Hi I am Bootsie from the Faith Group and I really want to cut down on my sugar intake. I went cold turkey 2 times doing this while I was in Outlookministry and I thought I was going to die! The severe headake was just unbelievable, lasted 5 days! The shakes it was like I was going off of some drug! My poor animals thought I was going to eat them for lunch! My poor husband could not say anything right neither could I!

I learned ,I guess the hard way, and by Linda a good friend, that I needed to cut back slowly, by going the natural sweet way by eating honey but like the Bible says not to much or it will make you sick! Reading labels and if it is over 10 grams of sugar forget it. I do need a support group very bad and was wondering if it is alright if I joined y'all.

When I eliminate sugar, I do it by stopping certain foods- for instance, the biggest one on my list is chocolate, so I always start there. Then I figure out what is the next biggest source of sugar and eliminate that one- adding a new one to the "forbidden" list every few days, so it's not quitting cold turkey, and it makes me really examine the foods that I am eating to determine the sugar content of them. When I eliminate a food, I always come up with a healthy alternative, so that when I am craving that item (usually chocolate) I have something to replace it with.

I just tried Stevia "in the raw" in my tea this morning and was quite surprised that there was not an aftertaste- so now I have replaced raw sugar in my tea with Stevia- not as dramatic as cutting out chocolate, but it's a small step in the right direction.

My doctor told me to eliminate sugar, bread, pasta, rice, potatoes and other starchy foods because I wasn't losing any weight by just eating less or counting calories, and I had the same kind of reaction - severe headaches and felt dizzy and nauseous and like I was going to pass out. So I'm also trying to cut down slowly rather than cold turkey.

Bootsie, have you read any of the diet books based on the Bible? Basically, you don't eat anything Jesus couldn't have eaten - food must be all natural, organically grown, not processed, prepared simply, no sugar or white flour, only whole grain breads and cereals, etc. This sounds to me like a very common-sense approach, but of course it's very difficult to do in the modern world.

Hi Tiggycat and Rizeninme, Thank you, for replying kinda felt out of place until y'all replied.
I have the Book What Jesus Ate, I have not read it yet. I know that honey is alright as long as you don't eat to much of it. As I have cut down, I eat less and less sugar. I don't crave sweets as much as I did in fact when I was a kid never had sweets unless it was Thanksgiving or Christmas. I don't really know why I think I need them so much since I am so much older. When I got married , well my husband ate so different! He had to have his sweets, cheese,meat, snacks, veggies everyday and I guess it has rubbed off on me, we will be married 38 years in Dec. I weighed 125 when we married now I weigh 196! I did weigh though 259 and I am fighting don't want to go back there.

One good thing about cutting back slowly, even though I still eat some sugar in some sugar form, if I binge, and eat to much sweets, I pay for it. I have a sugar hang-over, that is no fun, so that keeps me from doing that. I may take a bite or two but that is it, not worth going through that sugar hang-over or ruining all the work I have done to get where I am.

Thanks again for replying, it is not fun being alone ,and it is good to know there are others out there that found cutting down slowly is the best way to fight our sugar intake without putting our bodies through torture. After all mine has carried my soul around for 57 years in Dec. and it needs to know I appreciate it.