I’m just over two weeks into my ‘Ultimate Dechox’ challenge and no one will be more surprised than me to hear that I haven’t actually missed chocolate once! I’ve quickly come to realise that when I was dipping into the biscuit tin or my chocolate stash, I wasn’t doing it because I was hungry – it was just a force of habit! Now when I’m watching TV or have finished my dinner, I’m happy to just have a cup of tea without the two or three chocolate digestives or the dessert I would normally have! I’ve learnt instead that by making sure that my meals are healthy, and more importantly filling, I’m less likely to start snacking.
Luckily, the ‘snack table,’ which is located directly behind my desk at work, has been quite thin on the ground lately for once, when usually it’s packed with offerings of sweets, biscuits, cake and chocolate! This has really helped my sugary grazing habits during my day at work. If I do have a craving for something sweet, I’ve found that fresh fruit particularly apples, nuts and raisins, reduced sugar jelly and sugar-free sweets are handy to have around. I’ve also found myself munching on a few packets of crisps as an alternative, which I don’t usually do. But on the whole, I’ve just cut down on the number of times I have snack in a day.
The hardest part for me so far was when I baked a cake for my mum on Mothers’ Day and had to firstly resist the temptation to eat any of the cake mix and secondly say no to a slice after dinner!
As far as an improvement in my health, my teeth feel cleaner during the day without the frequent attacks of sugar they were accustomed to and I’ve even lost a little weight! What’s more, I’ve probably saved a few pounds on my weekly shop too by reducing the amount of sugary items I’ve been buying. I’ve also been paying much closer attention to what I am sticking in my trolley in terms of our everyday food. It’s surprising just how much added sugar is in many of the items we stock up on. I regularly eat tinned soups for my lunch and I was shocked to discover that one of the soups I had regularly been eating contained nearly five cubes of sugar per tin! That’s almost my whole recommended daily allowance in just one meal! Its little changes like this that I’m finding are making a massive difference and, thanks to the Sugar Smart app, I’m far more conscious of what’s included in my diet.
My next big challenge is Easter! I usually receive around six or seven Easter eggs from friends and family. To help me with my challenge, I’ve asked those who normally buy me an egg to give the money to charity instead – I haven’t told my husband this yet, so I’m holding out for one or two chocolaty treats to tuck into on April 1st!