WEEK 1: PREPARING TO SAY GOODBYE.

by jadeandrews05

It’s not like I live off energy drinks, have sugar in my tea, drink fizzy drinks all the time, so how hard could it be right?!

This week I felt like a baby moving to eat solid food, but yet I was having my sugar intake slowly reduced and more importantly my ketchup portion significantly reduced. Giving up sugar isn’t easy. You have to be prepared to not only think, but read before you eat! Reading labels and getting used to knowing what they mean is a key part of this detox.

Nearly towards the end of Week 1 and there is still a lot to learn. Like I didn’t know sugar free doesn’t necessarily mean sugar free?! I’m still feeling slightly betrayed by food and drink brands out there. Also, there are 3 types of sugars? Fructose, Glucose and Sucrose. Fructose makes you want to eat more, it also rests on your liver and is not used straight away as energy, it’s converted to fat! Fructose is bad.

To give up sugar you must then eat FAT and PROTEIN – this means unprocessed fats and quality protein like eggs, cheese and coconuts – the book talks a lot about coconuts.

Week 1 Day 5 today see’s my first day with no KETCHUP. It also marks my first 5 – 6 teaspoons of sugar only shop at Waitrose.

Waitrose is fab, my mum and I both have Waitrose cards (which are free) which means every time you visit you’re entitled to a free (nice tasting) cup of your choice – in my case Latte. We descended upon the aisles of Waitrose with our IQS book under my arm and I grabbed one of Waitroses scan as you go scanners. A very lovely lady explained the scanner means you can in effect check out as you wonder, with your tasty drink  keeping track of how much you spend and can pack as you shop. It may sound like an irrelevant outburst in the middle of this post but when attempting one of these detoxes, you don’t want to spend oodles of money and i’m not made of oodles.

What I did realise as I sipped my Latte, was that next week I was going cold turkey and I mean COLD TURKEY, no turning back it’s all celery and carrot sticks from here on out. No more:

  • FRESH AND DRIED FRUIT
  • FRUIT JUICE
  • MUESLI
  • MUSELI BARS
  • JAMS
  • ANY CONDIMENTS CONTAINING SUGAR
  • FLAVOURED YOGHURTS
  • HONEY
  • CHOCOLATE
  • SOFT DRINKS
  • ….AND KETCHUP!!!

The IQS book comes with some weird, but also some tasty sounding recipes. This weekend I am going to (attempt) make some egg and bacon cupcakes, and look at how you can eat out whilst on the detox – as no sugar shouldn’t alter my social life.

My challenge is no ketchup, challenge accepted!?