Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sigh, I should do this. At a minimum, I’d like to cut out soda. Even if that’s all I did, it would be a vast improvement. I was actually doing great this last week but after a stressful work week, I broke down and bought a big Coke and drank the whole thing. Slept terribly last night.

I’m going to try to get inspired by this thread.

When do you reach for the soda? How do you get them?

PP here. I reach for soda when I'm stressed or overwhelmed, and I get them when I'm out running errands or on my way home. It's 100% my stress vice. I generally don't keep it in the house though sometimes my spouse buys it and if it's around I'm definitely more likely to grab it. But the truth is that if I've had a really tough day, the desire to stop somewhere for a coke is very strong, and it really does immediately perk me up. If it were just once in a while, I wouldn't care, but what happens is that if I go through a stressful patch, I will start doing it daily and then I'm really hooked. That's what happened to me back between Thanksgiving and Christmas and now I find myself craving it all the time and it's work to resist.

To the poster who suggested the zero sugar sodas, it doesn't work for me because I hate them. They taste gross to me. And since it's not like I'm stocking up on soda to drink at home, when I give into a soda craving, I'm going to choose regular Coke because it's what I actually want. What would be great is to find something that gives me the same zing (it's the caffeine combined with the sugar, I'm not a coffee drinker so caffeinated soda really impacts me) when I need a pick-me-up. Nothing I've tried has worked. Coke is basically perfectly programmed for my stressed out brain.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm here for this! I just gave my bag of peanut m and ms to my husband. The mindless snacking is killing me. Suggestions on replacement snacks? I do pb and carrots, hummus and pretzels, [b]hb eggs, granola and plain full fat yogurt, nuts, but will take other ideas!

What are hb eggs?

Make your own oatmeal and peanut butter cookies for snacking.

Hard Boiled eggs

Have you tried the banana oatmeal cookies for a treat? Use chopped pecans rather than chocolate chips or dried unsweetened fruit.
https://www.yummly.com/recipe/3-Ingredient-Banana-Oatmeal-Cookies-2355909?prm-v1

Glad to have some new people joining in!

Yes, I’m only tracking added sugar and not naturally occurring ones. It’s required on food labels now. The problem is homemade stuff but I try to do a quick calculation (1 cup sugar = 16 TB = 48 tsp and each teaspoon is 4.2 g of added sugar). So a cake with 1 cup of sugar and 12 servings has about 17 g per slice.

If I put brown sugar in my oatmeal, I put in 5 g which is a slightly overfull teaspoon.

Still doing good today and no added sugar for lunch. Had a good long walk and some easy weightlifting.

Snacks: popcorn, cheese stick, nuts, piece of fruit, spoonful of peanut butter

Anonymous wrote:I'm here for this! I just gave my bag of peanut m and ms to my husband. The mindless snacking is killing me. Suggestions on replacement snacks? I do pb and carrots, hummus and pretzels, [b]hb eggs, granola and plain full fat yogurt, nuts, but will take other ideas!

What are hb eggs?

Make your own oatmeal and peanut butter cookies for snacking.

I'm here for this! I just gave my bag of peanut m and ms to my husband. The mindless snacking is killing me. Suggestions on replacement snacks? I do pb and carrots, hummus and pretzels, hb eggs, granola and plain full fat yogurt, nuts, but will take other ideas!

What's the best way to track sugar intake? I can read the back of the packages - and then just google for how much sugar is in the fruit?

As far as I know, no medical associations have suggested that people need to stop eating or severely restricting fruit. The 25 grams recommendation is for added sugars. Although maybe I misunderstood and some of you have been instructed to count every carbohydrate by a doctor.

I lost 40+ pounds without doing much besides decreasing sugar to <10 grams per day (down from probably 200-300+) and increasing my exercise. I ate a ton of fruit (mostly berries, apple, banana) during that time. I've maintained it for almost 2 years (although I probably eat closer to 20 grams of sugar now) and never returned to my sugar addiction
I cannot be satisfied with an orange if I really want a cookie, a sweet coffee or a piece of chocolate.

Some of my favorite sweet treats with limited added sugar:
Vanilla Icelandic style yogurt (5 grams)
Walker Shortbread Cookie (3 grams)
Vanilla Almond Kind Bar (2 grams)
Diana's Banana Babies (chocolate dipped frozen banana (3 grams)
La Colombe Double Latte (3 grams)

I'm joining this challenge- I have a bit of a sugar addiction, so am trying to be more mindful. I'm going to start at 40grams so I don't develop cravings, when that's manageable, I'm going to throttle back until I'm at/below the 25 grams.
I think sugar is addictive (at least for me), and I'm likely to binge if I don't wean myself down.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Following. I am new to macros. Please advise on good books or podcasts or sites.

Why 25g?

The American Heart Association suggests a stricter limit for added sugars — no more than 100 calories from added sugar a day for most women and no more than 150 calories from added sugar a day for most men. That's about 6 teaspoons (24 grams) of sugar for women and 9 teaspoons (36 grams) of sugar for men.

