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