Seasons of Joy: Surprising things about Living Sugar Free

This is just a quick post today.  Somehow the day has got away from me, probably because Gary is home and I am enjoying my time with him far too much to spend any at the computer <3

First thing first….I am still sugar-free and it has now been a month!  But over this month I have noticed some things which have surprised me, so I thought I would jot them down for posterity!

1. I have not found this hard at all.  There has not even been one time when I have thought about giving up.  Whilst there are a few things I miss about sugar, the actual sugar isn’t one of them.  I am surprised by the lack of symptoms I have had from giving up sugar.
2. I have not lost as much weight as I thought I would have.  In the past month I have lost four pounds.  In my head I had kidded myself it would be more.  I am not disappointed as such, just surprised.  For some reason this is becoming less and less about my weight.
3. I am surprised by how upset the little ones get about not being able to share their sweets and chocolate with me.  It makes me sad that I can’t enjoy their gift like a ‘normal’ mummy.
4. I do not feel any healthier for giving up sugar.  I think I expected to feel worse for a while and them much better and healthier.  I expected clearer skin, less bloating, better digestion, maybe even sleeping better.  None of this has happened yet.
5. I miss the social aspect of sugar.  For example sitting down to a movie with some toffee pop corn or chocolate; sharing tea and biscuits with friends; making cakes with the little ones and arguing who is going to lick out the bowl; settling down for the night with a tea and a bar of chocolate.  I don’t miss the actual sugar too badly, but I do miss the habitually happy memories we as a family have made over the years.  Food is such a social activity.  The rest of the family still enjoy them, but I am there, fruit in hand, missing the togetherness feeling.
6. Even though there seem to be a few things that are negative and so far very few positives to giving up sugar, I am surprised that there is no part of me which wishes I could go back to eating sweet things.  I am thinking this could be forever.
7. I am surprised by how giving up sugar has reduced my choice of drink to tea, coffee and water.  I missed diet coke waaaay more than chocolate (which was a surprise in and of itself), but I have found that sparkling water is becoming more and more enjoyable.  I am surprised that I often choose water over a cup of tea, and that I am drinking tea less and less at night-time.
8. I am surprised by how my hunger has seemed to decrease.  I literally do not want anything to eat between meals.  I think this is because I used to want sweetness rather than nutrition, and once sweet stuff was taken off the table, so to speak, eating in between meals became a thing of the past

So what’s next?  Well, I have been using fruit such as grapes and blueberries with Greek yogurt as a substitute for sugar.  We can’t afford to keep this up, so I will be decreasing the fruit I eat, and I do wonder if I will feel the pain of a sugar-free life a bit deeper than I do right now.  I also want to investigate sugar-free desserts.  The problem is that I do not want to start eating any sweeteners either and most of the sugar-free recipes contain some sort of sweetener.  So if any of you know of sugar and sweetener free desserts, please do share 🙂