Happy birthday to me!

I've lost 4 kg in 3 weeks + 3 days. What a great birthday gift to myself! 8.4 kg to go, though I am not set on a particular goal weight. I'll know when I feel right again. I don't post too much anymore because it seems the routine is pretty much set. I eat much less, and I'm not generally feeling hungry. I sometimes even skip dinner when I can tell my tummy isn't rumbling or feeling empty. When I get past the initial 'but I'll starge!' thought, I find that I the lack of hunger continues throughout the evening until bedtime. If I get hungry, I'll eat a piece of cheese and I'm set. I've started experimenting with recipes, I might start posting some in here.

On a completely different topic.... I'M GOING TO SEE U2 TONIGHT!!! I can't wait.

In the 60's!

So, 2 weeks + 4 days. Lost now 3 kg in total. My last strategy is working better than I thought. When I tally up what I eat in a day, it looks like nothing, but I am simply not hungry! No calorie counting, no exercise. I find I have to avoid even the dextrose-made sweets, because they kill my apetite completely. One bite is all I can manage in a whole day. I am a very different person than I was 3 weeks ago where eating habits are concerned.  At this rate, I will be noticeably slimmer by Christmas. I might even feel comfortable at the beach!

Though I am very happy about the weight loss, I find the other benefits are sufficient to make going off fructose worth it. I have noticed that I never get bloated anymore, my skin tone has improved and I am less moody. I read an article about how insulin is thought to be now a major player in the aging process. So hey, no sugar = younger look. That works for me too.

Two weeks

So it seems I have leveled out a little. I'll paraphrase myself from the Sweet Poison Forum:

I find that my body is MUCH more sensitive to how much I eat than before. If I eat too much, then I can easily put on 0.5 kg in one day (up to 0.8 kg). I have noticed that I eat less and less, but I realise that I was still eating too much. I see a plate full of food in front of me and I want to finish it off. So, I've started really paying attention to my appetite. I eat a small meal and then I wait until I get that really empty feeling in my belly rather than that desire to taste something before eating again. I noticed too that at one point during my meal I get this thought 'I think I might have eaten enough' and often ignore it because the food tastes good. I will no longer ignore it.

Though the appetite control kicks-in, I think some of us need to learn to recognise it rather than hope it happens all on its own.

So this started last night. Today... wow. I had 1 piece of toast for breakfast with cheese on it. Ate nothing until lunch, when I still wasn't feeling hungry. I had a salad. Felt hungry then suddenly - yep, that's when the belly went into crazy rumbling mode. So I had a few blueberries. Then nothing until dinner time. I came home, tried a small piece of the fructose-free chocolate I made during the weekend to see how it tastes and that KILLED my appetite completely! Just to be healthy, I ate a few cooked carrot sticks and green beans and a very small piece of steak (if you make touch the tip of your thumb with the tip of your index finger, that's how big it was).

I wonder how the weight will be in the morning....

Day 9 and some progress

I must admit, I was a little (secretly) skeptical... But it is actually happening. I am eating less and less every day, and I am not even trying! I am not constantly thinking of food either. I know I would probably not be able to stop myself if I tasted something sweet, but I find it actually easy now to stay clear of the sweet foods. This is awesome! I've lost 2 kg so far, in less than 2 weeks! This is truly amazing.

I've tried some recipes from Gillespie's Quit book, the anzac biscuits and the chocolate slice (with chocolate glaze)... both yum! My daughter and husband both loved them too. I must admit my daughter is facing some real challenges, all the kids in her class are giving each other little Christmas cards with either candy canes or little chocolate santas... She kept the chocolates (they are in the fridge) and threw away the candy canes. She has actually not eaten the chocolates yet and I am not going to remind her where they are! I'm proud of how well she is doing. I'm not forcing it on her, but I do inform her of the things that contain sugar, and she makes the decision herself.

My husband is a few days behind me, but he is seeing how well I am doing and I think it is motivating him. He's giving it a real go this time, fingers crossed! Thank goodness for those dextrose recipes.

