Week one...no sugar for me

Here we are....one week into no sugar. I just want to start out by saying that this blog and journey may not appeal to everybody and that is OK. I know there were hundreds of blogs about no sugar and diets and healthy eating and all sorts of similar things and I encourage you to go and read and learn. My goal here is to note down thoughts as I progress through this journey. I don't know how long it will be or where it will lead me, but I do hope that if you are reading this we can care and share thought, ideas and experiences below to encourage one another.

Back to business though, I am one week into my little experiment and it has been interesting I guess you could say. So far what has happened is  I feel rather spritely! I have more energy then I have had before and not in the sense that I can go go go all day but more in the fact that come mid afternoon or evening there is no slump or lull to the energy but rather I can just keep going or need to keep doing something to be mentally active. Although I must admit that with uni break currently in full swing and more then a month until I return I do watch lots of TV and am not the most active in life which would usually lead to lethargy but not in the last week.

The other big thing I have noticed is my taste buds. In two different ways. The first is that they always seem dry and almost as if I am thirsty. I can guarantee that is not the case as I drink a river every day in water to help clean out my system but yet that feeling remains. I think it is their way of craving sugar and requesting that sweet, flavoursome sensation again. Last night I did notice a big change though. We had baked pumpkin stuffed with mince from the I Quit Sugar website and it was yummy but that pumpkin was the sweetest pumpkin I have ever tasted in my life! It was amazing to see a new world of flavour open up. Honestly, in all the books I have read about this sugar thing they all speak of sweet vegetables and taste buds changing and even milk becoming sweet but I didn't really believe them. BUT IT IS TRUE! Things do taste sweet and yummy like they never have before!

For my wife and I this week has been an eye opener. She unfortunately got sick on the first day and vomited. She believes this was not sugar related but I am skeptical about that. Each day after lunch she felt queasy and not hungry at all as if she would be sick. Thankfully a quick jelly bean did the trick and made her feel fine so I would not be surprised if sugar was the culprit here but we will never know! Good news though, after 5 days with the jelly beans she now does not have them and feels fine.So there is hope for all of us.

But did we cheat at all? Well, we are just trying to give up added refined sugars and any sweetener alternatives for now. So carbs and fruit are still in but only whole grains and not in large volumes. We did eat home made pasta, which is delicious and some bread but the good expensive stuff. The only non strict day was when we were invited for Chinese dinner. We ate the Chinese food but avoided dessert. I am sure there is some sugar added into it somewhere but I was not too worried as it was one meal only. We do not want to be people who go and make everybody change just for us so may eat sugar occasionally if it is a\unavoidable and that is fine by us.

What we did eat was lots of vegetables, baked meats, cheese, yoghurt, bacon, eggs, avocado and nuts. Below I have some pictures of a few meals I ate. They were all yummy and you really do not have to feel like you are missing out on yummy food and eating lettuce that is for sure!

Roast Lamb with home made gravy, roast potato and vegetables

Salad with tuna, chia seeds and crushed almonds

Natural Yoghurt with chia seed, crushed almonds, banana and a freshly made coffee with milk!

Please leave your experiences below and ask if you have any questions or thoughts!

Plan...Plan...Plan

With all of this talk of trying to get healthy and live better it is hard to know what to do and what to believe as everybody quotes doctors and nutritionists and many other health professionals trying to prove their way is the best way. So I needed to figure out what to do and how to do it.

Now I am not sure if it is a male v.s. female thing or whether it is just our personalities but maybe you are thinking what my wife was thinking. Why not just commit to eating healthy food and leaving out the unhealthy foods? Well for me I just cannot do it! I am a rule follower and always have been. I need to set myself boundaries. I need to create black and white so I know what is right and wrong. I am not saying this will work for everyone but it definitely will work better for me! So I need a plan with rules to make decisions easier. After all what does healthy food actually include or not include?

So I started in one of the most resource laden places I know of when it comes to eating differently...my Mum's bookshelf. After considering our options after christmas and returning home from holidays, my wife and I have decided to try and give up sugar. Now I know what you are all thinking...here we go again, another guy jumping on the fad which could be true. It is one of the latest crazes along with paleo and whatever else but it is one of the most compelling to me as well! There is only so much chocolate you can eat in a life time after all. The trouble with deciding to give up sugar is that there are a lot of books and differing people from I quit sugar to Sweet poison the 2That sugar film. So I investigated each one a little bit (I mean come on who really has that much time to read 5 whole books about sugar and what to eat and what not to eat. I skimmed the useful parts).
The main points on contention include:

• Fruit
• Coffee
• carbs
• bread 
• gluten

So we have started our journey into no sugar land and don't really know all the rules but the main aim is to avoid any added refined sugar. For now we are avoiding sweetners too so trying not to use honey or rice malt syrup as replacements for stuff but have decided to keep eating fruit, it is summer after all and that is when the yummy fruit is around. We will probably also eat bread and carbs but the wholegrain stuff baked fresh and things like fresh pasta. But hey it is a journey and we are on it and have started so that's always a good thing! Better to jump in and try then not jump at all!

If you want to see how our journey continues then keep coming back for more....I will try and post every few days whilst I am not at uni but hey you don't have to return!

The New Year...A New Goal

So I have realised what many a blogger has probably realised when they start out. Blogging is HARD! It is hard to keep up with the timing and to keep continuously posting and keeping content up to date. For me I am only blogging to help keep myself accountable and hopefully for some of you to see the struggles and successes of just an ordinary bloke trying to change the way that he lives and feels. I do not aim to make this the world's best blog with the world's best writing and photography but rather just a little bit of sharing and caring for everybody's benefit.

Well it has been a fair few months since I posted last on here. A lot has happened and a lot has changed. I completed another year of university, I got married, I went on my honeymoon and I celebrated Christmas (See what I had to endure below). All of those things together with their stresses and celebrations have meant that I lost control of the whole weight loss thing yet again. But alas, there is still hope. With all the yummy food at weddings, in Fiji, Christams and what I like to call 'study food' (really its just lots of chocolate and chips and yummy stuff) comes consequences. Those consequences have meant not much weight loss and a touch of weight gain. The dream was to lose 10 kgs or so in time for my wedding. I mean, everyone says that you need a goal and some motivation. That was perfect..groom loses 10kilos for wedding was perfect. But, there was one problem. With uni, weddings and I guess life comes time constraints and stress. And so that did not really work out. But with a new year comes new challenges, ideas and understanding. And so we (My wife, myself and you) are going to try and make this year more successful. We will try and set ourselves up for more chance of success. A new year means a new me. I know it is cliche and all but it is a good time to start. For me, I need a line in the sand to commit to and being from so LET'S DO THIS!

Here is a picture of my wife's gloriouis Christmas Trifle...It was delcious!

If you are liking my take on life from an odd males perspective then please come back for more. The next post will be up in 2 days time!

Hi guys,
Welcome to my blog. It is weird that a guy in his early twenties who is a bit rough around the edges is sitting here and starting a blog (well it is to me anyway). I guess there is only one reason for this blog. That is to document my efforts in trying to lose some weight. I am not here to promise anybody tips and advice for quick fixes or that sort of stuff. I am simply here to write random thoughts down and stuff as we go along. So if you are reading this, Thank you for dropping by I hope our time has been enjoyed by both. :) Here is a photo of me to share a little bit more of myself.

This is me down at Head of Bight in South Australia watching the whales