Newcastle Photographer and Content Creator, Mandy Charlton, Always on a quest for adventure, often seen on buses, trains and planes. On a quest to be happier and healthier. Lives in Newcastle with her 3 cats, Iris, Maggie and Arthur. Loves good vibes, musicals and cakes. Full time professional wedding photographer in the north east of england alongside content creator on Tiktok, Instagram and Facebook

Wednesday, February 04, 2015

Sweet Poison and Davina's 5 weeks to Sugar Free

Ever since I joined Slimming World and started to respect my body a little more dear reader i've become fascinated with trying to understand how my body works and why I've always had a problem with my weight, it's only in the last couple of years I've really got to grips with that and that's why I'm more than 2 stone lighter than I was in April 2013.

Just lately as I've really been changing my life in all aspects for it I've taken a really hard look at what's going on inside my body as much as I've looked at all of the external things which affect me, my life and my business.

Last week I tentatively started on Davina's 5 weeks to Sugar Free and I'm actually really enjoying it, I've not cut out all sugar yet as it was my birthday, I went out for drinks but it's around a week since I started putting most of it into practice and I'm 2lb down, feel a lot brighter and definitely have more energy during the day.  I am also reading "Sweet Poison, why sugar makes us fat" by David Gillespie recommended to me by a friend and it's a good (although quite heavy in places) book  all around the same subject that refined sugar isn't good for us at all but we're all blooming addicted to it and if we can just restore our bodies to the way they're supposed to work we'll feel and look a whole lot better.

Now obviously I'm not a diet guru just like I'm not a life guru and actually it's probably more the case that if I can do it anyone can but we're all in this together right?  We made it through January and came out of the end better people because we took control, well this is one of the next step because we need to love ourselves and respect ourselves in all areas and that includes what we're putting in our bodies.  I love cake, i'm sorry, I do, it's not my fault!  I've just experimented by making a Victoria sponge using a recipe from Davina's book which substitutes the sugar by using Maple Syrup and which swaps white flour for wholemeal spelt, I can tell you that it was so delish that Looby asked for more!!  Ideally I think no maple syrup or honey would be the ideal but none of us are perfect so if we can just cut out most of the sugar, swap white flour for wholemeal spelt (yes I know, spelt, it sounds hideous but I promise it's not, I made a loaf, I didn't die and I didn't suffer from bloating, I didn't even have middle aged lady night sweats)  I also made our Yorkshire puddings with it yesterday and Iain (yes the one with aspergers who doesn't like anything and won't try anything) didn't notice the difference, obviously I didn't tell him until after he'd eaten them!

So if like me you're on a path to changing your whole entire life for the better why not give it a go, you can still have pies (wholemeal spelt crust) and you can still have pizza (home made with wholemeal spelt) and you can still have bread and the changes you need to make are minimal, it's actually a lot simpler than I thought and I was doing a lot of it with Slimming World anyway, the one thing I wasn't doing was I was having a lot of low fat things and they seem to contain some not very nice things and some hidden sugars in some cases so now I'm making sure I'm moving back to basics, I'm a pretty good cook and I really enjoy baking and cooking, I find it's actually relaxing, especially if you can put on the radio and dance with your beagle!

So now we're into February, I hope you're continuing on the path to being a better you, you know what I'm working on, well lets just say by the end of the year I hope I'll be able to help you be a better you in person and online, more about that coming up soon...
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