SUGAR FREE WORKSHOP IN CUMBRIA

On Saturday 20th October, I will be running my first SUGAR FREE WORKSHOP in Cumbria.  The workshop is a fun, informal event looking at the impact of sugar, on our physical, and emotional wellbeing, what sugar is, our relationship with sugar, and how to go practically sugar free. For more details please check out the workshop page on this blog, or email me at….tracy_smithers@aol.co.uk.

A Unique Sugar Free Journey

Many of you will have read in the about section on this blog, about my own sugar free journey. This week, on several occasions I have been reminded of the uniqueness of it.

Something that I keep saying, yet I think is a really valid point, is we are all different. With this in mind, how can one plan, one situation, one set of circumstances suit us all? They can’t! In many ways I think this was, and is key to my own sugar free journey, and this is why I am passionate about what I do. I mean how can one person, understand someone else’s personal circumstance, that are very different? I spent a long time looking through sugar free diets, and plans that didn’t work for me. Furthermore it would have been unrealistic of me to attempt them. By doing so I would have been setting myself up to fail! Following a diet that suggested things I didn’t enjoy eating, or eating at different times, I would have been forcing myself to do something that didn’t suit me! I would have been attempting something suited to someone else, I might have given it a go for while, but eventually given up because it didn’t have MY PLAN written across it. It didn’t work for me.

I admit my diet isn’t the healthiest diet, there is still stuff, I am working on. BUT it is a MUCH, MUCH healthier one. More importantly my mindset is a 100% healthier!! And I am truly motivated.

With this in mind, I would suggest, it is often having unrealistic expectations of ourselves, and our sugar free journey, that contribute to whether our experience is a success or not. Rather than setting huge goals that might be reached 6 months from now, what about the smaller every day goals, that are going to get you ahead, to that one big goal.

Questions to contemplate, might be:

• Is what I am asking of myself realistic? If not what would be realistic/do able/achievable?
• How can I be healthier, rather than healthy?
• What small changes can I make in my life to create positive changes?
• How can I make sugar free work for me?

 

Finally this week I have set myself a challenge, I  have started a 30 day video challenge. I have for some time wanted to make videos for my facebook page, and this blog, but never had the confidence to do so. This week I hopped on the challenge train, and joined up. It’s a really fun thing to do, it’s free, and you get a lot of support too. In just 2 days, I gained the confidence to pop a sugar free clip up on face book page. Unfortunately at the moment, I can’t upload it to here, but I’m working on it! So if you would like to see it please check out my PRACTICALLY A SUGAR FREE ME page.  If you would like to take part in the challenge yourself please check out a lady called Niamh Arthur under the name Ignite. I don’t often recommend things on here, but I have gained so much confidence with this, I wanted to share in case you might find it useful. Also I was thinking what a great way of recording your own SUGAR FREE journey, video clips could be. It would be a great way to keep on track, and also monitoring your progress.

My Sugar Free Week – September 2018

I have had a really exciting week, so far this week!! On Monday, I got a call by lady inviting me to give a talk on going SUGAR FREE. I am so super excited, to have the opportunity to share my experiences, and maybe help other too! What an absolute honour!! The second thing that added to my excitement was, Eden FM our local community station, agreed to mention my workshop on air!! Then last night just as I was going to bed, I got an exciting message regarding my sugar free work. I really wanted to share the message with you, but as before I have had interest but nothing has actually happened from it, I am cautious about saying anything apart from…..WATCH THIS SPACE!!!

This week, I have been busy promoting my next workshop. It’s my first here up in Cumbria, so I am doing loads of advertising for it. So many people have been kind, and generous in letting me put a poster up, I really am truly grateful to them.

