' My Life Is Basically Over'- 14 Days On A Sugar-free Diet
Were told that sugar is the source of all evil, but giving it up made me grumpy, skint and antisocial
Day 1: I spiralise a courgette
I wake up alarmed and dehydrated with a deep sense of dread. This is not just a hangover I have agreed to give up sugar and keep a food diary. All I can think is: Thank God Im starting today as yesterdays would have been truly embarrassing. Crisps. KFC. Vodka.
Its not my fault. I am clearly not an adult capable of make informed choices. So I resemble most overweight and overwrought people. My fat and my sluggishness are not a mystery to me: I feed and drink too much and my January was not dry.
Sugar is the source of all evil, so much so that a sugar tax is now being mooted. But how easy is it to give it up? I call a man who is going to help me, and I make a cheese omelette Im not sure what I can eat, but presume it is a low-carb diet, so this will be OK.
I arrange to meet personal trainer Nyambe Ikasaya for advice. He has and Im get technological here a lard testing machine, and Im too lardy. Also dehydrated. I explain about the vodka. He points out this is not research results of merely one nights drinking. He gives me what he calls a nutritional protocol and what I call a diet.
Things I cant have: bread, liquor, carrots really? and all fruit. I dont am worried about the fruit. He asks me what I want to achieve, and I enjoy whinging on to him.
At home, I begin reading volumes about detoxing and giving up sugar. You know how they go: three or four days in, most people feel terrible and then suddenly brilliant. This is the detox narrative. Largely, they seem to be written by 20 – or 30 -something women who apparently believe they are what they feed and who dont seem to have to feed anyone but themselves. Maybe my terrible posture is toxic, but few of these volumes speak to me at all.
Apparently I should have cleaned out my closets of all the bad food and freshly stocked them. But I havent done this because: life. I buy lots of veggies and order my teen a takeaway while I spiralise a courgette. Someone says on the news that its Blue Monday. It surely is.
Im very confused about everything. Am I trying to lose weight or merely go cold turkey( apparently permissible as it is lean protein) on my sugar addiction? Or is this, in fact, the same thing? All advice on giving up sugar ends with a similar evidence: Incidentally, I lost two stone, get glowy scalp and my entire life was better. Sugar ages us as well as building us obese, they say. Willpower is no match for the food industry and we are sold more and more detoxes. Also, I am very confused about breakfast. I never ordinarily want it but have been told its better to have it than not. But not coffee. Have mushrooms get sugar in their own homes? Apparently I can have a few.
It seems to me I am doing a modified Atkins diet. Not so high in fat and dairyish, which is good as that made “i m feeling” dreadful. I have to go to a meeting so I take some smoked salmon and avocado with me to avoid an illegal sandwich. It goes to mush in my container and savours only of foil.
This diet necessitates me to scheme all my snacks. Do I severely have to read all food labels? A bit of mustard with my steak is surely not the end of the world? I cook separate dinners for myself and my family. Well why not, as I have cancelled going out. Devoting up sugar entails giving up my social life as I am not one of those people who can stand around with a glass of sparkling water feigning this is just what they have been looking forward to ALL DAY.
There are now vying voices in my head: This is the most self-indulgent thing you have ever done. Why are you able not look after yourself properly and should be noted that cutting down sugar builds sense health-wise?
Is sugar an actual narcotic? Does resisting it construct you morally superior? I merely dont know.
Been sticking with it but tonight, I have to cook dinner for family and friends. I need to be able to eat the same stuff as everyone else as I dont want to sit there with freak food. I get around this by not having rice, but inevitably I go on about it. My eldest, who is fit and health-conscious says: Mum, I have a friend doing this. It is just really boring. Explaining to other people what I can and cannot feed and how sugar is in everything is, I realise , not a dazzling topic of conversation.
Terrible nights sleep. I feel anxious and have to go to the loo, a lot I have never drunk so much water. Eat leftover salmon for breakfast. Do some light exert: stretches, step( horror) and weights. Nyambe teaches me some stretches for my lower back ache while I spaff on about seeds.
These stretches are a revelation and Im happy to learn them. Truly helps. But my intellect is full of information about food, about sugar, and the curing of smoked salmon. My mental space is crammed, because essentially all diets construct you preoccupied with food. I want a break.
Slept 10 hours. Guess about how much money I have already spent. Organic salmon. Steak. Sea bass. Parmesan. This is a very expensive protocol. Go to a Turkish cafe and the woman offers me hummus and all sorts, but I order an egg salad. She brings it over and says: Darling, I made it nice for you. I put pomegranate in. You know? I do know, and this is where I differ from some of the low sugar gurus. I dont decline it or scream: Get behind me, you Sugar Satan. I just think a bit of pomegranate wont kill me. Likewise, the rogue lentils that have also found their route into the salad.
In any case, its all so dull that I go to a store and try on clothes. Another unrewarding thing.
What I crave is not sweetness per se, but texture: doughiness, crumbliness, softness. Meet friends in a pub and drink water. My life is basically over.
Two days have blurred into one. I bump into people and talk about tomatoes. What have I become?
