My Man Quits Sugar

Links to all the posts in the My Man Quits Sugar series:

#1: The Experiment
So, my man loves his food. Well, we all do, and it appears my five-month old will be a foodie too, judging by the way he dives for the pumpkin puree. But his dad goes to town on loaves of bread, bowls of pasta, biscuits, pancakes and beer. He will often do the late-night scout of the kitchen to find a sugary snack(s) before bed, and if there is no bread in the house at breakfast and lunch time, he looks hopelessly lost. View the full post from 4 June 2014.

#2: The Pre-Program Interview
The program formally kicked off last week, but we are starting a week late because he went away for work. In the meantime, I have been enviously watching everyone post pictures of their creations. Now he is home, and as we get ready to start the program tomorrow, I asked him a few questions prior to starting the program. View the full post from 15 June 2014.

#3: Week One in Review
Week One of the I Quit Sugar program is supposed to be a transitional week, focusing on cutting back sugar and eating only low-fructose fruits, like berries. Well, my husband doesn’t do things by halves. He’s either in or he’s out. So we went cold turkey from Day 1. He went a bit loopy. View the full post from 22 June 2014.

#4: Week Two in Review
It’s fair to say that we feel AMAZING at the end of Week 2. However, I’m not sure if this is because we’ve ‘quit sugar’, or because we felt so ill with food poisoning this time last week that simply returning to normal feels so good in comparison. It has been a confusing week. We had a couple of ‘fuck it’ moments, when we nearly convinced ourselves to drop the program altogether. View the full post from 29 June 2014.

#5: Week Three in Review
It feels like we’ve been doing this program for ages, but we’re not even halfway through yet! I’m not sure if I’m just suddenly noticing them now, but it seems like a barrage of foodie events are happening around Canberra – The Forage, a chocolate breaking ceremony at Max Brenner, High Tea at the Hyatt… View the full post from 6 July 2014.

#6: Week Four in Review
Man-Flu has hit our household. The boys are laying around in front of the television, groaning and feverish, while I ply them with fluids and panadol. Even my little baby is a little off after he had his vaccinations on Friday. Meanwhile, I’m smashing hot chicken bone broth, trying to defend myself against getting the less severe, regular version of the flu… View the full post from 13 July 2014.

#7: Week Five in Review
It finally feels like we’re on the downhill slope, and particularly so as we get to start introducing some fruit and fructose-free sweeteners in Week Six! I never thought I’d be so excited about a handful of berries. View the full post from 21 July 2014.

#8: Week Six in Review
This week has changed everything. While my man was excited about getting to have sweetness again, I was a little nervous. I was worried that I would just want to gorge myself, and six weeks of no sugar would have been for nothing. View the full post from 27 July 2014.

#9: Week Seven in Review
I had a major slip-up this week, which I haven’t told my husband about – he’s learning about this now! During a friend’s birthday celebration lunch I ate a big piece of sponge-cake, smothered in chocolate icing. View the full post from 3 August 2014.

#10: Week Eight in Review
We went a little freestyle in the last week of the program, which used up a lot of the meals we had cooked and frozen earlier. As I had done most of the cooking throughout the two months, I also set my man a challenge – to plan and cook dinner based on the IQS principles he had learnt. View the full post from 10 August 2014.

#11: The Post-Program Interview
It doesn’t seem so long ago that I was interviewing my husband before we started the I Quit Sugar 8 Week Program. But here we are, two months later, done and dusted! I asked him some questions to reflect on how he is feeling after the program, his feelings towards sugar, and what will change for him as a result of doing the program. View the full post from 17 August 2014.

#12: Our Review of the I Quit Sugar 8 Week Program
Our review includes what we believe are the best parts of the program, areas where it could improve, my husband’s thoughts on participating in it as a male, and also our tips for people thinking of registering for the next round. View the full post from 26 August 2014.

#13: Five Months on from the I Quit Sugar 8 Week Program
The final post in this series provides an update on how my husband and I are going, five months after completing the program (he’s lost 20kg!), and why I’ve signed up to do it again in 2015. View the full post from 5 January 2015.