So here goes. This is my very first post on going sugar-free and I hope you all find it an interesting read. I'll tell you all a little bit about myself and why I decided to go sugar-free to start with. I'm your average kind of gal. I'm 30 something! (well I was at the time of writing this anyway!!) and around 5.7" tall but I felt like I was that wide as well most days. I wouldn't say I was obese but over the past year the weight has slowly gained and I was becoming more and more round to the point where I was looking 9 months pregnant. I was tired all the time and getting out of bed in the mornings was a challenge (although I do love my bed) I did use to be a morning gym bunny, up and on the treadmill by 7 am. So where did it all go wrong? 2015/2016 were a few tough years emotionally and I just let myself go, it's easily done, right? it only takes one bad thing to happen and it's a domino effect and before I knew it I was not only unhappy with what was going on around me I was extremely unhappy with myself. I'm normally a very positive person and believe that you make your own destiny and dreams do come true and all those other cliches are what I would normally represent! So 2017 came along and I just thought I needed to make a change with myself to be happy again. All the other stuff I had no control over so it wasn't going to make a difference I would still be sad about it, and I was allowed to be, but I wasn't going to let myself be sad about myself anymore,  I do have control over that and I can make a difference. So after spending a few months contemplating what I should do about my every growing belly and constant fatigue I secretly took myself off to a natural health practitioner to see if they could help me. I felt like I was seeing a shrink I spend 1 hour 20 mins in this white box of an office and was made to unleash my emotions on how I felt and what was wrong with my body. Not your average GP questions! She asked me about what colours I see, how I feel when I sit down, how I feel when I stand up, did I want to have children, why didn't I want to have children, how many hours a week did I work, was I stressed, what type of person did I think I was and did I prefer hot or cold.  She also asked me the normal GP questions like did I poo regularly, what was it like, did I drink a lot of caffeine (YES!! TOO MUCH) do I smoke, how often do I pee, you know all the usual embarrassing questions. It was these grilling questions that in the end made me realise that only I can make myself happy and if I wanted to change my body and the way I felt about it I needed to do anything this natural doctor was going to put in front of me. DR: I recommend that you go on the Candida diet before your gut becomes too leaky and you develop IBS. ME: WTF! I know what the candida diet is, it is pure dust and water DR: You'll be fine just be 100% committed to it and you will be feeling much better soon ME: This is bullshit can't you give some magic pill to take or stick a pin in my belly and deflate me? DR: LOL ME: NOT LOL So that was it, as simple as that. Now what I didn't mention was that my mum and nan had both visited the same practice, although different doctors and they too were put on the same diet. So now I'm thinking I have just paid in access of £260 to be told just the same as every other patient that has walked through their door. But still, only I could make this change and therefore I decided I've committed to this so here goes the diet starts tomorrow! And so it did on Thursday 16th March I woke up in a complete panic of what the hell am I going to eat today? I never usually have breakfast but today I was surprising starving. So I boiled a couple of eggs and away I went. That was easy enough. I had to substitute my normal coffee for decaf but that was ok, so far I was doing ok. Then lunch time came, I spent my entire lunch hour wondering around Tesco's checking the ingredient list of pretty much most of the foods I would normally eat. I opted for a salad bowl a pot of hummus and some Rivita Thins, again all stuff I love. Dinner came round and I can have a full avocado all to myself with home made chips with lashings of olive oil and chicken with salad (minus mushrooms) Ok so this is going to be ok. I was so used to the slimming world diet where I could never even think of an avocado without putting weight on let along actually eat one I was in salad heaven. So now I am on my third week and I feel f***ing fantastic. excuse my french! I know there are a lot of people out there that think doing something like this is really hard but honestly take it from a chocoholic it really isn't that hard. Granted the first 5 days are were pretty hellish but if you can get past that you're on to a winner. I manage to get through the first 5 days by spending my time looking at ingredient lists rather than eating and going to the gym and getting to bed earlier than I would normally this occupied me for a good five days then it got easier. Im not saying this is forever but for the time being its feeling great. I have a follow up with the DR next week so once I have seen her I will know what foods I can start to reintroduce to my diet but I have to say I haven't missed diary one bit and there are some yummy substitutes out there.