solongketchup

It’s not like I live off energy drinks, have sugar in my tea, drink fizzy drinks all the time, so how hard could it be right?!

This week I felt like a baby moving to eat solid food, but yet I was having my sugar intake slowly reduced and more importantly my ketchup portion significantly reduced. Giving up sugar isn’t easy. You have to be prepared to not only think, but read before you eat! Reading labels and getting used to knowing what they mean is a key part of this detox.

Nearly towards the end of Week 1 and there is still a lot to learn. Like I didn’t know sugar free doesn’t necessarily mean sugar free?! I’m still feeling slightly betrayed by food and drink brands out there. Also, there are 3 types of sugars? Fructose, Glucose and Sucrose. Fructose makes you want to eat more, it also rests on your liver and is not used straight away as energy, it’s converted to fat! Fructose is bad.

To give up sugar you must then eat FAT and PROTEIN – this means unprocessed fats and quality protein like eggs, cheese and coconuts – the book talks a lot about coconuts.

Week 1 Day 5 today see’s my first day with no KETCHUP. It also marks my first 5 – 6 teaspoons of sugar only shop at Waitrose.

Waitrose is fab, my mum and I both have Waitrose cards (which are free) which means every time you visit you’re entitled to a free (nice tasting) cup of your choice – in my case Latte. We descended upon the aisles of Waitrose with our IQS book under my arm and I grabbed one of Waitroses scan as you go scanners. A very lovely lady explained the scanner means you can in effect check out as you wonder, with your tasty drink  keeping track of how much you spend and can pack as you shop. It may sound like an irrelevant outburst in the middle of this post but when attempting one of these detoxes, you don’t want to spend oodles of money and i’m not made of oodles.

What I did realise as I sipped my Latte, was that next week I was going cold turkey and I mean COLD TURKEY, no turning back it’s all celery and carrot sticks from here on out. No more:

• FRESH AND DRIED FRUIT
• FRUIT JUICE
• MUESLI
• MUSELI BARS
• JAMS
• ANY CONDIMENTS CONTAINING SUGAR
• FLAVOURED YOGHURTS
• HONEY
• CHOCOLATE
• SOFT DRINKS
• ….AND KETCHUP!!!

The IQS book comes with some weird, but also some tasty sounding recipes. This weekend I am going to (attempt) make some egg and bacon cupcakes, and look at how you can eat out whilst on the detox – as no sugar shouldn’t alter my social life.

My challenge is no ketchup, challenge accepted!?

The problem is I am a KETCHUHOLIC!!!

Ketchup means to me, what chocolate means to a chocoholic. Ketchup makes everything taste better – obviously not cereal, that’s just weird.

For years I had made myself believe ketchup was good, that it was part of my 5 a day.  I was working out 5 days a week and I was getting into a healthy diet but would be swayed by the odd biscuit or pub lunch and would of course have a big dollop of ketchup with everything I could. All this exercise and I wasn’t seeing the results I wanted, don’t get me wrong I’m not and wasn’t expecting to turn out like a supermodel, I just wanted to be happy, healthy and feel confident.

Working hard and seeing no results made me start to look further at what the issues could be which deep down I knew was my diet. Never did I think it would involve giving up my beloved *GASP* ketchup. But it did and does.

My mum came from work the other day raving about how she was going to give up sugar and that sugar was the devil in disguise. It wasn’t until I had listened to her say; sugar free isn’t sugar free, hidden sugars, fructose, sucrose and glucose 1 billion times… did I realise that sugar was my demon. My mum wasn’t giving up sugar alone, she had purchased the I QUIT SUGAR DETOX, by the I quit sugar queen Sarah Wilson and after reading the first few pages I knew like Sarah said, it was time to face the facts.

1. I was eating way more sugar than my body needed. Women only require six teaspoons of sugar a day and I don’t just mean in your cuppa. But that really isn’t a lot.

2. I’M  ADDICTED. I’d cave if someone offered me some chocolate and I wouldn’t hesitate to go back for seconds!

3. WEIGHT ISN’T SHIFTING 

4. TIRED

Realising the above, I knew I couldn’t not give up sugar, how hard could it be right?

I Quit Sugar is an 8 – week programme which I have condensed into 6 weeks, to fall in line with my holiday!

Primary school and the majority of high school were known as ‘the doughnut days’.

People would say to me it’s just puppy fat, you’ll grow out of it. I wasn’t buying it.

I’d always carried weight on my face, my stomach and my thighs and I hated it. Towards the end of high school the weight had seemed to evenly distribute itself, but still I lacked confidence and was unhappy with my body image.

Starting college, introduced me to drink and food, not for the first time but eating out with friends quite often! I found myself re-gaining weight and for a while not noticing it, I’d go out to eat with my friends who were tiny with fast metabolisms, they’d always been tiny and they could get away with eating burger and chips and not feeling bloated afterwards. It took me a while to realise that they were not me and my body did not work the same way theirs did. I joined the gym, but plucking up the courage to really go for it in the gym, was something I really struggled with… you know the feeling when you think everybody has nothing better to do than to watch you workout out?! (Crazy I know!)

Like most 18 year olds I finished college not really knowing what I wanted to do next. I didn’t want to go to uni I knew I would end up unhappy and unhealthy.

Fast forward three years after securing a good job and many cycles of working hard in the gym and eating well, I was constantly taking a few hundred steps back! Yes smaller, more confident, happier, but not there yet.

HELLO ‘I quit sugar!’