunch meat. Overall the breakfast and lunch provide about 2000 calories and lots of protein and then he eats another several hundred for dinner (his calorie allotment is 3200 and that's usually what he naturally ends up eating) so this should cut down on snacking during the day.