Hello people, I sheepishly crawl back onto the thread. . . as I've been not OFF sugar, rather ON. But still, not much yesterday. I don't know, seem to have lost my resolve but I still think I want to stay off it. It's just that there are none of these foods with other sweeteners in them like you mention, barley? and such and I do get tired of the restriction. I'm wondering if I cannot come up with some plan of eating/living that would still allow me to come here and chat but have an occassional sweet. I find I'm eating just too much food because I want that sweet bit and when I can't have it turn to other food, even though I really don't enjoy it. . . hmm. any suggestions?

RedBalloon, of course you can have an occasional sweet and come in to chat. I'm delighted to see you! I was wondering where you were. It's truly hard when sugar is all around. The only thing that works for me is making my own sweets. I'm lucky that it's something that I really enjoy. How about ripe bananas with a little peanut butter? I find the ripe banana takes care of the need for sweet and the peanut butter is very satisfying.

Hey, I only wish that I could have the "occasional treat", believe me. If I start I'm right back in the madness again. I don't dare! I'm envious of people who can do that.

Darlene, I've not been tempted by any of the Easter stuff this year. Tomorrow I'm going to make some carob peanut butter cups and that should take care of any little twinges that arise!

Hi, Red Balloon and all. Just lurkin' in here with a quick suggestion for that sweet craving: UNSWEETENED FROZEN CHERRIES or fresh cherries if you can get either where you are.

Have been posting my mini recipes and meals on my journal on another forum, but thought I'd mention that I've come up with a "cobbler" recipe using cherries, oatmeal flakes, almond meal, and butter spray, placed in that order in a bowl and microwaved. Before doing that, tamp down the almond meal into a top "crust" and spray with the butter spray. This has killed my cravings for cupcakes and it is sugar free and low glycemic.

My ice cream cravings are satisfied by eating the frozen cherries like ice cream "bonbons" or processing them with a little unsweetened soymilk in a mini blender to the consistency of ice cream (don't add enough soymilk to make it a smoothie) for one serving of cherry "ice cream" ... it's really delicious and very sweet when your tastebuds are off of sugar treats for enough time.

Another "treat" food for me is freshly ground almond butter. I grind it at the health food store (a small amount as it's highly caloric) and eat it in the car, usually with some skim milk ... my other great indulgence. It is far more satisfying than any sugar treat I've ever had.

For me, like E, the "occasional treat" has to be on program (still Sugar Busters for me) or it's the slippery slope to Cupcakeland again!

Hi guys, I'll try to start back on some sort of regime next week and get back in here more regularly. I feel bad eating the sugar and posting.

I see the forum is going to be closed for a couple days. Yikes! And over Easter too. Oh well. . .

Eydie, thank you for the kind words. They made me want to try again. You know you're right, I should be making my own treats if I feel I must have something. I'm being too easy on myself, making excuses. . .

Amarantha -- hello! how are you doing? Glad to see you again and thanks for that great idea. I will try it. I love cherries. They are very expensive here but I am worth it! And, besides, they are worth it! I sure like the sounds of that soymilk/cherry ice cream. Wow, I will try it for sure.

Well, people, hope to see you all in few days or hopefully sooner. Happy Easter! Take care!

Hi, Amarantha! Great to see you! Hi to everyone! Hope you had great Easters! I did have my planned indulgence--cake with Hagen-Daaz chocolate peanut butter ice cream. Scrumptious! But not so scrumptious that I couldn't stop. I think my next indulgence will be in August, when we go to DC. There's a wonderful ice cream place in Georgetown that I must visit!

Redballoon, there's a book called "French Women Don't Get Fat" (I'm not sure of the author), and that book's philosophy is to get you to the place where you can indulge once in awhile. I recommend it! One thing it suggests as an indulgence when you're not eating sweets is plain, whole milk yogurt. It is so yummy!

