Thursday 6 August 2015

Switching from Intermittent Fasting to giving up Sugar

I decided to end the Intermittent fasting after 2 and a half years.

I learned a lot about my appetite and I generally just made sure I didn't overeat.

I did find that the Intermittent fasting couldn't get rid of the last bit of stubborn fat on my body. I wasn't prepared to lose weight, I was training 11 times a week, gentle, explosive, endurance, cross-training etc.

I was finding for a long time now that a lot of goodies that were on offer just weren't delivering on the promise. I'd look at the chocolates on offer by the counter and could never really find one that appealed. I notice a lot of people just stare at the goodies, undecided which one to take.

This feeling just started to spread in all areas where sugar was concerned.

In parallel to this I am taking care of my mum now who has diabetes and vascular dementia. So every product I got her it needed to be low in sugar. This is when I realised just how much sugar was in everything.

When you are forced to look at the labels for someone else's benefit, daily, you soon build up a knowledge base of what's got what out there. I found the co-op were the best in lower sugar, especially on a chicken korma(7.5%). Some other leading supermarket(not tesco) were the highest topping nearly 19% of daily intake.

So takeaways, unchecked; the mind boggles.

The BBC ran a wonderful series "the truth about.." which covered in one episode sugar. In truth I was ready for this. I had been thinking about sugar for a while. Watching the intake for my mum helped me make better decisions as well. So after that episode I began starting my journey to give up sugar as far as possible.

My first step was to switch to 90% dark chocolate. I restricted myself to 2 blocks. It's a funny thing about dark chocolate the blocks are thin but huge. This for me encouraged one to mow through half a bar because it was easy to chew and light. But I set out my first target. Now 90% is pretty bitter straight off. So I looked at other flavours on offer. Some jumped up to 50% sugar as soon as anything else was added to liven it up.

I then had a brainwave. To buy some essence that has no sugar, melt the chocolate down, add some essence and pour into a coffee bean mould of 30 beans. The bean mould was exactly the size of a coffee bean. So a bit thicker but far smaller than one block. Thereby eating less.

This restricted chocolate phase lasted about 3 months. Eating less and less of the chocolate.

Eventually I gave it up completely. I stopped doing the mould-making with essence after my 4th batch. I just broke the chocolate up into micro pieces and had a few small bits at the end of the day.

I then started on buying fruit, chopping it up and freezing it. I got the tip from somebody who said they freeze bananas. I bought some clotted cream and put a bit of that on it.

Well that was a transforming moment. That dessert was far more satisfying and contained natural fruit, with no sugar added clotted cream.

In time, about 6 weeks, I switched to double cream.

I started getting this white head spot above my lip. It went away and I got another one in the same place! After the 3rd one I realised the cream was too rich for me. So I reduced it to two heaped spoonfuls.

I also read about bananas. So I cut that down to one banana a day. I got some blueberries (which I never used to eat, but learned they are a superfood), some strawberries, chopped them up and froze them. [tip: if freezing strawberries, take off the green stem before freezing!! Also chop them up smaller, they freeze like bullets!] In time you'll only need a few of these desserts.

So when you cut out sugar desserts, after a few days you take more care on the quality of the taste on the main meal. I noticed that I used to have too much focus on the dessert afterwards as that was the end of the eating session rather than the main meal itself.

Also you'll find that you need to eat a bit more because the lack of daily desserts will leave a hole in you appetite.

The Results

I pretty much noticed a shift in the stubborn area on the belly after about 5-7 days. It was very slow, but it was continuous. I've noticed in the past it does take the body 6-8 weeks to acknowledge the shift and then make adjustments.

I can't remember exactly the date I made the switch but it must be about 4 months. The total no chocolate phase about 8 weeks.

It is in the last 3 weeks I've seen a significant shift in the bodyfat reduction. My bodyweight has remained the same.

A very interesting shift has occurred in my strength, speed and stamina. All 3 have improved. Unfortunately I've included some other changes like a pre-workout drink and I'm taking a b-complex tablet everyday as well, so it's hard to single out the removal of Sugar. But I feel confident that my bodies ability to function more optimally without the load of the Sugar is improving things.

Another recent change in the last few weeks is I am no longer randomly hungry. I'm eating less. Now and then I get very hungry but it feels natural so I eat more.

Whereas if it's craving driven, one is in danger of the hunger driven by a sugar craving.

At the moment I feel I've just begun the final phase of losing the last 10% of unwanted bodyfat. All indications are I'm moving in the right direction. By the end of the year I should be pretty close to where I would like to be with my body.

The other big benefit of a low sugared diet is the quality and regularity of stillness in the mind. Spikes in mood are quite different and a lot less now.