First Steps to a SUGAR FREE YOU.

Giving up SUGAR can be incredibly difficult, and it can often be hard to know where to start! If it wasn’t for me being bridesmaid at my brothers wedding, and worried about how overweight I would look in the wedding photos, this blog and my PRACTICALLY A SUGAR FREE ME face page just wouldn’t be here.

I had battled with my weight since my teens. Whilst I look back now their were physical/health reasons I struggled with weight loss, another contributing factor was the emotional influences related to eating. In fact it wasn’t until I started my SUGAR FREE JOURNEY, that I started exploring WHY I ate SUGARY FOODS, and WHAT triggered my ‘need’ to eat SUGARY FOODS, and my thought’s and beliefs around food, that I started to understand, why I ate so much sugar.

Some of you might be aware that I am a counsellor, and when work with people I like to look at the triggers for different feelings, and to make sense, of why we do what we do. By making sense of why we do things, finding the triggers to behaviours such as eating, and exploring the history around different patterns, this can enable us to develop an understanding of how we tick. In doing so this can I believe help us move forward. This is something we looked at within the SUGAR FREE WORKSHOPS I ran, and I know that it was useful to people.

My belief is that many of how belief systems are developed from our childhood experiences, and as we grow older sometimes these beliefs, especially negative ones can be reinforced. As a result much of our beliefs, and thoughts around foods come from others not ourselves. This why, I have always believed going SUGAR FREE is not just about the food we eat, it’s about so much more. Once we have gained an understanding around our eating patterns, and habits, it can then make looking at our diet and what we eat so much easier. Knowing WHY we need to change the foods we eat, can making the SUGAR FREE journey a much clearer one.

For instance for years I spent many years eating sweet foods, because it was comforting to me, but didn’t really question WHY? I always said I had a bit of a sweet tooth..yes a bit of under statement!!

What I later realised was YES it was comforting, but it was comforting at a time I was experiencing a lot of trauma in childhood. Mealtimes were a hugely traumatic time, for several reasons. But one of the key ones was, often we were made to sit up to the table until I had eaten EVERYTHING on my plate. This often involved eating something until I was sick. So no wonder as an adult, I am not a big vegetable lover, and would prefer something sweet. However, the something sweet developed into comfort it would be my go to thing. Some people might drink or smoke, I just reached for the SUGARY FOODS.

As I look back now I feel sad that it took me so many years to work this out. However, I am grateful now that I did. Eating habits can be a battle for many, and we live in a world where so often we are showed what diet to try, or what fitness regime to follow. Although, I am not particularly a fan of them, there is nothing specifically wrong in them, but I would suggest weight is a sensitive issue. Many of us including myself can spend years battling with weight issues, and because of that battle we want to fix it. I’m not sure about you but I was desperate to fix it. But once we enter the diets, and fitness regimes, it can be easy to lose sight of why the weight developed in the first place. It’s easy to get caught up in how many pounds/kilo we lose, or what we are going to achieve at the gym. But until we know WHY we eat in the way we do? How can we find the way to FIX it?

I have always said it’s important to find a way that works for you, if you are looking to quit SUGAR, and that is more important than anything. We are all unique, and therefore we all deserve a plan that suits, and works for us, and NOT someone else. I wish you all the very best with our ever you go PRACTICALLY SUGAR FREE.

I hope you find this post helpful. Sometimes, I start not knowing what I’m going to write and the words just flow. Today was one of those days!! It was about 6.30 am when I started, I had a disturbed night as one of my retrievers was unsettled. So I decided to pop my lap top on to see what was going on in the world, and ended up here writing a post! It just goes to show that whatever you have planned, or doing no matter how small, we always have the choice to make that CHANGE!!

* ONLINE SUGAR FREE MENTORING SESSIONS…During this time of lock down I have been looking at how I might be able to support others on their SUGAR FREE JOURNEY. I am currently contemplating offering online SUGAR FREE MENTORING SESSIONS, and would be interested to know if anyone is interested in them. I have many years experience as a counsellor, I have also worked as a mentor too. The sessions would last approximately an hour, and tailored to support you. It could be a one off session or have a series of them. There would be a charge for these sessions, but I am keen to make sure that it is affordable to those that wish to access it. If you would like more details please email me at….tracy_smithers@aol.co.uk

Sugar Free Eating and Mindfulness.

Those of you that have followed this blog, and my page for a while will know that I often talk about Mindfulness, and eating mindfully. Just like everyone else I sometimes get caught up in the outside world, and forget about all those useful things that can really help in life! Mindfulness is a prime example, it’s such a wonderfully useful tool for all things in life, yet I don’t use it enough. I was reminded of that this week, when I started a short mindfulness course online.

As we finished up we were set a task for next week, which was to practice mindfulness when eating. So for those of you wondering what Mindfulness is, my definition is simply being in the moment, being aware of what is happening, when it is happening, and just being present with whatever is happening at that given time.

On the mindful.org website it states the following about mindfulness…(I have just stumbled across this page, and it looks really good so please do check out the link below, if you would like to know more.)

‘Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us.’

What is Mindfulness?

