Weight loss has never been easy for me. I love food too much. I never EVER miss a meal. I can’t understand how people say ‘I forgot to eat lunch’. Let me tell you, that once I’m finished breakfast, I am already dreaming about lunch. I have been known as the ‘hangry one’ in my family for decades. I see red and get rather snappy when I get hungry. Calorie counting was my thing. It made sense to me. Calories in vs calories out. I would restrict my calorie intake to 1200 calories per day. I didn't care about the make-up of those calories. I could eat a Big Mac if I wanted to (but unfortunately that would leave about 3 calories for the rest of the day). In June 2015, nearly 2 years after the birth of my youngest son, I had lost most of the weight I had put on during my pregnancy but my weight could still fluctuate due to my chaotic eating habits. I would be really 'good' and eat 1200 calories per day for 2 weeks, lose a couple of kilos and then binge out and put them all back on. Sound familiar? There had been a book sitting on the bookshelf at work that I had been meaning to read for years. David Gillespie's 'Sweet Poison'. I finally took it home. I had so many lightbulb moments reading that book: I was eating but never really felt full; I was eating but hungry again soon after; my weight fluctuated. Strangely enough it was at this time that David Gameau's "That Sugar Film" was playing in our local cinemas. After seeing that movie, that was it for me. I made the decision to give up the sweet stuff. This was a HUGE shift for me. It was common for me to buy multiple chocolate bars and ice creams every week and that was just the obvious sugar! Everything I bought was always "low fat" and my pantry was FULL of asian sauces that were half sugar. Did you know Trident's sweet chilli sauce is 70% sugar??? I thought I was doing the right thing by eating stir-fries every night! It was a huge mental shift to start buying "full fat" products. I learned that in the 50's when heart disease was on the rise, fat was singled out as the villain. A slew of 'low fat' products flew onto the market. Unfortunately in order to make these products still palatable without the fat, sugar was often added. I was a HUGE consumer of 'low fat' and 'no fat' products. I did a pantry clean-out. Goodbye sauces. Goodbye low fat. Goodbye non-fat. Hello fruit and veggies, hello full fat dairy, hello wholegrain carbs and brown rice. I cut most of the sugar out of my family's diet gradually over 8 weeks...... and then I went on holiday to Canada and the USA. Avoiding sugar here was impossible. I returned feeling fat and sick (that may have been the alcohol too). It was at this time (September 2015) that I discovered Sarah Wilson and her I Quit Sugar 8 week program. I instantly fell in love. 8 weeks of recipes guaranteed to keep you full and get you through those sugar cravings, shopping lists already done for you, and the most wonderful and supportive social media community. Everyone would cook up their recipes and take photos to compare on instagram. This is how Fructose Free Family was born. I was determined to make this a permanent thing for my family and I figured what better way to document my triumphs and failures than through instagram. I have been posting recipes that worked, recipes that failed, things we liked, things we didn't like. My cooking skills have improved out of sight (there is rarely a night I don't get a high five from my husband once he has finished his dinner). So here we are, over 1 year later, our house is a fructose-free zone. We have managed to maintain this lifestyle and I can't see us going back. Do you have any experiences with trying to quit sugar? What was your 'lightbulb' moment that made you want to try? Were you successful? What is the thing you miss the most?
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