So when I say 'no sugar', ... have I even said 'no sugar'? Anyway, when I say 'no sugar' I mean no added sugar, which I have now changed to be 'limit my sugar' to 6 teaspoons a day, as I believe that that is what is recommended - about 25 grams, which is around 0.8oz. And I'm not including the sugar in fruit in this, as I have no clue as to how to work it out, plus I don't eat a lot of fruit anyway. I will include the sugar in jams, syrups, and honey, because, well, they are pretty much 100% sugar.
The good thing about this approach is that if I really crave jam on my toast in the morning I can have it, but I just have to be careful for the rest of the day, as I'd only have 3 teaspoons left. I get into trouble when I have foods that are completely deleted from my life, makes me think 'Screw it. I may as well eat what I love and enjoy myself!'
Tricky thing is that there is sugar in nearly EVERYTHING, from bread to sauces to the obvious cookies and muesli bars. But that's ok. I can work with that. Luckily I do prefer making meals from scratch, rather than using bottles and jars, Butter Chicken would be my main exception ... I wonder how hard it is to actually make? But even the other night when we had kebabs, the amount of sugar in sweet chilli sauce, and bbq sauce started to add up! This was before I came to my 25g allowance and I was trying to go absolutely no sugar.
Time will tell if this approach works. I'm trying to be sensible here, rather than thinking of certain food types as 'evil', I'd prefer to adapt myself to having them in proper amounts each day. I'm certainly preferring to go the low carb high fat route if I have to, but I would like to leave some carbs in there. I know white flour is no, no, no, no, no, no, no ... but I enjoy baking so for now, it stays. And white bread, but if I have it every other day, rather than breakfast and lunch daily, things might improve.
It's not easy though. Oh so not easy.
I was at my Dr's a week or so ago, and she noted that my blood sugar/insulin resistance had been a bit high six months ago. They hadn't told me, so it was a bit of a shock, so I went a week cutting back on sugar. I started reading labels - you're right, there's sugar in everything! She recommended I watch the Sugar movie. Have you seen it? Anyway, she said fruit is not too bad because it has fibre, and so is low GI. Fruit juice is a big no-no though. I took a week then got tested again, and not only had my blood sugar/insulin resistance dropped to a normal-low level, but I'd lost two kilos too! So I'm going to keep focusing on this. Good luck!
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