Great to be back! I had a great weekend at home with the husband; it's so nice when you don't have to leave the house for a couple of days. I made those peanut butter cups and must admit that they're calling to me. I've banished them to the downstairs freezer, so I can't hear their siren song + it's easier to forget about them down there. See, even some sugar-free things are just too tempting!
Amarantha, do you know the GI count for carob?

I'm going to have to get some frozen cherries!

Hi Girls,

I have been MIA weekend was hectic!!!!!!!! Nicolas got his Confirmation Saturday in an almost 6 hours Mass. The kids and us had not had dinner as this started at 6:00 pm so by 11:00 pm the protein bars were not shaking it anymore. We got home about 12:30 after stopping at Burger King to buy burgers for the hungry troop, by 1:00 am everybody was in bed and the Easter Mom Bunny was with a flashlight helping the Invisible Easter Bunny hide the eggs. On Sunday morning I got the little ones by 11:00 am out to hunt and there the Sunday starting to roll.

I am not counting cals, not even worrying about how many chocolates eggs I have eaten since then. As you know I gave up chocolate for Lent, so I have been catching up. I think about 6 eggs, between the ones with caramel filed and little ones. I am tired, tired, I am trying to push myself to workout tonight while my hair dyes, some roots are coming LOL. After a long day of dealing with my daycare baby who whinnes whenever I am not around. Tomorrow I have 2 more Moms coming for interviews so I need to look like I have not been in a war zone as I do now. They may think I will mop the floor with their babies as I look now.

BTW, I have read about the 3-Apple-Day-Plan, I bought the book and I am going to try that. I read on some of my forums that it does work.

MPaz

Heh people, sorry for the silence. No time to catch up. . .and do anything else. Hope you're all doing fine and I hope to talk to you again soon. I've been off and on sugar. Still trying to find a medium, a way to be mostly OFF, kind of wish I had some substitutes, like sweetners. Actually, I found some Splenda sweetened candies. They are so sweet they hurt my mouth but it satisfies this urge for some sickening sweet stuff. I guess that's it, the refined sugar is such a chemical that natural food just doesn't do it. How whacked out is that, eh?!?!

Yeah, RedBalloon--it's pretty crazy how we get addicted to the sweet stuff. I searched for years--no, I can honestly say that for at least 2 decades I struggled with my love/hate relationship with sugar and I truly believe I've finally found the middle ground for me, so it can be done. Just a matter of finding out what works, what you can live with. Like I've said before, I wish that I could peacefully co-exist with sugar, but I can't. I've gotten really good at making desserts using a fruit juice reduction.

MariaPaz, tell us more about the 3 apple plan. I haven't heard of it.

Hello, guys! MariaPaz, the apple plan does sound interesting. Eager to hear more about it.

RedBalloon: I think Splenda reacts like sugar in the bod and I totally agree. It's awfully sweet.

E: Dinna feel like the Lone Rangerette, Lass. I can't co-exist with sugar either. For me, there's no middle ground. Sugar (plus white flour and all the other high glycemic things I've given up in the past months) is on one side of the line in the sand and I'm on another.

In the past few years, that's been the reason I was regaining and yoyoing and going crazy with cravings ... because I did not make the commitment to go "cold turkey" ... I wanted to have my cupcake and eat it, too! When all this c**p was outta my system, I was able to see and feel that very clearly. I will never give this abstinence up, now that I've gone to the trouble of establishing it.

But that is just me and no one should feel they have to do it also. Many dieticians, experts, etc., even the Sugar Busters authors (who say their diet is a "low sugar plan" not a "no sugar plan") believe in having a treat now and then. In SB, they allow high cocoa (60-70 percent) chocolate (one piece now and then) and a small serving premium vanilla ice cream (which is generally low in sugar) now and then. But the cool thing is the fruit and the milk ... which I DO eat ... these have natural, low glycemic sugars (when eaten within the food itself). So fruit is my sweetener of choice now, too.

