After reading about Sarah Wilson’s eight week I Quit Sugar programme I decided that one of my belated New Year’s Resolutions would be to give up sugar.

I’ve known about the problem with sugar for a few years now, since I read the brilliant Fat Chance by Robert Lustig back in 2013 (see my blog). I did try to give up sugar then, but with no support or structure of how to do it, and in the midst of a stressful house purchase, it didn’t stick and I slowly drifted back to a full blown sugar addiction. I did stick to cutting out all fruit juice, realising I was just drinking liquid sugar, and have replaced it with water or coconut water. But learning to bake didn’t help and my long association of sugar with a treat continued.

What attracted me to Sarah Wilson’s programme and her beautiful accompanying book, which is packed with tips and delicious healthy recipes, was that this time I would be doing it with some help rather than struggling on my own. I recruited my sister who had also tried to give up sugar before so we could keep each other honest. January and February with fewer social plans than the rest of the year seemed like a good time to get a new habit to stick.

Before starting I read The Case Against Sugar by Gary Taubes. It provides an interesting history of how the scientific and medical community got it so wrong when it came to blaming fat for making us fat rather than sugar and it details the role that the sugar industry has played in this. But for me Fat Chance was a much more engaging book, which really opened my eyes to the fact that for years I’d been trying to eat healthily but had been getting it all wrong.

I’m only at the end of week two of I Quit Sugar, so it’s far too early to say if I will be more successful this time. But so far, so good. Yes I’ve had headaches and was sick as a dog over the first weekend at the end of week one. If this was part of the sugar detox then it shows how very addicted to sugar my body was. If you’re curious about quitting sugar then I recommend reading Fat Chance first and then getting the practical help you need to actually do it by reading I Quit Sugar. Good luck!