Day 6 - still going!

I organised a morning tea for one of my colleagues who is going to be on maternity leave fairly soon. On the table were... cupcakes, biscuits of all types, fruit, juice, potato crisps and rice crackers. I stuck to the rice crackers and drank nothing. Yay!

I still find that I have no appetite control. I am not sure how long that will come, but perhaps I need to be a little more proactive with my portions and start paying attention to what my body seems to need. Eat a reasonable serving. Wait 30 minutes and see if I'm still hungry. If I think I might be able to stretch it out longer, then wait another 30 minutes, etc.

I purchased an ice cream maker so I can make some dextrose version for my kids and husband. I'm having some serious trouble finding dextrose, however... I will ask at the Sweet Poison forum where people have been finding theirs. I have some powdered glucose, and I know that dextrose is a hydrated version of glucose, but I'm not sure I can straight substitute one for the other.

Day 4 detox

I've lost 1.2 kg so far. I still believe it has to do with the initial fluid retention. I don't expect to loose all that much in the days to come. After again eating like mad on day 3 (LOTS of nuts), I decided to cut out the nuts and see how I go. I've also skipped the bacon with my egg breakfast, and have since day 1 replaced my sprouted whole grain bread with Helgas wholemeal. I managed pretty well. I even started to feel hunger pains on the way home! I still have a massive dinner, though and I am still waiting for that 'too full' feeling. It hasn't really come yet.

I found that drinking water helps a lot. If I think I'm hungry, I have a glass of water and I wait a little. I heard that sometimes we can confuse thirst for hunger. Another thing I've read somewhere is that taking vitamins might help. If you're lacking in some vitamin, you might feel hungry. That is your body's way to make you eat more in hopes that what you DO eat will have the vitamin it seeks. I'll give that a go.

At work today there was a special morning tea to celebrate a birthday. I went. There were 4 boxes of 12 doughnuts in assorted flavours. I'm happy to report that I wasn't even tempted! I did hesitate for a moment when I saw some Drumstick ice cream cones in my freezer, but didn't touch them. I find that reminding myself that I am detoxing helps to stay focussed. I really don't want to have to start from scratch again.

My husband came back from a short business trip, and I find that he has not seriously stuck with the Fructose avoidance. I think he really needs to read the book!

Day 2 Fructose withdrawal

I lost 0.8 kg. In one day. That has to be fluid retention letting go.

I woke up this morning with a massive headache. The paracetamol didn't much help, and it lasted until about lunch time. I felt very irritable, but kept my temper in check for the sake of my co-workers (not to mention our sharing office space with our client right now). It subsided at least! We'll see how I go tomorrow.

I am still quite hungry - I ate another load of mixed nuts, and a bunch of rice crackers to fill-in the hungry times. For breakfast - an egg, bacon and slice of sprouted whole grain bread (rye). Unfortunately, I see that it contains 13.5% sugar - not sure in what form because it is not added sugar. So better be safe, I'll go back to my old wholemeal bread. Helga's traditional wholemeal is 2.3% sugar, so just above 1% fructose. That's pretty much in like with Gillespie's book, around the light rye bread, but higher fibre at 6.7%. I'm going to investigate Burgen rye next time I go shopping.

Lunch was my usual salad - lettuce, carrot, cucumber, zucchini,  bean sprouts, avocado, flaked tuna, cheese, cherry tomato, red cabbage, shallots, celery and apple. Dressing was Jalna BioDynamic Organic yoghurt with a tiny bit of lemon juice.

Dinner: spaghetti. I used Bertolli's Five Brothers Five Cheese pasta sauce. 4.8% sugar, so not too horrible. Still I will try and make my own from scratch in the future. I added some mince beef to that. Pasta was Orgran Italian Style Gluten free Spaghetti. 0.9% sugar.