As I've stated before, SB notes that fruit should be eaten alone, not with other food, but no one I know, including me, does that ... it makes a great sweetener in recipes.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say and it may be sound offensive, but I don't mean it that way ... is that we are all different and for me, I say that dang it since I'm doing this I'm gonna do it because this is what I want for myself. I want to give myself the gift of all the benefits of the refined sugar free state and I don't see any reason for the middle ground!

My life is a mess right now, as a matter of fact, due to a stupid mistake I made (car accident) but hey, at least I'm a refined sugar free person with a messy life!

Again, hope no one takes offense at this post, just sort of rambling about ME!

I wish I had the courage the rest of you have. I love my sugar but I think it hates me. I am tired and cranky lots of the time and I know the sugar is the cause. What do you eat when all processed foods have sugar of some degree in it?
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Hi Girls,

Barbara, welcome to the group. I believe Amarantha, a.k.a. Fairy Cheff and Eydie can answer that question better than me as they are the professionals in the Non Sugar Department.

I try not to eat processed food. For me is not too difficult as I come from Chile, I moved here at 32 years old and I already had the mentality that you cook everything from scratch and had no knowledge of TV dinners or Lean Cuisines of any sort. I cook almost everything from scratch and I just don't buy cooked meals and most of my meals are around stir fry veggies and chicken, pork, etc. I do buy some meat already cook, but that would be it. We also eat a lot of vegetables and fruits, I am lucky of having my children familiar with veggies since babies so there is no fuss about eating anything green or any other color with dinner. For instance today I am making Onion Soup for the sweet fix that I will most likely give the kids some cooked potatoes with or other veggies, not sure yet.

Girls, here is the link to the 3-Apple-Day-Plan, I bought the book and have not received it yet. I will let you know what I learn about it once I have it. Now I am not eating the 3 apples yet, most like a 1 1/2.

Check on the right samples of Day 1 and 2.
http://www.3appleplan.com/3_apple_plan.cfm

Yo, welcome Barbara!!!! You have, IMO, hit the nail on the head re processed foods and sugar, so like Danicomia, I'm trying to not eat a lot of processed food. We all follow different WOEs here.

I follow the Sugar Busters way of eating, which eliminates refined sugar (it allows for a little, but I don't), as well as white flour, white potatoes, etc., and a list of specific high glycemic foods that are listed in the SB books. In SB, you can pretty much eat everything else. If you're only giving up sugar and not the rest of it, then your choices are even more wide open. There are TONS of things to eat, you just have to keep searching for them and checking labels.

Also, as you say there are "degrees" of sugar ... for instance in the SB plan, whole grain cereals with no more than 3 grams of sugar (I believe ... not sure about the amount because I personally don't want ANY refined sugar in anything) are acceptible. High cocoa content (so therefore it's low sugar) chocolate is ok IN SMALL AMOUNTS, premium vanilla ice cream (which usually is low in sugar) or sugar free ice cream is ok. I don't eat these things but that's just me.

I rely on the low glycemic natural sugar found in fruit and skim milk. I also love freshly ground almond butter from the health food store for a treat. I buy a small serving every day or so. It IS high in cals but very satisfying and filling and almonds are very healthy and full of heart healthy oil and vitamin E.

Lots to eat.

Kudos to you on recognizing that sugar may be making you tired. Have you ever read a book called "Sugar Blues" by William Duffy (I may have that name wrong ... I am tired) ... it's a classic on the subject of refined sugar addiction in our society and how sugar has come to be added to our food supply in large quantities.

If I sound like an evangelist on the subject, I'm sorry. It really is doable. If you desire to get off the sugar, believe me you can. If I can, anyone can as I was the worst sugar imbiber this side o' the Mississippi and probably the other side, too!

But no one should feel they have to give it up if they don't want to. I'm just giving my personal opinion on the stuff (e.g., SUGAR). [/b]