As I walk into the kitchen and see the dismembered wrappers of Galaxy chocolate bars and Wispas strewn across the counter I know today has been a bad day in the world of Mark Allen and his 8 Week Sugar Free Diet.
First of all I have to apologise, I know I said I would bring weekly updates, but for both myself and my father life got a little in the way. However I am here now to bring you the ups and downs from the last few weeks.
As we are fast approaching the start of week six, I thought I would hand it over to my dad to talk you through the trials and tribulations of the last few months.
“I started off in the first week full of enthusiasm, I got into it quite quickly and it was quite easy to follow. I didn’t have any cravings and by the end of the first week I had lost 5lbs and I felt really good. Into the second week I stuck to it really well and my eating was good but by the end of the second week I had lost no weight so I got a little disillusioned. I hadn’t started my exercise which was wrong so I decided in the third week that it was time to get walking and exercising, and again by the end of the third week I had lost some weight.
“By the beginning of the fourth week however, I found problems creeping in such as not following the diet and substituting things in that I thought were okay and from there it went downhill. As of this morning (1/4/17) I am 8 lbs off which is down from 10lbs off so I have put two back on. I do feel a little annoyed with myself, I do think you have to do it with the exercise that makes all the difference. I am coming up to my sixth week so I might get a stone off in the 8 weeks compare to the two I had originally planned. It’s a very good diet if you stick to it.
“I have found my single biggest issue to be fruit. I love fruit and the diet doesn’t allow for an awful lot of it so I feel like I have started replacing my sugar craving and hunger pangs with fruit instead of what they recommend such as nuts. I have cheated a little bit with bread, for the first 3 weeks I was off bread no problem and while I was off it I have had no indigestion so I would like to stay off the bread if I can but I have started having sneaky snacks.
“My advice and over view of the past few weeks would be that diets or any health trends are a life style change. These 8 weeks were fairly strict as you are only allowed 1000 calories so it is hard, but it is a life style change. It’s seeing what has the most sugar in it and where you can build exercise into your daily routine. And I think this change has allowed me to look at foods more closely, but it’s not been quite as good as I thought it was going to be, as in me personally and my self-control. My advice would be to keep active throughout and lower expectations don’t go in thinking it’s going to revolutionise you. Take each week as it comes and it will have more of an effect that way.”