My personal trainer Nyambe is constantly supportive and realistic, which is great. The volumes are strict and hard to relate to. He is the opposite. I am eating a lot of eggs but have given up proper cooking altogether. Expend a fortune in the health food shop. One day I have stomach cramps. Is it because of the protocol.
My middle daughter says she is going to move back home as her flatshare situation is precarious. Dont worry, she says, I can cook for you all the time. I havent the heart to tell her this is well-nigh impossible.
One evening I google the carb value of capers. FFS. Still unsure about demonising of a whole food group. Sins, phases, values, proscribed foods. Still, I have stopped snacking and opening wine when building dinner.
Fall off the wagon in a Spanish restaurant that does the most amazing gin and tonics. Choose that gin is the way forward as I genuinely dont am worried about food. Just order a courgette flower and more gin. This strikes me as a brilliant route to feed. Not the epiphany of a Gywneth, and God knows it costs a luck, but at least its not quark.
Spectacularly hungover and I have to get weighed. I have lost a couple of kilos of fat. So, if weight loss is the measure of all things, then somethings working
Go to Copenhagen for the weekend. Drink wine and feed celeriac, which they seem to put in everything. But I dont go mad.
Do go mad. We are burgled and penalty on the same day in Denmark.( Thats another story ). We lose our laptops and all our valuables. Fly home stressed and, once there, I reach for the prosecco. Find some horrible chocolates that no one consume at Christmas. Have an out-of-body experience as I watch myself shovelling them all in.
Explain all this to Nyambe as I have another check in. The weekend has not ruined everything, though, as I have lost more fat and strengthened muscle. This is heartening; there is no way I can live sugar-free full-time.
Reflecting back. Yes it is possible to give up sugar but, for me, it required too much planning and it is very expensive. Carbs are cheap and everywhere. Clever cooks may be able to do this on a budget, but life is too short to stuff a lentil. Such an attitude may well shorten my life. Right now I dont want to be cooking separate snacks from my family. It feels antisocial, and I dont want to stop my teen eating an entire food group. I dont guess I have ever spent so much on food just for myself.
Looking back, perhaps I entered ketosis( where the body burns fat) after a few days. This country is described with almost religious reverence by the low-sugar/ carb crew. Surely, I had no ecstatic experience, except a flattening out of appetite. But while you might stop caring about food, being on a diet still takes up a lot of mental activity.
Do I feel better? Yes, actually, and here is the bit where Im meant to say its all down to stopping the sugar poison. But what I feel has made the difference are the stretches and bits of exercises Nyambe has taught me.
For all of my tussling, its own experience has acted as a brake on my bad habits. How long will it last? Surely, I realise we all need to eat less sugar and that even natural sugars( such as honey, agave syrup and fruit) are still, in the end, merely sugar.
But , no, I cant imagine my life becoming sugar-free its too difficult and dull. Instead I will try to cut down, without boring on. Cutting carbs/ sugar is helpful at my age, when “re going through” hormonal changes, as it levels your blood sugar spikes. Likewise losing fat and house muscle. Otherwise a lot of this is surely about calorie regulation. The weight loss bit is the sweetener of a no-sugar regime.
For this to be more achievable we need a fundamental rejigging of food pricing, or a different understanding of what percentage of our income we spend on food. Processed food are a lot of sugar, and its cheap. Carbs bulk out everything, even ourselves, in the end. Food is everyday and special, gasoline and festivity. Our skewed relationship with all of this is unhealthy. Mine is, for sure. But its not only me, is it? This is not just about my sad struggle with a courgette flower A workable, affordable diet that is not downright antisocial is now the thing I crave most of all.
Sugar; alcohol; ready-made snacks; bread; pasta; juice; sugary drinks such as Coca-Cola; Fanta; lemonade; Pepsi; fruit, cakes, prepared meats such as ham, salami, sausages, pates; honey, canned food eg chopped tomatoes; prepared salad dressings; prepared sauces; prepared soups; jam; carrots; potatoes; sweet potatoes; peas; pastries; cereals; dried fruit; instant gravy; sauces; pies; puddings; cookies; smoothies, flavoured yoghurts.
Read more: www.theguardian.com
Day 2: Devoting up sugar entails giving up my social life
Day 3: I dont want to sit there with freak food
Day 4: My intellect is full of information about the curing of smoked salmon
Day 5 : Its all so dull that I go to a store and try on clothes
Day 6 : Meet friends in a pub and drink water. My life is basically over
Days 7-8 : I google the carb value of capers. FFS
Day 9 : Gin is the way forward
Day 10 : I have lost a couple of kilos of fat
Days 11 -1 2: Eat celeriac
Day 13: I reach for the prosecco
Day 14: I have lost more fat and strengthened muscle
Day 15: Life is too short to stuff a lentil
Foods forbidden by the diet :
' My Life Is Basically Over'- 14 Days On A Sugar-free Diet
' My Life Is Basically Over'- 14 Days On A Sugar-free Diet
' My Life Is Basically Over'- 14 Days On A Sugar-free Diet
' My Life Is Basically Over'- 14 Days On A Sugar-free Diet
' My Life Is Basically Over'- 14 Days On A Sugar-free Diet