Well done to everyone who participated in NOsugarVEMBER and gave up the sweet death for 30 days.

I am positive you feel better and have dropped bodyfat. I hope now you can put some new found habits into place to make your lifestyle a little healthier. Remember, cutting sugar from your diet is not all about weight loss. More importantly, it is about health as sugar is very, very bad for our bodies!

Here is an article I wrote a long time ago about how bad sugar is for us

I am sure a few of you will indulge today as a reward to yourself for lasting out the  30 days and if it is only one treat, it is fine. I am a realist and I understand that whilst in a perfect world, we wouldn’t consume sugar, but I know it is not the reality. Sugar is all around us and is very addictive, so let’s put the focus on reducing our intake rather than eliminating it. Having said that, if you can eliminate it completely, then well done, I am stoked for you. For the rest of us, let’s put solid plans into place for our sugar reduction policy.

• No soft drink ever
• No bottled fruit juice ever
• Alcohol only once or twice per week on special occasions
• Sweets only once or twice per week- ice cream, chocolate, cakes etc
• No lollies or cookies or chocolates from a jar at work, it is completely unnecessary
• Encourage your workplace to have fruit or healthy options for the ever present morning and afternoon teas
• If you have cake or the like at work for a morning or afternoon tea, then make sure it is counted in your 1 or 2 sweet treats per week
• No sugar in tea or coffee
• No dried fruit, it is not a health food
• Pasta, bread, rice and potato are condiments to accompany a meal of protein and vegetables or salad. They are not the main component to a meal and should only take up 1/3 of the plate or less
• Look for lower sugar varieties of yogurt as they can have lots of hidden sugar
• Never have artificial sweeteners. They are bad chemicals and they trigger the brain to crave sweet things

Good luck to everyone on your quest for sugar freedom, better health and your optimal bodyfat levels.

Well, 3 weeks down and 9 days to go!

Well done to everyone who has succeeded to stay sugar free for the month so far. You should all be feeling lighter, not just on the scales, but in your self. Your stomach should feel less bloated, especially with the 3 times a week psyllium husk!

So by combining no sugar, pysillium husk and 5 days a week exercise, I would be very surprised if you haven’t lost a significant amount of weight. Your pants should definitely feel looser around the waistline if nothing else!

Start thinking now about what long term changes you will make after staying sugar free for 30 days. I know I have said it before, but here are a few suggestions to make eating less sugar fit in with your life;

• Sweet treats only once or maximum twice per week.
• Alcohol only once or a maximum twice per week.
• No sugar in tea or coffee.
• Don’t think of dried fruit as a health food.
• Rice, bread and pasta are not staple food groups, they are small accompaniments to meals at the most.
• Look for low sugar varieties of yogurt.
• Never ever drink soft drinks or bottle juices.

Just by making these small changes listed above, you will find yourself feeling better, living healthier and maintaining your healthy weight range easier.

Good luck for the last 9 days.

Remember, 0, 3 and 5

0 sugar, 3 times a week psyllium husk and 5 days a week exercise

This is an awsome article about the problems associated with eating too much sugar, the addictiveness of sugar and some great tips on overcoming your addiction.

Very interesting!

Overcoming Sugar Addiction Article

Well, we are in to week 2 and I am quite sure there should be some confessions on the blog today after the weekend…

In any case, even if you made a mistake or two on the weekend, what I want you to do is to accept that you slipped up and get back on with it. There is no doubt that sugar is highly addictive and very hard to just go cold turkey simply because I said you should.

So, the plan for this week is to make less slip ups that last week. Now if you made no slip ups, then congratulations, you should be right for the rest of the month. If you made 1 slip up, then aim for no slip ups this week. If you made 2 slip ups last week, aim for 1 or less slip ups this week.

By following this type of plan, you can aim to stick with the program and not get down on yourself if you do happen to make a mistake. Just remember, that if you have reduced your sugar intake by large amounts this month, even if not completely, then you are way out in front and on your way to living healthier and thinner!

Now, last week we decided to add 5 days of exercise to the plan to accelerate weight loss. This week, I have something else I want you to introduce to help you feel lighter with a flatter stomach and to help your “insides”.

Add 1 heaped tablespoon of pysillium husk to a glass of water and drink it on Monday night, Wednesday night, Friday night for the rest of the month. It helps to keep you “regular” and cleans out the colon. It can reduce bloating in the abdominal region and may give you a flatter stomach. But, the essence of it is that is it is really good for prevention of colon caner and can reduce cholesterol. I like it because garbage left in the colon can leak into the gut, so this will help to clean out the colon. Very good for you! A couple of the kilos you are holding onto could be crap stuck in the colon. Gross!

