A very big thank you David for this book! I read it and it made sense, so I was keen to give it a go. I couldn’t imagine not ever feeling like sweets again, but thought I had nothing to lose. My husband wasn’t going to give up sugar, as he said he would wait and see if I lost weight before he would try it. I used to love ice cream and chocolates and had them every afternoon and night. My other downfall was I loved my couple of glasses of wine every afternoon after work and I didn’t really want to give that up. It was the 18th April 2011, when I made the decision to go cold turkey and follow the book for 6 weeks and at the same time go off the alcohol and see if I could do it.
I weighed 73.1 kg and I decided I wanted to lose 13 kg.
I took all my measurements so I could record any weight loss.
I spent 2 hours in the supermarket reading labels.
I couldn’t give up my coffee so I bought Stevia drops to put in, instead of sugar
Then I stocked up on nuts, chips, things that I could munch on, instead of going for the chocolates.
I also thought I should be doing some form of exercise, but I am not fond of any aerobic activity and thought if I felt like it I would just go for a walk.
I was nervous about what withdrawal symptoms I would suffer.
But I was very surprised it turned out I just had vague sort of symptoms, such as:- aching legs ( which magnesium powder fixed) and very slight headaches on and off mainly at night ( not bad enough to take painkillers) and these symptoms stayed with me for about 3 weeks. Because the Stevia in my coffee didn’t taste as good as sugar, I tended to not have so much coffee, so my headaches could have been from cutting back on the coffee.
I weighed myself everyday, I lost 2kg in the first week so I was encouraged straight away.
I would have my one pear each day as my dessert.
At first I ate heaps of nuts and chips but realized that ruined my appetite for dinner, so I slowed down on them. I had all the other things I love to eat like garlic bread, chicken kievs, and chips so I really hooked into them. I kept thinking all this fat can’t be good for me, so I decided when I was over the addiction I could cut back on them then. So I stopped worrying.
What I noticed in the first couple of weeks was:-
I wasn’t constantly thinking about food. Hours would pass and I wouldn’t have had a snack.
I never panicked about what I could and couldn’t eat when I was out as there were still heaps of choices.
After about one month I knew I was over the addiction, I was so excited, I took my measurements and I had lost centimeters off everywhere.
I honestly found giving up the wine was harder. I had to say no to going for drinks with friends for those 6 weeks. During those 6 weeks I only went for a 30 minute walk half a dozen times.
When the 6 weeks was up, I weighed 67.7kg, I had lost 5.4kg. Not the amount I was hoping for but I felt so good. I celebrated with a few drinks.
Since then I have continued to lose a bit of weight, and I can honestly say I do not get excited or feel like anything sweet. A raw carrot is sweet enough for me these days. It just seems unbelievable, but what David says is absolutely true. I have my wine and soda when I go out socially now, which is about 3 times a week. It is now nearly 10 weeks since I gave up sugar and my weight is 66.6 kg and since the weight loss has slowed (obviously the wine), I am going to start walking more as I feel a lot more energetic.
PS. My husband is starting to come around and says it will do it soon.
