I Quit Sugar

I did a great interview recently on quitting sugar with Holistic Health Coach Sandra Carvajal on her fabulous blog Latin2Yoga.  I used Sarah Wilson’s I Quit Sugar ebook as a guide to help me kick the ‘habit’.  And I think many others have done the same, from the huge volume of sales she has been telling us about on her blog.

Actually I highly recommend it (and I’ll explain why below) so much so that I affiliated with her.  So if you are ready for the plunge to bring balance, health and wellness to your life, and you want to cut out the sugar, then click on the link under we support, and this will take you to her site.

I’ve been a long time follower of Sarah Wilson’s blog, so it was one of the first places I started to explore the research and facts about the quantity and quality of sugar in my diet.  I realized pretty quickly that even though I don’t eat junk, don’t have soft drinks and don’t eat much processed food, I was still consuming way more than the recommended daily limit of 6 teaspoons (for women).

Why did I decide to quit sugar?

So I thought, perhaps this is one reason I haven’t been able to shift the extra weight – getting rid of unwanted kilo’s has been a priority issue for me.  I’ve never been a bigger sugar craver…I don’t drink a soft drinks BUT I did enjoy a V&T quite often.  I didn’t consider tonic as being the same as other soft drinks, but actually IT IS….just as bad as Coke, Pepsi, 7Up, Fanta….all the same.  So now I don’t drink tonic either.  I rarely ate sweet cakes or pastries and rarely have anything other than dark (70%) chocolate.  But in addition to weight loss I also wanted to further support the healthy  and balanced diet we had been working on for the past few years.  The more I read and listened to about the ‘evils of sugar’ the more I was convinced that it had to go.

What I liked about Sarah’s book…….

There are a number of things I loved about Sarah Wislon’s ebook and cookbook that I want to share:

• It’s an ebook so it was on my phone and laptop all the time.  After reading through once, I was constantly using it as a reference and being on my iphone made this real easy
• It oozes integrity and honesty, qualities that are important to me
• It’s so straight forward you’ll be thinking….ah I knew this why didn’t I do it before…now you can do it and she gives you logical and practical reasons why, as well as steps to how
• There are lots of tips and practical ways to proceed.  It’s not a diet, diets don’t work.  It is a process to improve health and wellness, and you are reminded of this throughout
• It has many suggestions on what to do if you feel like you are giving in, loosing the battle…. lots of support tools and recommendations.  Sarah even recommends BerryRadical for the afternoon slump….
• It’s full of useful facts, stats and science, which you can of course verify for yourself…I did

The I Quit Sugar Cookbook – 108 Sugar Free Recipes

• The cookbook is filled with many great recipes that are interesting, easy to prepare and ask you to explore different ideas and ingredients
• Lots and lots of tips, preparation idea’s, freezing ideas and heaps more
• Sarah has generously provided links to other blogs and websites to source sugar free recipes to help build your collection
• I love the cookbook ….there’s not much more I can say about this

Just to be upfront, as an affiliate I will get paid- a small amount – for any purchases of her book from my site, so thank you if you do go there, I am sure you will love the books and the journey

What alternatives are available

There are plenty of alternatives to fructose.  Some are easy to apply; others depending on what you are cooking are about trial and error.  I don’t bake a lot so it’s not too difficult to find alternatives, but if you are a baker then you’ll be looking for some good baking blogs and websites for ideas.  Both I Quit Sugar and I Quit Sugar Cookbook offer many alternative ideas and how to apply them, including substitute ratio’s.  I like this graphic, originally from David Gillespie, author of Sweet Poison.

Personally I am using Brown Rice Syrup or Rice Malt Syrup which is consists of maltose and glucose, but do look for the organic variety as there have been some reports of arsenic found in rice products.  I also use Stevia, which is mostly marketed as ‘the’ sugar substitute now that it is approved for use in most countries globally.  It is intensely sweet, somewhere between 70-400 times sweeter than sugar, so use it sparingly.  I use the liquid form but have been on the hunt for an organic plant.

Occasionally I also use vanilla and cinnamon as an alternative in choc balls or other sweet treats.  I like to experiment so I’ll make different version of the same thing with a different sweetener to see what works the best.

The main consideration for me when it comes to sugar substitutes is to use only natural alternatives.

What I haven’t given up yet!

Balance is my motto NOT complete deprivation.  I do still have some fruit.  Berries with my cereal and in smoothies, green apples with my veggie juice and dark chocolate at night…my ultimate weakness!! And thai food…there is no way I will give that up.

Enjoy the journey and do share with us how you get on

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