Posting here for accountability. Going to try going low sugar for 31 days. Specifically, refined sugar in recreational processed foods.
no chocolate
no cakes
no Haribo marshmallows
no Carrefour chocolate granola
no danish pastries
no Nutella or biscoff spread
no little choc mousses in pots
I feel strangely desolate writing that list.
Exceptions allowed:
fruit juice including mango and guava
bananas and fresh fruit generally
if actually doing some training over 1 hour
if rude to decline (get out of jail card)
Grey areas:
cereal bars
jam and honey to enliven toast
dates and raisins.
This isnāt just a post-Christmas guilt trip. Have been meaning to see if I can clean up my diet for a while. Might be too hard. Will let you know how it goesā¦
Anyone else want to join in with the poison of their choice?
This is my poison but it just sounds like Iād be removing all fun from my life! I do aim to reduce it though and have recently after noticing signs of spikes & drops again that are unpleasant.
Chocolate drinks are probably my biggest vice, but they are expensive so I will be reducing them for sure.
This is slightly motivational though.
Edit: how about very dark chocolate like 85%, not a great deal of sugar in that?
The last 3 months of 2023 were pretty grim - excessive amounts of work, tons of stress, not enough sleep, bugger all exercise leading to an all time low fitness score on Training Peaks
Training went really well for me in 2023 until mid May when I tweaked my achillies (which probably cost me a finish at Western States), did the Race to the Stones and thereafter fitness fell off a cliff.
It actually started on the 29th December for me. I got a pretty scary reality check on how much I was drinking
I knew I was a heavy drinker and that prompted the dry January idea, however, on that Sunday afternoon I drove up,to my mums, 3 miles away. On the way home there had been an accident and the traffic cops were stopping cars. If that cop had come up to my car to tell me what was going on, Iād likely have been arrested for drunk driving. Itās was 1500 and I was still rocking from the previous night. Why he never approached me Iāll never know, he spoke to another 5 cars ahead of me in that queue.
This was not unusual for me. I never thought of myself as an alcoholic, however, it was becoming clear I was. Without going into detail, I was an absolute cnut on drink, amazed my wife put up with it. I could sink a litre of vodka or whisky in a night. Always had at least 4 beers before dinner and always at least a bottle of wine every night.
Anyway, that was 29/12/2013 and Iāve been sober ever since.
This year Iām looking to cut down on sugary snacks.
Thanks for sharing that. I see an awful lot of myself in that post.
Ive given up a lot in the past and not drank for months but always return to it.
I am ok on drink but I think everyone got fed of me sitting around drinking all the time and not doing anything. Its not the only reason but it contributed to my marriage problems.
I do wonder if I need to take that step and give up for good. Trying to reduce it doesnt work.
Leo McGarry in the West Wing summed it up for me perfectly:
āI donāt have one drink. I donāt understand people who have one drink. I donāt understand people who leave half a glass of wine on the table. I donāt understand people who say theyāve had enough. How can you have enough of feeling like this? How can you not want to feel like this longer? My brain works differently.ā
Whats scary is the what should have been the wake up call was when my BP got really high and I was honest with the doctor about how much I drank. She nearly fell off her chair.
Started tonight with a banging home made veggie curry courtesy of yours truly
Rounding off the new year with really nice bottle of red before early rise for New Years Day run
I donāt have the same relationship with alcohol with some of you on here but I do love wine. My sleep will be awful as a result though. Starting to wonder these days if it is worth it.
All I plan to do is lose the 2kg Iāve gained in the last week. Should be easy as Iāve had manflu followed by pulling my back yesterday morning; so just need to get back to exercising properly.
Interesting quote. The bolded bit resonates. The undbolded bit not so much. Maybe it did more when I was at uni (I used to remember āpreferring myselfā when Iād had a few drinks - the social barriers seemed to come down). But not so much anymore. I donāt really enjoy being bladdered nowadays. I feel crappy in the moment. And then I feel even worse the following day! Iām genuinely fearing my stag do, especially as Iām the ālast oneā.
Itās why Iāve largely moved to non alcoholic beers at home. I just canāt see the point in drinking one random beer, or drinking by myself. The odd whisky by myself is the exception.
Apart from my work Christmas do, I donāt think Iāve had any booze since my RWC cycle to Paris in September, so giving up booze would be a non-event for me, but life wouldnāt be worth living without sugary snacks.
I lost a load of weight to row Lightweight in my final year at uni and gave up everything pleasurable to eat and drink for 6 months and it was pure misery.
I wouldnāt want to put myself through that again
