"I Don't Eat Sugar"

Read the story in the last post from the Calorie Coach.

January 1st this year I decided to give up refined sugar from my diet. I have been unable to find any value in this nutritionally, apart from energy, and western civilisations just eat far too much of it. As I explored this idea I came with a few "rules" or better clarity of what this means.  I don't want to give up all sugar as thsi would mean cutting our fruit, milk etc. I subscribe the philosophy of clean eating which means aiming for eating whole foods in their natural state and avoiding processed foods, and fruit and milk are definitely "in" this category.  So I decided whole foods are in, anything packaged I would read the ingredients label and any form of sugar is listed as added to product (including all the different forms of sugar), the product would be "out" of my list.  I also decided that "gels" would be in (these are basically all sugar) for fitness endurance events, as they have a very specific nutritional value.

I also decided that artificial sweeteners would be ok. Its not that I think they are good for you, but just that to give these up as well (which would mean giving up things like diet coke) would just make the transition too hard, and not achievable.  Maybe next year.

Its been a week and it hasn't really been hard. I don't eat cakes/biscuits etc very often anyway, and in the last week I only had to turn them down twice. But its been more about discovering what's in the "healthy" food that I eat anyway - and finding alternatives.  Like to chocolate!  I'm really interested to see what difference it might make to my body shape/body fat this year, and I thought I might post my experiences over the next 12 months as to how I am finding it.  And yes, posting this makes me more accountable and more likely to stick to it.

Re the story below, I automatically started with the concept of "I don't eat sugar" rather than I can't.  Because I certainly can, I just don't want to.  It does make a difference.
What don't you want to do anymore?