To put these numbers into perspective, 1 teaspoon (4 grams) of sugar has about 16 calories. A 12-ounce can of regular soda has about 150 calories — about 10 teaspoons (40 grams) of sugar.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/added-sugar/art-20045328

Bari Weiss did a good podcast on her Honestly show called “Eating Ourselves To Death”
https://podcastnotes.org/honestly-with-bari-weiss/eating-ourselves-to-death-honestly-with-bari-weiss/

What's the best way to track sugar intake? I can read the back of the packages - and then just google for how much sugar is in the fruit?

OP here, morning is going well, I had an apple with peanut butter, handful of almonds, a glass of milk, and a bowl of raspberries with some yogurt over top. The yogurt was sweetened because my husband bought the wrong kind so that’s 11 g gone for the day. Heading out for a walk followed by some strength training.

Good luck to anyone else trying to make it a low added sugar day!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great job OP! I gave up sugar (as much as possible) a year ago and the cravings really do go away. Hoping the same for you!

PP, can you share how you did it? Did you just go cold turkey?

I switched over to stevia sweetened items to sub out. I have a little stevia in my morning coffee, a zevia soda maybe once a week, and I use protein shakes/bars with artificial sweeteners. It’s not a perfect solution but I lost a ton of weight this way. I like monkfruit sweetener a lot also - there are some good granola bars and under the Munk Pack brand. Lily’s chocolate with peanut butter (bars or cups) are also terrific. It takes some getting used to, but after a year it almost tastes wrong when I have a bite of a real dessert.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dinner was good and filling. I had an orange afterward for something sweet. I did have a bowl of Raisin Bran but stayed under 25 g added sugar for the day. Woo-hoo on one day of meeting my goal.

How did everyone else do?

I’m the gestational poster. Also had an orange after dinner for something sweet. Coffee without sugar used to be my norm, so that wasn’t too bad. The place my husband and I go for breakfast on Saturdays does have really nice looking pastries - I think that was the only time yesterday I had a pang of longing lol.

Hope Sunday is just as good!

Great job! Hopefully after a few more days and weeks, you won’t even want the pastry as much. I found my sugar cravings went way down after a week or so of very low sugar eating.

Plan for today is a walk plus strength training, oatmeal with a banana and milk for breakfast. I cook on the weekends since my DH works weekends and I work during the week. I have some potatoes and spinach but need a main dish. Maybe some kind of bean soup?

Potatoes have a high glycemic index and would not be a good choice for someone with diabetes.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. This morning I had a good jog followed by my strength training routine. I had a brunch with roasted vegetables and an egg with a glass of milk. Followed by a handful of almonds. Going to try to have that hold me until dinner time. So far, so good.

She said low sugar, not starve yourself. If controlling blood sugar is a goal, skipping meals is a really bad idea.

Are you in Europe? No one on the East coast has “brunch” before 7 a.m. so maybe that’s the disconnect.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dinner was good and filling. I had an orange afterward for something sweet. I did have a bowl of Raisin Bran but stayed under 25 g added sugar for the day. Woo-hoo on one day of meeting my goal.

How did everyone else do?

I’m the gestational poster. Also had an orange after dinner for something sweet. Coffee without sugar used to be my norm, so that wasn’t too bad. The place my husband and I go for breakfast on Saturdays does have really nice looking pastries - I think that was the only time yesterday I had a pang of longing lol.

Hope Sunday is just as good!

Great job! Hopefully after a few more days and weeks, you won’t even want the pastry as much. I found my sugar cravings went way down after a week or so of very low sugar eating.

Plan for today is a walk plus strength training, oatmeal with a banana and milk for breakfast. I cook on the weekends since my DH works weekends and I work during the week. I have some potatoes and spinach but need a main dish. Maybe some kind of bean soup?

Anonymous wrote:Following. I am new to macros. Please advise on good books or podcasts or sites.

Why 25g?

The American Heart Association suggests a stricter limit for added sugars — no more than 100 calories from added sugar a day for most women and no more than 150 calories from added sugar a day for most men. That's about 6 teaspoons (24 grams) of sugar for women and 9 teaspoons (36 grams) of sugar for men.

To put these numbers into perspective, 1 teaspoon (4 grams) of sugar has about 16 calories. A 12-ounce can of regular soda has about 150 calories — about 10 teaspoons (40 grams) of sugar.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/added-sugar/art-20045328

Bari Weiss did a good podcast on her Honestly show called “Eating Ourselves To Death”
https://podcastnotes.org/honestly-with-bari-weiss/eating-ourselves-to-death-honestly-with-bari-weiss/

Anonymous wrote:Dinner was good and filling. I had an orange afterward for something sweet. I did have a bowl of Raisin Bran but stayed under 25 g added sugar for the day. Woo-hoo on one day of meeting my goal.

How did everyone else do?

I’m the gestational poster. Also had an orange after dinner for something sweet. Coffee without sugar used to be my norm, so that wasn’t too bad. The place my husband and I go for breakfast on Saturdays does have really nice looking pastries - I think that was the only time yesterday I had a pang of longing lol.

Hope Sunday is just as good!