Friday 4 April 2014

Fitness Friday | The struggle with my sweet tooth



I have always had a sweet tooth, I was at my heaviest when I was only 10 years old, all down to my poor eating habits with sweets, I love ice cream, I love fudge, I love chocolates, hell I even love liquorice, if it is sweet I will eat it.

I was fortune enough to go to boarding school and the boot camp exercise routines trimmed me up completely, at the age of 13 I lost 10kgs (22lbs) in 2 months, it was intense.

Though I managed to lose all the weight, I still struggled with my sweet tooth gene and it has followed me into my adult life and adding wine and sweet Scandinavian ciders to the list, the struggle is really on!

I have accepted, this is a real problem of mine and I need to tackle it down (feel a bit like an addict). So far the mini steps I have taken are:

1.       Only have alcoholic drinks at the weekend. It’s the likes of cider and Rose Wines that are loaded with all the calories and too easy to drink.

2.       Avoid buying sweets with weekly food shopping.

3.       The 1 rule; first I will try my best to resist the craving; if I can’t then I can only have 1 for the day. This helps me keep my craving at bay and avoids binge behaviour.

4.       Substituting the sweets for more savoury snack, I love almonds and cashew nut.

5.       Drinking water. Water makes my body think it’s full and avoids the midday snack bug

The struggle is on, my sister, older brother and I got the sweet tooth gene, it has been a struggle, but we will overcome it, one way or another! The older one gets the complications with sugar with the likes of diabetes and weight gaining are so real.

30 day self-challenge

I was speaking to my sister the other day and she gave up alcohol for lent and after 3 weeks she has noticed that all the clothes that were tight have been fitting her comfortably, I was very surprised with this, I mean I know alcohol has loads of calories, but I did not realise how a change like that could make such a big impact.

After this I decided I could really benefit from a self-challenge for the next month where I will be cutting out all alcohol and chocolates and sweets from my diet.

This is to give myself an internal cleanse as well as see how much these foods impact my overall health and appearance of my body.

I started it on the 1st of April, as I have a birthday this month I will put the 29th as the only exception day! A girl has to have her birthday cake! So because of this my final day will be the 29th.

So this will be all alcoholic drinks and candy!

I will still have sugar in my tea and will be allowed a pudding once a week, but it has to be able to fit into a ramekin bowl and not bulge out. Though the puddings have to be ‘health’ so will research for healthy puddings for my once a week treat. Will have to get creative

Please leave me suggestion on how you have tackled the sweet tooth.

Happy Fitness Friday Ladies! :o)

‘If you are going through hell, keep going.’ – Winston Churchill


15 comments:

  1. Good luck with your challenge!

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  2. My challenge is to exercise at least 4 days a week. I do want it to be five, but it's a, well, challenge.

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    1. Hehe, I so get how you feel! I have 'tricked' myself into exercising 5 days a week by doing short Yoga exercise for 2 of the 5 days.

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    1. thanks! I need to get through the month! have major sweet lows

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  4. From a fellow sweet tooth addict to another I wish you all the best. And yes alcohol does add some serious weight which explains all those men with beer guts! I tackle my sweet tooth by allowing myself one cheat meal or snack a day which is almost always something sweet that way I don't overindulge. As a recovering chocoholic I have taken to having an entire 150g bar of chocolate spread over an entire week as opposed to eating the entire bar in one sitting or day that way I spread the calories that I would have loaded in one day over an entire week. So i only end up with around 500-600 clarifies from chocolate a week as opposed to 1500 in three days. There are days when i would even have two bars in the past! What i do is store the chocolate bar in the freezer which makes the bars much more harder to break so I only end up breaking a small piece a day.

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    1. auto correct lol *500-600 calories*

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    2. I so get your dilemma! I used to be the same eating a whole block of chocolate through a movie! My uni mate and I were just not good for each other heheh. Since then I have learnt the act of freezing the chocolate, we addicts really do think the same. And now just buy the small size bars! We have both come a long way!
      Though I will not lie cutting it out completely have left me with the shakes, and I it is only now that I have realised a love sweets and chocolates just marginally more than my wine heheh. 22days and counting!!

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  5. Good luck!

    This is a good reminder to parents and school as well, not to give sweets to children. School food should be nutritious and sweets has no place there, not even for puddings. When the child grows up they can decide them selves but this everyday candy thing that is happening now may give people the kind of problems you describe. Even increase the alkohol use.

    I'm sure you will make it to the 29th, only 24 more days to go!

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    1. Thank you for you comment Lisa.

      It is a real life problem indeed.

      The school meals I remember were actually not too bad, they were balanced and had minimal sugar. As I was in a boarding school there was minimla access to sweets around!

      When I watch telly now they is always an issue with child obesity that they are trying to tackle.
      I think more emphasis should be placed on letting kids understand the dangers, I just never understood why I coudln't have all the sweets in the world apart from it making my teeth go bad. As soon as I got out of my parents care I feel my sweet tooth went worse, I could easy get through a big block of chocolate and a packet of sweet.

      As treats are usually associated with a being good treat, then you really feel like you could take it overboard.

      We should empower our kids with my knowledge of the dangers and other options that they have!

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  6. Best of luck! I gave up on curbing sweets, it's like a part of me lol

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  7. I Have not recovered from having a sweet tooth though my limited finance help me with the problem. :)

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    1. Lol that is always the best solution for most things for me, my limited finances. Well at least something good has come out of it!

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  8. I LOVE sweets as well! I gave it up for lent and have done well with the challenge although I did indulge in a slice of cake twice this weekend :/ Back on the wagon I go! Best of luck with your challenge!

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