Don’t forget to log your confessions below and either do your burpees or add 2 days per mistake to December.

Happy sugar freedom:)

Well, we are on the 3rd day of no sugar and I am sure that a few of you are struggling with the odd craving here and there. Rest assured, it does stop, as the sugar leaves your body, just like any other craving!

I want to introduce something new for NOsugarVEMBER this year. By cutting all of the sugar and refined carbohydrates out of your diet, you are sure to lose weight in the next 30 days, but I want to make sure you give this your best shot by challenging you to exercise 5 days per week.

This may mean attending outdoor morning training, morning or evening indoor training, training on your own on weekends, 1on1 sessions, or for those of you who are crazy enough not to use my services to get fit, you can use your current fitness regimen you have, but increase it to 5 days per week.

If anyone has any questions, please post them in the comments below and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

I also know a lot of people out there who are doing no sugar this month, but have avoided putting their name down. Please put your name down, it is very important. It will encourage you to stick with it and it will encourage others to get on the program. More people are likely to kick sugar if they see lots of others doing it, so please get your name on the list and make that commitment, no soft approaches to this month, we won’t try to give up sugar, we WILL give up sugar.

If you have something super important on in the month that you know you will break it, then let’s accept that and do your burpees, log your misdemeanour and keep it up for the rest of the month.

There is another option to paying your penalty also. If you eat sugar on 1 day, you take that day times 2 in December. So if you eat sugar once, you go through until the 2nd December, if you eat sugar twice, you go through until the 4 December etc.

Hannah and I may eat some sugar on our daughters first birthday, but we have made the commitment to go through until the week  of Christmas.

So, get more names on the list, hit me with any questions you have and even put your name down if you are just giving up 1 form of sugar. It all counts!

Well it’s that time of year again. November is just around the corner and with the success everyone had last year, I have had a lot of people asking if we are doing it again this year.

The answer is YES!

Starting on the 1st of November for 1 full month, we will rid our diets of sugar.

This means;

No alcohol

No cakes, chocolates, pastries, ice creams, soft drink

No Fruit juices, boost juices, smoothies, milk shakes

No white potato

No sugar in tea or coffee

No sweetened yogurt

No dried fruit

2 – 3 pieces of fruit per day only

2 slices of wholegrain bread per day maximum

1 cup of cooked pasta per serve a maximum of two times per week

I know you are all going to lose some weight in this month, but my main aim of this 30 days without sugar is to show you how much sugar you normally consume and to hopefully curb your sugar cravings.

By the end of this month, I hope you will have developed habits that will see you;

Drink tea and coffee without sugar

Only drink alcohol once or a maximum of twice per week

Only eat sweets once or a maximum of twice per week

Learn that meals should be made up of large amounts of non root vegetables

Treat pasta or rice as a accompaniment to a meal, not the main part of the meal

Never drink soft drinks

Avoid boost and other blended drinks

Learn that dried fruit is not a health food

Choose lower sugar yogurts

So who’s in?

Please put your name down in the comments section and we can kick the sugar as a team.

Hannah and I will be doing it. We’ll have one last sugar fix on my birthday this weekend and then it’s sugar free time right up to the festive month of December. We all know that December is the time of year when the junk food and alcohol comes out, so what better time to cleanse the system than November. Not only that, this will definitely shred off some of that bodyfat that has suddenly appeared since the swimsuit came out with this warmer weather!!!

If you break your sugar free promise, you must log your indiscretion on the blog and perform 5 burpees. if you happen to break the rules again, you must log your indiscretion and double the burpees. For each indiscretion, you must double the burpees. Just think, 5 times and you will be up to 80 burpees on the 5th occasion!

And be honest! You signed up to this, nobody forced you! You need some sort of guidelines to keep you on track!

I’m excitedly looking forward to all the names appearing below…

Well it is finally here. The last day of NOSUGARVEMBER.

I hope you have all found it a positive experience. You may have seen improvements in your moods, less bloating, weight loss, clearer skin.

I am sure you have all noticed now how much society revolves around sugar and alcohol.

I am hoping from here on, you will take some of the habits you have formed over the last 30 days and keep them in your lifestyle choices.

You might like to limit alcohol to once a week, not add sugar to your caffeine, skip dessert 6 nights a week, and make smarter choices when it comes to meals by using far more veggies for your carbs rather than rice, pasta and potato.

I would love to hear your stories about how you found the whole month. Tell me how other people reacted to you. Tell me how you felt and feel now. Tell me if you lost weight. Tell me anything you want:)

Well we are over 2 weeks into NOSUGARVEMBER, with only 13 days to go. By now, you should be getting away from habits that make you eat sugar and cravings should be disappearing if not disappeared.

