"No Sugar" - Week 2 & Beyond.

[Ya'sin]

almond milk is meh,i prefer cashew nut milk, thats really nice!

I haven't tried cashew nut milk
i haven't seen it in the main supermarkets

i don't like almond milk but because it's the easiest alternative to normal milk, I get it to mix it with my smoothies

I haven't given up normal milk, I try to drink less of it

[neelu]

I can't give up sugar but have tried to cut down my intake. One awkward thing is I take a herbal remedy as pain relief but it has sugar added to it because it's quite bitter. I have it with my tea. I find that if I try to reduce my sugar intake (either by removing the sugar from the herbal remedy or by not adding sugar to the tea), then I get too much of a strong craving for chocolate to compensate for the bitterness. I'm thinking next time my dad makes the herbal concoction, I'll ask him to only use two tablespoons per batch (which I take daily for weeks) so that there's a little sweetness and hopefully if I tolerate that, I'll be able to gradually reduce the sweetness further over time inshaAllah.

I can't go cold turkey on cutting out sugar altogether, though I've successfully managed to reduce my intake quite significantly over the years.

[Umm Uthmaan]

I can't give up sugar but have tried to cut down my intake. One awkward thing is I take a herbal remedy as pain relief but it has sugar added to it because it's quite bitter. I have it with my tea. I find that if I try to reduce my sugar intake (either by removing the sugar from the herbal remedy or by not adding sugar to the tea), then I get too much of a strong craving for chocolate to compensate for the bitterness. I'm thinking next time my dad makes the herbal concoction, I'll ask him to only use two tablespoons per batch (which I take daily for weeks) so that there's a little sweetness and hopefully if I tolerate that, I'll be able to gradually reduce the sweetness further over time inshaAllah.

I can't go cold turkey on cutting out sugar altogether, though I've successfully managed to reduce my intake quite significantly over the years.

Do you eat gluten free only? If yes, how did you manage to cut gluten out completely?

[Fakhri-bin-Ali]

Day 12.

Right. Got to put something down here.

Chocolates everywhere you look in the kitchen.
Ferrero Richer, lindt Lindors(?), loads of those variety boxes and biscuit assortments. People gone a bit crazy with all the junk food hoarding.

Was in a pretty dark and aggressive mood throughout yesterday. (Why is this is turning into a diary? Who even writes diaries? ) First time since this no sugar business a thought for a fraction of a second crossed my mind, something telling me to chuck a chocolate in my mouth as though that would somehow improve things.

(Nafs/Shaytaan... So devious. Seeing the tiniest opening and trying to sabotage this!)

[neelu]

^I keep a diary

Do you eat gluten free only? If yes, how did you manage to cut gluten out completely?

Everything I eat is gluten free- I've been gluten free a few years now. I also had to stop eating a lot of other foods that were worsening symptoms so I gave up eating corn, oats, most beans and pulses (except red lentils), all fruits except 5, lots of vegetables. As well as that I eat the following VERY RARELY because they cause severe skin reactions:: eggs, nuts, dried fruit, most seeds, nut oils and fish. Ideally I'd have liked to give up dairy as well because dairy (especially yogurt, milk and cheese) cause throat problems, but I couldn't give it up because my diet would end up so restricted, I wouldn't know what to eat half the time, so I try to minimise my dairy intake. I'm also trying to cut down my intake of sugar and caffeine.

There are a few keys to going gluten free, but it was HARD because most of the diet I grew up with had gluten. First I had to think of new carb/starch replacements to have day to day instead of roti, bread, paratha, pasta, noodles etc. So I came up with 3 main replacements: rice (to have with salan instead of roti), potatoes (so I could still have chips and pakoray) and quinoa (which replaced cous cous). It took a long white to find brands of gluten free bread and pasta that I liked, as some taste like cardboard but some taste pretty much as good as wheatflour versions.

So one key to this was finding viable carb alternatives for regular meals. The second key was finding a few nice gluten free products in the shops in the freezer section such as garlic bread etc because you need an option for those days when you are too tired to cook and most other convenient options like takeaways etc wont have gluten free options. The third and possibly most important key is to be mentally and emotionally prepared to go through with giving up gluten. I'll admit 13 years ago, I started eating gluten free, then had cheat days some months later, then pretty much gave up... then started again a couple of years later, then had cheat days etc. It wasn't until around 6 years ago that I actually properly committed to going gluten free permanently. Did I cheat? yes once last year I ate some cake and my hand was hurting for several days afterwards at which point I realised this is really not worth making myself ill for, so I haven't touched gluten since and at this point I don't miss it as much either because of the fourth key. The fourth key is to find a good gluten free food that you love, something that you can enjoy without it feeling like a punishment. It could be a flourless chocolate cake, it could be deep frying fish and chips and onion rings (all available gluten free), it could be puri chana or gulab jamun (yes there are gluten free recipes for that too), my point is find an indulgence, something you love and can have gluten free for those days when you want to treat yourself without cheating and really enjoy it. It might take time but inshaAllah you'll start finding gluten free foods you really love and then more dishes until hopefully you reach a point where gluten is easier to live without and you don't really miss it. I miss it occasionally, but not enough to want to go back to hurting myself with it and I don't feel deeply deprived without it because of these keys.

