First 10 Days of #NoSugarChallenge. Failures and Learnings

Harshita Gupta
Sep 2, 2018 · 3 min read

I have been on no sugar challenge for last 10 days. I intend to publish, the rules, aims and processes in a separate post.
The journey of these 10 days shall also be appended at some point because I was very successful in going without sugar these 10 days.

This post is solely about day 10 though. And how it was a major blip in an otherwise smooth (who am I kidding) journey.

So I went out to The Daily bean cafe with Guru and Cheeku. (Husband and brother respectively).
I very prudently ordered unsweetened Chocolate milk for myself. Cheeku and guru ordered, “apple turnover”, Fila sandwich, and sun-dried peach ice tea.
After some consideration I ordered fries because being in that cafe was an ultimate test of strength and I needed to munch on something.

the sun dried peach tea and my brother. I took a sip while he was looking away but he promptly snatched it back.

The ice tea arrived first and I was able to ignore it. However when Cheeku was looking away I had a sip :(. Not so bad, I allow myself such slip ups.

I was able to ignore this beauty completely.

Then arrived the apple turnover. It was sort of like a patty with apple pie filling in it. This was seductively covered in caramel and while the deal didn’t look too appealing, I looked away anyway.
Then arrived my hot chocolate. Added in it was pre-sweetened powder and at the first sip I knew I am a won’t last long. (That is also why there is no picture of the cup, but you also know what chocolate milk looks like, so it is ok)
I, in a desperate attempt to save my day, and an act of magnanimous goodwill handed the cup to my company but the sugar was already on to my senses and I lost control.

I had about half a cup of that sugary goodness and called day 10 a fail. And since day 10 had already failed, I also licked off the remaining caramel (which was very little to be honest) off the plate.

I got glaring looks, but really sugar had kicked in and I didn’t really care any more.

Anyway I am back home now and mostly ok, but a bit tizzy.

I think I learned a lot today. Some of them are here.

1. Going out on a full stomach is bullshit advice for food addicts like me. You have to atleast feel OK about not overeating. And full stomach’s “fullness” signal is too weak for my sugar addict brain, when too many sweet things are visible (or can be smelled).

2. Just 10 days into difficult challenges like this, don’t try to test your will power. Which means….
3. Avoid going to fancy cafes with crazy good desert options.
4. Avoid going with company you know will order tasty sweets. (That means no social life, so next tip is better)
5. If you absolutely have to, go to a place which serves local Indian fast food perhaps. (stuff like idli, vada, biriyani and all) I think they generally burn a smaller hole in your pocket, if at all. And their deserts are far more resistible ( Think “love birds ice cream” which is basically strawberry + vanilla ice cream.) They also seem like they don’t want anyone to order deserts and will just shrug and say “ye nahi hai” for nearly all ice creams you want.
6. Perhaps follow the “Algorithms to live by Advice”. Start with 10 days between treats, then do a version of ‘exponential back-off’ by progressively increasing days between treats to 15, 20, 30, 40, 60 and so .

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