The first month.

So the first month of being sugar free is over. I'm over the worst of the cravings but I do get the 'urge' now and then. I think it was be like nicotine. When you give up nicotine you get over the cravings but the desire for it does come back now and then. You know it's not strong enough to make you succumb but it still pops up.

That's the way it is with sugar. Usually it's a visual trigger. We were shopping one day and I walked past the biscuit aisle. Biscuit aisles have Tim Tams in them. When I saw them I really wanted to eat one but I didn't crave it. It just would have been nice. Walking away was easy and as soon as I was out of that aisle I'd forgotten all about them.

Official weigh in has me three kilos lighter. It's not a huge amount but it is the first time since September that my weight has gone down instead of up. In september I gave up coffee and took up hot chocolate. I ate way more sugar than usual. It is also the month that soft drink (or soda) starts to go on special in readiness for Christmas and we were buying it. From September to the end of December I drank a lot of sugar in the form of hot chocolate and soft drinks. My weight went very slowly but very steadily up. I put on about 8kg in that time. Given that since I gave up sugar my weight has now started to come down, and it's 3kg down I think we can safely say that weight loss is due only to giving up the sugar.

I have actually been eating a lot more fat than ever before too. I've switched to high fat everything and I don't scrimp. And it's true folks, if you eat fat in your diet you will eat less. Fat triggers your brain to know that it has eaten and you feel it. If there's sugar in as well as the fat it seems to have the oposite effect and you need to eat more to feel full. Fat on its own is much better.

So, no change in exercise, increase fat intake, drop sugar = a 3kg loss. I think this no sugar gig is working.