So how can you be in the moment when eating? Well back on the old days I would have seen something, thought that’s nice and sweet, YUM!! Then eaten it or rather wolfed it all down, without thinking about it. Back then I didn’t notice the taste, textures, smells, aromas, or anything else for that matter. I just wanted it because I knew it would be YUM! That was back in the day when, I wasn’t aware that the brain was the most SUGAR hungry part of the body. Added to that SUGAR is reportedly a whopping 8 times more addictive than cocaine!!!

A few years before going sugar free I was introduced to an idea where you chew your food 100 times before you swallow it!! Yes, 100 times!! The reason behind this is you feel fuller sooner. It is just one of the many things I have done to try, and lose weight. I can’t remember about the weight loss, but I do know I felt a lot quicker, when I did this. Like all things it didn’t last long, and I went back to my old ways!!

I have done a few mindfulness courses over the years, and when I went SUGAR free recognised, how this could help with eating habits. When I went SUGAR free four years ago, I started to recognise the flavour of things a lot more. When I ate rubbish such as SUGAR and ARTIFICIAL FLAVOURS, what I missed out were the natural flavours, and the taste of fresh foods. Now I am PRACTICALLY SUGAR FREE, as soon as I eat something, I can tell if there is SUGAR or an artificial flavour in it.

I can’t tell you what a valuable tool mindfulness is, and having started another Mindfulness course, I have been prompted to use it more often! My home for this week is to practice awareness of food at home. We were asked to think about the following:

• Who grew the food?
• Who harvested the food?
• Who unpacked it?
• Pick the food up as if you have never eaten or seen it before?
• Use your senses to look, smell, touch, hear, and taste the food?

 

So if you feel so inclined I encourage you to join me in using this week to eat more mindfully. Before I finish I am going to leave you with this Mindfulness quote by Rob Nairn that was shared this week during our course.

‘Mindfulness is being aware of what is happening, when it is happening, no matter what it is, and without judgement.’

 

 

Going SUGAR FREE during lock down.

Who would want to go SUGAR FREE during a worldwide pandemic, I hear you ask? Many of us are being challenged like never before. So why would anyone want to overhaul their eating habits during this time??

I more than anyone GET this thought, I was very ill for 9 weeks with suspected Covid 19 and a secondary infection, and after all that I am still not fully well. Many of us have been ill, maybe caring for loved ones, struggling with lock down, or out of work. I’m not sure about you, but I have been challenged in the last few months in ways I would have never have imagined six months ago. However I also feel that this is in some ways an opportunity, for some of us to take something, some glimmer of positivity from this most awful and tragic situation. As I have started to recover I have been looking at this time as a time to reflect, and reassess my life. It’s almost an opportunity to start afresh, and to build up some skills/resources to help us as we re start back into the wider world. So if you feel like you would like to do this, why not take the time to overhaul your eating patterns? For many of us being at home can be a perfect opportunity to re look at what we eat.

As I have said before going SUGAR FREE isn’t just about the food you eat it’s about your mindset too. However, re assessing what you eat is key. I remember four years ago being shocked about how much SUGAR there was in different foods. When it comes to going SUGAR FREE I have always said it’s important to find away that works for you. I was initially very overwhelmed by all the SUGAR FREE information out there, it all varied. In fact it is a SUGAR FREE MINEFIELD! So I thought I would share with you a few ideas that have helped me over the last few years.

• Who do you want to go SUGAR FREE for? Is it you or are you doing it for someone else? If you aren’t doing this for YOU, then I wonder whether it’s the right time to go SUGAR FREE? How long are you going to be able to keep motivated if you are doing this for someone else?

 

• How many teaspoons worth of SUGAR are you actually eating a week??

 

• How much SUGAR is in your food cupboards? I encourage you to look through the items to check this out. You might be in for a surprise!

 

• What are your hopes about giving up/reducing SUGAR? If it is just too lose weight you might like to look at other hopes too? Going practically sugar SUGAR FREE isn’t a quick fix diet where you lose pounds/kilos really quickly? It’s hard work, you might initially lose a few pounds, and the body might change shape, but it doesn’t happen overnight. It can be hard work!

 

• How committed are you to doing this? I’m not sure about you but in the past I have tried numerous diets for a while, and then lost heart when the scales didn’t tell me weight I wanted. Going SUGAR FREE is about so much more than losing weight.

 

• I am personally not a fan of food diaries, however I know some people find them really helpful. So if they work for you why not keep a diary for a week, and record how much SUGAR you eat.

 

• If you have decided that you want to reduce sugar, it can be useful to take some time to think about how you will do this? Will you cut out SUGAR all at once, cut out different items at a time, or cut out all artificial SUGAR and keep having natural SUGAR?

 

I have always believed knowledge is power, and that by having done some research with whatever we want to do , or achieve it can really help us in moving forward. Above all when cutting out or reducing sugar, I would encourage you to take charge of your situation. I spent many years letting food most especially sugary foods control me. It wasn’t until I took control that my eating patterns and life in general improved.

 

As I said earlier it really is a SUGAR MINEFIELD out there. There are many different ways to go PRACTICALLY SUGAR FREE, and it’s important that you find a way that works for YOU!

However you choose to go PRACTICALLY SUGAR FREE, I wish you every success with it. Whether you decide to reduce SUGAR at this time, I wish you all the very best. I hope that you and your loved ones are able to continue to stay safe and well. xx