Dare I say it but summer is nearly over, I’m still in denial! We have a storm brewing up here in the Eden Valley today, it’s very windy and the dogs aren’t too keen on it! Anyway, I digress. The beautiful thing about living in the Cumbrian countryside is I notice the changing seasons so much more. We have been given an abundance of plums, and apples from peoples gardens, and there are fresh eggs just up the road. On Friday night I helped out at our local village harvest supper, and auction. What was so lovely was many of the auction items were home grown, or made. There were carrots, potatoes, pumpkins, and marrows, still with soil on, fresh eggs, home made chutneys/jams, honey, and cakes. Now I know some of these have sugar in. However it was lovely to see organic produce. Certainly though I am not a veg fan, seeing this veg, did inspire me, and encourage me, to think, I could use it in something. Unfortunately I wasn’t quick enough on the bidding! But seeing all this beautiful fresh produce encourages, and inspires me to keep on the straight, and narrow with what I eat. As the weather gets cooler, and the nights draw in, what could be better than making home made stews, or soups, and stewed fruit with cream for dessert?

Well that has been my sugar free week!! The wind is getting up, and me just had a short mini power cut!! So I had better post this before the power goes again!! Eek!! xxx

 

Spreading the Sugar Free Word!

 

Some of you will have heard some of this before, so my apologise if you have. However for those that haven’t I hope that this might help you understand a little bit more about my SUGAR FREE JOURNEY.

In February 2016, I stood in the bathroom of my home in Surrey, and was stunned by the effect of quitting in sugar had, had on me in just 6 weeks. My eyes were brighter, my skin was better, my hair was shinier, and I was walking faster!!! My exact words to my mum were….’People need know about this!’ Because even back in 2016, there weren’t so many people talking about the impact of sugar. This was before the reality show SUGAR FREE FARM, and other SUGAR FREE programmes, books, etc. What shocked me was nobody was promoting this. Nobody really told you that if you quit/reduced sugar your hair would look better, your eyes would sparkle more, and you would have more energy. Yet, everyone knows too much sugar is bad for you. As a child I remember being told too much sugar, and your teeth would fall out!!

I wanted people to know, it wasn’t as hard as it sounded, it was in fact quite do able! Not only that,  but there were some incredible results that could come from going sugar free. With this in mind, though I didn’t know what one was really I thought I would d a blog. I’m not sure how but, I managed to put this blog together!! Over the last couple of years or so it has evolved. Then came my FB PRACTICALLY A SUGAR FREE ME, and last year my first workshops. What amazed me was that people were interested! People like me wanted to know how they could reduce sugar, and ultimately improve their physical and emotional wellbeing. There is an overwhelming amount of sugar free information out there. To be honest I was totally overwhelmed by it all. I wanted to make it simple.

It really is not as hard as it sounds. Based on my own experience it has been much simpler than I imagined. I always say I don’t have the healthiest diet, but I have a MUCH, MUCH healthier diet. It’s not perfect. Like me it is a work in progress!! I ignored all the ‘sugar free diets’ out there, if I followed them and it didn’t go right, I would feel I had failed! Part of the reasons I have struggled with ‘diets’ in the past is just that. Also there is so much sugar free info out there, I didn’t know what to follow. My other issue with so called diets is, the are designed by someone, that doesn’t know you. They have no idea of your likes/dislikes, your mind set, and your experiences of food/meal. Also if you aren’t careful diets can control you, well they certainly did me!! So I decided I was taking the control back, putting myself in charge, and doing it MY WAY!! For some crazy reason, it actually worked!! Lot’s of people ask me what I eat, I simply cut out sugar, including the natural stuff. I kept in fruit, the occasional scraping of marmalade, or drop of ketchup. For the first year I was tough, my brothers engagement party was 6 weeks in, I made alternatives for myself. I knew I couldn’t cave in, I really had to KICK THE HABIT. It would be all to easy to slip back into my old ways. I went away two weeks later, and didn’t even have so much as an ice cream! By that point I could literally smell the sugar in the supermarket, and I was becoming very aware that very few places made sugar free alternatives. The cravings do eventually go, and being sugar free becomes part of life. I’ll be honest that there are occasions, extremely rare ones I might add that I might try something sweet. Last Saturday was my birthday, and yes I did have a bit of cake. But it was way too sweet, and has now gone in the freezer, until we have visitors. On those occasions I realise after that it was way too sweet, and a lot of the time I leave it.