I am literally too full to contemplate desert. I started feeling like I was over-eating near the end of that meal (I had a pretty big bowl)... is that the feeling I'm looking for? I used to find being 'full' was when I physically couldn't fit food in anymore. I'm pretty sure I could fit more, but I don't feel like it. It's a start I guess! I'll have to look for that feeling again.

My daughter is doing well. She loves Gillespie's Anzac biscuits, which is a relief. I'll try other deserts as the weeks go by. I don't talk much about my son, that's because he's pretty much sugar free already. He doesn't drink juice and hardly ever eats desert. So he's all set, yay!

How I decided to go fructose-free

I consider myself a pretty busy person. I have a wonderful husband and two children (2 and 6), I work full-time (engineer) and to top if off, I've decided to do an MBA by correspondence. I have a great deal of stress in my life and little time to contemplate what I eat. So I eat what is easy - sweets. I put on about 10 kg in one year doing this. My husband travels a lot for work (lately, 50% of the time) and my home time does not include 'taking it easy time'.

I found by hazard one of those "three-foods-you-should-never-eat" links on Facebook. I checked it out. Found out from there that my number one enemy was sugar, explaining the whole sugar high-insulin-sugar low-binge cycle. Made sense to me. The second recommendation was to cut out wheat. Apparently, that also turns into sugar while you digest it. So for about two weeks, I stopped eating sweets, putting sugar in my coffee and pretty much went gluten free to avoid wheat. I started eating sprouted whole grain bread. So... kind of on the right track, right? Lost about 2 kg... then lost focus as I approached an exam and started eating sweets again. 2 weeks later and I've put on 3 kg.

I fell upon an article in a magazine while I was at the hair salon during the first two weeks where I was loosing weight... I cannot remember which magazine and I only got to read a few paragraph, but it made mention of David Gillespie's book "Sweet Poison". I thought "Well, that's interesting, but I'm already trying to cut sugar, so I don't really need this." Two days ago, however, I happened by chance upon his second book "The Sweet Poison Quit Plan". Bought it. Reading it now. I don't even need to read his first book to be convinced now that I need to remove fructose, and why. It is not even a weight loss issue anymore, it is an addiction issue.

I read little bits to my husband, he says he'd like to try it out. My daughter sees the cover of the book and asks "Is this about cakes?" I tell her "No, it is about not eating sugar." She looks at me and says "I don't want to eat sugar anymore. I'll throw away all my Halloween lollies." I was so proud. My 6-year old!

So.. day 1.

For me, it isn't too bad. I am already halfway there, really. I've kicked all my old bad habits the first time I was trying to get rid of the sugar. The only one left was the binge eating when I get stressed. Sweets are my comfort food. And I cannot stop at just a little. No. I gorge on it. So from this part of my fructose addiction, I am going cold turkey. Today, I ate a lot to compensate. Potato chips, rice crackers and nuts mostly. I don't feel bad otherwise other than having interesting visits to the toilet.

For my 6-year old, she doesn't know why she is feeling this way, and I won't tell her because she might decide that sugar is good after all. She has had serious mood swings today and she has complained of sweating for no good reason. It made me wonder whether I was giving her that much sugar before? I thought I was monitoring that pretty well. But thinking about it, she would have at least 2 glasses of juice  per day, some kind of sweet desert after dinner, a cookie after lunch, a muesli bar for afternoon tea... wow. So I think her withdrawal might be worst than mine.

I've made her some fructose-free cookies from Gillespie's book, contrary to his recommending not eating dextrose food until the withdrawal period is over. She is still young and I think her appetite control is completely broken yet.

So.. starting weight. I might even throw-in a photo in my whole unflattering self.
Weight = 72.4 kg

I don't have any blood work to include here for future comparison, but historically, my blood sugar level has been within the recommended zone (though on the high end) and my cholesterol looks good. Interestingly though, my cortisol tends to be on the low end of good, which might be related to another problem I've had recently with my pituitary gland. So I might be a special case.

I don't know about the wheat part of the equation yet. I might post a question on Gillespie's forum about that.