Initially it was particularly hard because there weren't many good gluten free options in the shops, but now the supermarkets have great gluten free options, such as gluten free fish fingers, gluten free scampi (to go with chips),

[Ya'sin]

Day 12.

Right. Got to put something down here.

Chocolates everywhere you look in the kitchen.
Ferrero Richer, lindt Lindors(?), loads of those variety boxes and biscuit assortments. People gone a bit crazy with all the junk food hoarding.

Was in a pretty dark and aggressive mood throughout yesterday. (Why is this is turning into a diary? Who even writes diaries? ) First time since this no sugar business a thought for a fraction of a second crossed my mind, something telling me to chuck a chocolate in my mouth as though that would somehow improve things.

(Nafs/Shaytaan... So devious. Seeing the tiniest opening and trying to sabotage this!)

Make yourself dessert with dates and a little peanut butter, just take the stone out, put the peanut butter in and you will be satisfied
i don't eat the same chocolate all the time although ferrero is tempting because it's one of the expensive ones

I usually bore myself with a particular chocolate so then I don't eat it anymore

[Ya'sin]

I had kale but it is to bitter for my smoothie

I brought the different variety with bigger leaves and stems, I didn't think it would taste that strong
It's in the freezer chopped up

Would prefer to cook it like saag so if anyone has any recipes let me know

[Ya'sin]

Tesco do gluten free angel cake- no sure if it's their brand or not, neelu, incase you are interested, my brother in law can't eat anything with gluten and has other allergies so when I got him those, he and his family had it
i had it too, it was yum BUT pricey, not sure about the sugar content

[Fakhri-bin-Ali]

Day 13
Going well, alhamdulillah.

Buying chocolates and sweets for others but treating them like poison and completely avoiding them myself. Hmmm...

[Fakhri-bin-Ali]

Too many people in my family and people I know are diabetic or borderline. Seeing the serious problems it causes now in their older age.

Allah Ta'aalaa preserve our health and make us those who are grateful.

[neelu]

Tesco do gluten free angel cake- no sure if it's their brand or not, neelu, incase you are interested, my brother in law can't eat anything with gluten and has other allergies so when I got him those, he and his family had it
i had it too, it was yum BUT pricey, not sure about the sugar content

I'd rather not try it tbh. When I first went gluten free, I tried to look for gluten free indulgent dishes so I could still have treats, but now I'm prediabetic, for the most part I'm avoiding buying any sweet or dessert foods and trying to lower my sugar intake. So far I've reduced my sugar intake to one third of a teaspoon of sugar in my tea (per day usually), there's a little sugar in my herbal painkiller remedy (I don't know how much) and there's some sugar in my food (eg ready meals such as lasagne, each brioche roll contains a teaspoon of sugar and also ketchup contains sugar). Most days that's the only sugar I have. I try to only indulge in chocolate or treats if I have to such as sometimes I feel I need it during migraines and sometimes I feel I need chocolate during my monthly cycle, but even then I try and stick to dark chocolate which has less sugar. A couple of years ago I would've said okay I'll have a dessert on Eid or my birthday but now I'm not even particularly interested in that. The one sweet treat I do like from the shops is very naughly I've only tried it once: it's M&S chocolate twists- they're strips of gluten free puff pastry with a few chocolate chips in them and they're really delicious. I must resist or I'll become addicted lol.

I still worry that I indulge too much even though that's literally all the sugar I have. I no longer like it if relatives come round with a box of chocolates or that sort of thing.

[Ya'sin]

Day 13
Going well, alhamdulillah.

Buying chocolates and sweets for others but treating them like poison and completely avoiding them myself. Hmmm...

You could introduce them to diabetic chocolate (Neelu, have you tried those?) It was around two or three years ago I got some from boots.

it was ok and it's an easier way to get people off chocolate, the visual side of things need an adjustment too
there's also those nakd bars, I tried one when we went saudi because I needed energy and didn't want normal chocolate

This reminds me of that popular roses advert many years ago

Thank you very much for being my sister

Thank you a million times, roses has lost that specialty now lmso

[Mintchocchip]

Too many people in my family and people I know are diabetic or borderline. Seeing the serious problems it causes now in their older age.

Allah Ta'aalaa preserve our health and make us those who are grateful.

Lots of my relatives also have diabetes but that does not stop them from staying away from the sugary stuff. I find the non diabetics tend to be more careful with their sugar intake.

Ameen to your dua.

[Fakhri-bin-Ali]

Day 14.

Alhamdulillah, been going smooth up to this point.
Hope everyone else is keeping to it and managing without problems.

[neelu]

I avoid diabetic chocolate. My mum subscribes to the Diabetes UK magazine and they warned against diabetic chocolates and sweets years ago. I can't remember why but they said it wasn't good.

I think for migraine days when I need something sweet, I'd like to replace the chocolate with amaretti as it's small and I think the almond content would make it more of a slow releasing sugar but I can't find gluten free ones these days. Tesco don't sell them anymore.