So back to raising awareness,  going sugar free is such an important topic to make people aware of, which is why I keep doing what I do. The more people talk, and here about it the more it becomes accepted, and the more others might be inspired to try it. Last week I finally put together,  MY LITTLE BOOK OF SUGAR FREE TIPS. It is something I have wanted to do for the last 2 years, and finally have. I wanted to create something that might help others go sugar free. It has 12 tips that I hope might help others. It is organically done edited by myself/mum, and published at our local printing shop in Cumbria. I have tried to keep costs down as best I can. If you would like to know more please check out the page on this blog.

FINALLY!!! I was so excited to have a stand at an event in Carlisle, Cumbria on Saturday talking to about going SUGAR FREE. Lots of people stopped by my stand, and it was a real pleasure to share with people my SUGAR FREE EXPERIENCES, and hopefully inspire them to quit/reduce sugar. I really couldn’t believe that after quitting sugar as a 6 month trial in 2016, that I was now talking to people about it!! It was a great way to spend my 48th Birthday!! I hope that it shows that anyone can do this!! They really can. 3 years ago I would never have imagined, that I would have been doing this, but I am.

I encourage any of you who have had positive experiences of going sugar free to talk about it. The more people talk about going sugar free, and the incredible benefits there are. The more people will be inspired, and the more people will become aware of how it will improve their wellbeing….IT REALLY CAN!!!

I thought I would finish by adding some pics from Saturday. Thank you to all those that came by chatted, and said hello!

 

 

Sugar Free Mentoring Questions and Exciting News!!!!

I have had a really exciting week!! I have booked to have a stand at a holistic fair in Carlisle on Saturday, which just so happens to be my birthday too! I will be publicising this blog, sharing my sugar free experiences, and offering mini sugar free mentoring sessions to those interested. On top of this, I have compiled my first every sugar free book/booklet, which I hope to sell copies of on Saturday. This is the first type of event like this I have done, apart from my workshops which were of course slightly different. Speaking of workshops, I have just booked to do another workshop on Saturday 20th October up here in Cumbria. As you can see it is a really exciting time!! I also had a fabulous banner arrive today that I am going to use on Saturday. I have popped a picture up here for you to see…I LOVE IT!! It is a very exciting time, and I hope I can help some more people on their sugar free journey, and keep raising awareness of the impact of sugar.

As part of my event on Saturday, I have devised a little question sheet, that I am going to be using for my mentoring sessions. Having completed it, I realised it would be something that others might find useful so I thought I would pop it up here. I think there are some really useful, and valuable points here, definitely worth considering whether you have been sugar free for a while, or are totally new to it.

I will be at Morton Manor in Carlisle, Cumbria on Saturday 8th September between 10 and 4. Please look out for the banner below. For more details on my workshops please check out my FB page PRACTICALLY A SUGAR FREE ME, or email me tracy_smithers@aol.co.uk. Thank you. xx

Here they are SUGAR FREE MENTORING QUESTIONS:

• Have you quit or reduced sugar before? If so what was your experience of doing so? If negative, what was negative/bad about it?
• Would you like to quit/reduce sugar? If so, how confident on a scale of 1-10 are you about doing this?
• If your confidence is lower than 7? Is there a reason for this, what could you do to increase your confidence levels?
• What were your childhood experiences of eating/meal times?
• How often do you eat sugary foods/drinks? Do you crave sugar, or regularly need a sugar fix?
• Are there particular times when you eat/crave more sugar? For instance when you are sad, angry, unhappy lonely, and depressed. Do you comfort eat?
• If yes, what are your sugar triggers?
• In the next week what three steps can you take to cut or reduce sugar?
• How confident are you of achieving this? If less than 7 what is blocking you from achieving these goals?
• How will you know when you have achieved these goals?
• In 6 months how would you like your life to be different? What can you do to make these changes?