I am going to start by applauding you all for taking up this challenge. Most of you have broken the challenge so far, BUT all of you have eaten far less sugar in the last 2 weeks than if you were not on this challenge, so well done! I think it has also made you aware of how much sugar you do consume normally, so that is a great outcome. I also believe a lot of you will change a lot of your habits after this, so again, another great outcome!

I am going to tell you what I have noticed and I would love for you to tell me what you have noticed, be it weight loss, social patterns based around sugar, feeling less bloated, clearer thinking, better moods, sleeping better.

Here’s what I see;

* A lot of you cannot give up sugar completely for even 1 week let alone 1 month.

* A lot of you cannot attend social functions without feeling left out if you don’t eat sugar and/or drink alocohol.

* I can see why people are fat. When I get food diaries from people who wish to lose weight, I never get these morning tea’s, afternoon tea’s, parties etc. It’s not an accident that you cannot lose weight, because sugar creeps into your diet all the time. The proof is in the amount of excuses I have heard in the last 2 weeks, it is ridiculous. If this is what I hear in 2 weeks when you are consciuously avoiding sugar, then what is it like in a 12 month period when you are not avoiding sugar. Think about that next time you step on the scales!

* There is a serious problem with society when it comes to eating healthy. People are made to feel like the bad guys if they are trying to eat healthy. Attend a morning tea where the cakes etc are on offer and eat an apple instead. You may aswell be a leper because that is how your co-workers will make you feel. But, turn around to the unhealthiest person eating the cake and say they should eat an apple and you may aswell get a new job because no-one will talk to you again!

* If someone cannot succeed with their health, fitness and weight loss goals, they will not want you to succeed either. So what we then get is people constantly trying to sabotage you from your good intentions. I can say nothing other than toughen up and don’t give in to peer pressure. What often happens is when you do succeed, they will be asking how you did it. 

It is up to us – the individuals to start to make a difference, we are a very unhealthy society, be it the large quantities of sugar, caffeine or alcohol, we need to start to make a change. You need to stand out form the crowd and make a difference. I am very lucky, most of the people I hang out with would look at you badly if you ate junk, so I have no problem being the way I am. You too can be like that, all it takes is 1 person to start to change and others will follow. I am not asking for miracles, I don’t expect anyone to go cold turkey, but to cut down and improve healthy habits is a great way to live. The healthier you live day to day, the more relaxed you can be when you cut loose once in a while.

Post your observations in the comments.

Thanks guys:)

So the first week is over and everyone is looking good so far. A few minor lapses, but realistically, everyone is doing awesome. Such a dramatic change for some people and you should all be so proud of yourselves!!!

A lot of you are asking questions about various sweet options and how you can get around not having these sweet things. Others are complaining that the options they have are not sweet enough. One of the main points to this month is to try to re-train your tastebuds not to crave sweet all the time. That won’t happen when you find loopholes or use artificial sweetener. The aim to to go suagr free. Sugar makes things sweet. If you keep having sweet things, you will go straight back to sugar on the 1st December. Please try to change your eating habits and see what happens.

One thing not be worried about is the fruit. If you are trying to lose weight with this challenge then I say to keep to the 2 pieces of fruit per day. If weight loss is not your goal and just like me, you are merely trying to create the healthiest body possible by eliminating all the refined sugar, then go ahead and eat more than 2 pieces per day. It is the least thing to worry about on the challenge.

I faced my first challenge on Thursday night. Unlike a lot of you, I am not challenged by the thought of no alcohol or no sugar in my caffeine as I don’t drink either. My challenge is sweets. Lately I have been going late night shopping with my wife and daughter. This is a treat for us because I work every other week night and it is only in the last 2 months that I have taken Thursday nights of, so we usually go and cruise around the shops as we have never been late night shopping in the 6 years we have been together.

So, whenever we go late night shopping, we get a treat. It might be sweet popcorn, it might be cookie man or something along those lines. I am happy ot say that I was not even tempted on Thursday night. I am still 100% sweet free and now that I am through that first week, there are no cravings. When you don’t have it, you don’t crave it.

But, I have not been perfect. Yesterday, I have a handful of hot chips and I have stated that white potato is not allowed in NOSUGARVEMBER due to it’s position on the glycemic index. It is a very common food to be eaten and it is around 80 on the glycemic index, right next to white rice for all you sushi lovers, so it is a good habit to get out of eating it regularly.

So, as penance for my handful of hot chips, here are my 5 burpees…

Good luck for week 2 guys and girls:)