Refined sugar that is.

I've been diagnosed with a hiatus hernia and duodenitis, which basically means i get horrible stomach attacks when i eat the wrong foods. My doctor's instructions were to cut out sugar and to lose at least 20 pounds. That was over a year ago and i never really tried it. For a while my attacks got better but recently they've been unbearable. I'm going to try to cut out refined sugar completely. Which means absolutely nothing sweet unless its fruit. Anybody else ever tried this? or had similar tummy issues?? I'd like to hear your feedback if you have.

Wish me luck!

I cut out sugar when I was losing except for fruit I felt great. Sugar really is my greatest vice and I feel fantastic when I avoid it as much as possible.

When I was in college, I decided to stop eating anything with obvious amounts of sugar or made with refined sugar and anything with oil or butter aside from the most modest amounts. I lost a lot of weight by cutting those foods as well as all red meat (no beef or pork, just turkey and chicken) and exercising about 90 minutes a day 5 days a week.

Unfortunately, things changed and I gained back the considerable weight I lost (that was over 20 years ago for me). Now, I eat very limited amounts of food with sugar (tiny portions) and have good control of my eating habits and am on the road to trying to lose weight again.

From my former experience though, I can say that you can definitely ditch refined sugar entirely and be quite satisfied. I did it for about 3 years and wish I'd never gone back to sugar. That being said, you can still enjoy some sweet foods with a combination of fake sugar and fruit puree or simply with honey and fruit puree. I'm not recommending it necessarily, but sometimes such foods are a good crutch to see you through losing weight (particularly in the initial stages). If eating were only about health and not pleasure, no one would ever be fat.

I haven't tried it but I want to eliminate it for a month and see how I feel. If you Google sugar free diet, you'll find a lot of testimonials where people say giving up sugar changed their lives and made them feel amazing--who wouldn't want to feel like that?

I did it for about half a year in college, when I first moved off campus into my own apartment. It was basically for economic reasons.

On the one hand, cutting out sugar can be very hard, the cravings get worse before they're gone for good. Once you've done it, though, you'll probably have more energy and better quality of life in general.

So i had my first day cutting out sugar.... and it wasn't that hard.

My coffee was suuuuper bitter, so i might need to sub some splenda for my cafe.

One problem...

I'M STARVING!! and I feel like I ate a ton today!
Breakfast: Cereal w/ 1% milk and a coffee which was so bitter i couldn't finish
Mid Morning snack: 1 Banana
Lunch: 2 hard boiled eggs, green salad with balsamic vinegrette, vanilla yogurt and an apple

- I was hungry by 4:30 and when i got home i had about 12 almonds.

At around 5:30 I made a smoothie with frozen fruit yogurt and a bit of juice and i had a piece of cheese.

Supper was a piece of steak and we were having rice. I'm not a huge fan of rice so i had a piece of bread w/ some peanut butter on it. (No veggies!! I know I'm awful)

aaaaaand about an hour ago, i was hungry so i had another piece of bread with cheese melted on it. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand I'm still hungry.

Is it my fibre intake that's too low? Is that why I'm so hungry? I'm so lost!!! HELP!

I think it will really help your hunger if you bulk out with veggies. I saw nothing but a green salad. Roast veggies with some olive oil for dinner - leftovers make a great snack that will probably do you better than bread. Baby carrots dipped in hummus can be filling too. Also, vegetable soup makes a great snack (a nice, chunky/bulky one, not watery).

And the hunger might be coincidental too. I'm a whole lot hungrier just before/at the beginning of TOM. But sometimes I can't always find a reason.

I thought that may be it. I need to remember to fill up on as many veggies as I can. I still live at home and we're quite good about always having at least two vegetables with our meals (supper anyways) but every night is different.
Thanks for the tip!

Giving up refined sugar is basically a low carb approach. More specifically it sounds like the Paleolithic approach. On this one you eat meats, veggies and fruit, basically if it was made by mad it's out. From the looks of things you do need to eat more though that's why you are so hungry. Since you aren't getting your energy from sugars anymore you need to up the protein and fat intake. I encourage you to google Paleolithic diet there will be a lot of information and recipes that are right up your alley.

Ok, not trying to sound mean or harsh, but its not going to work if you continue to eat refined sugar!!

Looking at what you ate Yesterday (or whenever that was):
Cereal---check the ingredients...even healthy cereals have a LOT of refines sugar, and are very high in the glycemic index
VANILLA yogurt--- GUARANTEE that has more sugar than you realize...granted, there IS a dif between refined sugar and dairy sugar, but i bet if you compare the nutritional content of the vanilla yogurt vs the PLAIN yogurt of the same brand, the vanilla is going to have a LOT more, and it WILL be refined sugar.
JUICE-- USUALLY a big no no--most add sugar, but not all....