A Diary of Someone Who's Quit Sugar

My first week

A little while ago I wrote the article: My Sugar Fast Experience and I shared the reasons why I was going to cut out sugar and snacking from my life (hopefully). I thought I would document the first week or so of my experience and the things I’ve been learning so far on my journey. I will preface by saying that I do add honey to some teas but I will talk about that more later in this post.

Day 1 - Making The Decision

I’m looking at the snacks I’ve bought that I’ve hidden in the corner of my room. Donuts, vegan tea cakes, a pack of fairy cakes (for some reason) and a box of breadsticks because why not get something savoury to balance out all the sugar?

Although they’re out of sight, they’re not out of my mind and I find myself wandering back and forth that area like a shark eyeing up it’s next meal.

Just one for now and no more.

Ten minutes later: just one more and that’s it.

You get the gist.

I finished nearly half in one day.

I did however drink two cups of water which is more than I’ve done in a while. I was quite proud of that, but is it enough to stop the inevitable from happening tomorrow?

Day 2

The answer to my previous question is no. I awoke to a beautiful breakout and knew that it was time for me to change my ways.

I chugged a glass of water and took inventory of the remaining snacks. I had planned to throw them all out but ended up eating most of it (fairly quickly - I should add if I’m going to be honest here), leaving only two cakes that I threw away purely because they didn’t taste very nice.

I chug another glass of water.

I take a single breadstick and start munching then realise that I cannot replace sugar with eating savoury things. I cannot replace my cravings with eating. I need to replace it with drinking water instead. This way I can help not only my skin but my hair as well. I’m on a hair growth journey as I buzzed it off a few years ago and I kind of miss my waist length hair days. I heard water is good for the scalp so…

The day before I bought all these snacks I had just been drinking mostly juice or flavoured water but I had a glass of plain water and the headache I received in response was nearly unbearable. I knew I was severely dehydrated and that my body was sad from my past decisions. I felt sad too.

Well, today I can happily say that the taste of water is actually very nice and I’m finding it so much easier now to just go downstairs and fill another glass.

I did have a tea today. I only drink herbal teas - preferably without a tea bag so I can mix the leaves that I want. Today I had clove and some sort of mint infusion as it said it was good for pain relief and detoxing. I put in two spoonfuls of honey as I knew one wouldn’t be enough for where I am right now, but three is too excessive. Tomorrow I will cut it to just one and then see how I get on without or even half a tea spoon. It kind of sucks though as I just bought this honey jar, but needs must.

I went to Substack and found an article of a lady who documented her 30 day sugar fast. I was so excited that it gave me the idea to write about my own experience. It was nice to see someone else doing something similar and see how much it helped her.

I plan to train my body to not need to run to the loo every ten seconds because it’s not yet used to the amount of water that I’m going to be drinking yet. It’s only been two days so I will be patient. But I will say, I am feeling good. We will see how it goes tomorrow because now I really have no sugary snacks to fall back on. Let’s see how many glasses of water I take in replacement.

Day 3

It’s 8am and all I can think about is eating the breadsticks. I know I’m not hungry, it’s just something to do. So I choose not to. Let’s have a glass of water instead.

I’m happy to report that not only did I have two glasses of water, but I also only put one and a half teaspoons of honey in my herbal blend tea. I followed up with a cooked meal at 10am.

Back when I was doing 75 Hard (which I mentioned in my previous article), I ate twice a day. My first meal was at 10am and it was typically so massive that I could never finish it, but it contained all the calories and protein that I had calculated I would need for the day. I would eat what I could then put it to the side until my second and final meal which took place at 2pm (which mostly ended up with me forcing myself to finish my first meal). This worked for me back then because I was rarely hungry through the day which gave my stomach the time it needed to rest by intermittent fasting until 10am the next morning.

It was only hard for me to eat at the time because I’m not really fussed about food and often forget that I haven’t eaten a meal yet. So naturally I went to one meal a day being at 2pm where I would eat until I was full or nearly full. Though I did still have a snack from time to time.

Because I’ve cut out quite a lot of snack things now I thought I’d reintroduce eating my 10am meal so that I’m less tempted to snack. I’m also doing this because from the testimonies I’ve seen from others, cutting sugar helped them lose weight and that is not a goal of mine.

Day 4

Well, that’s the end of it all haha.

Two Weeks Later

Although I wasn’t able to keep up with this everyday, I’ve found myself wanting to drink water more often and avoiding snacks as much as possible. I gave up eating at 10am after a week of doing so because I felt no benefit other than feeling too full most of the day. I’m not snacking much now anyway so it’s not a necessity anymore. I know that finding the right balance is all that we can ask for and I know I will find that balance soon enough.

I do want my skin to be clear and glowing and as long as that’s my goal, I know that I will get to the point where I’ve figured out my own routine to keep my stress levels low, skincare routine in check and sugar on the low. I have found that I’m not craving it as much at all. If anything, I will have a small handful of walnuts or a cup of water. That’s a result in itself!

✨ Nadine