[teawithsunshine]

Hey guys--

I belong on the vegan/vegetarian & calorie counters sections of 3fatchicks.com ... but recently, I find that I've had to really cut down on my junk food intake and take up more carbs/protein/veggies in order to keep my energy up And I actually feel quite a lot better as a result.

I switched over to stevia instead of brown sugar for tea, munch on celery as a snack instead of tic tacs or gum, and eat plain oatmeal (with some stevia) for dessert-- While I still have some dark chocolate on a weekly basis and/or some rice cakes that are butter-flavored or caramel glazed as a snack... I'm definitely finding out that tic tacs for example, taste WAY too sugary for me now.

I'm waiting on my copy of SugarBusters to come in my neighborhood library, so I don't know the exact science of how this program works. I understand cutting out refined sugars and flour (i.e. white breads, regular potatoes, etc)-- but what else am I missing here?

I noticed something in another SugarBuster entry about a certain amount of grams of sugar to watch out for?

Anyone have a sticky on the essentials of the SugarBuster diet posted somewhere?

Thanks!

[Ellen]

Sugarbusters is a pretty simple plan. It is based on the glycemic index of foods, and you are supposed to pick foods low on the GI on the program. You read labels and make sure that the sugar per serving is 3 or less. There are exceptions, like tomato sauce, where there is natural sugars in the tomatoes. Then you need to look for ADDED sugar. Basically, you avoid the follow: corn in any form, white flour, white sugar, white rice, white potatoes, pineapple, beets, and bananas. These are all high glycemic. You can eat: 100% whole grain bread, sweet potatoes (1/2 counts as a serving) brown rice, and lean proteins, as well as lots of veggies and other fruits. It is an easy plan to follow. It is recommended that you limit starchy carbs to two or three for weight loss. Choose low fat dairy when possible. That is about all there is to it! Easy! Easy to follow too! There may be an essentials post somewhere, but when the forums were re-organized a few months back, we lost some stuff, and since most of us following Sugarbusters have been here for a while, we did not miss it. I am sorry. But please feel free to ask any questions you might have. The monthly support thread is there most of us check in and we will be happy to help give you suggestions, answer questions and do whatever we can to get you going on the program. Its a good one!