Hi eveyrone, I did introduce myself on the 'Introduce yourself' page so a lot of my background is in there.

I'm a total sugar addict and for years have been trying to find out what's 'wrong' with me and why I am always craving sugar and starchy carbohydrates. I knew sugar and I should never be in the same body space but didn't know why and didn't know how to stop it. All I knew was that I had to do something so I sent myself on a research merry go round and here I landed!

After reading pretty much ever page of this website I can finally exhale and say, wow, someone out there gets me! So much of what I read here resonates with me. Everthing makes sense. I've tried so many things to get my body right (gave up smoking, drank heaps of water, got regular exercise, plenty of sleep, loads of vegetables) and these habits are now ingrained, they are things I still do every day so I live a very healthy life but still I couldn't shift the weight nor the lethargy.

I am certain the last piece of this puzzle is sugar addiction. It makes so much sense to me. So, Im going cold turkey! I know a lot of women struggle with it and for some cutting down is recommended however I did stop sugar cold turkey a few months ago and whilst it was absolutely dreadful, I was able to do it. I just didn't realise that I WAS doing it at the time.

Anyhoo, today is day one. I have started the day with a vegetable omelete and a cup of tea with glucose powder instead of sugar. My head is pounding but already I don't feel hungry and it's not too far off lunch time. Normally I'd have had a sugary morning tea and be foraging in the cupboard for my next meal like a cat looking for the kitty litter!!

Wish me luck!!

anyone who thinks there's no such thing as a sugar addiction should read this.  Thanks for documenting it so thoroughly (even though it doesn't like like much fun).  The fact you are starting to regain your taste for sweet is a good sign - I suspect (and hope for your sake) you are approaching the end of withdrawal.  Keep up the good work - it will be worth it!

Cheers

David.

Thanks David. I'd never put sugar in my kids weetbix because I knew they didn't need it. Still, I always felt a bit cruel for giving them such a bland food but they always gobbled it up with gusto so it seems they never minded. Now I know it did taste sweet to them all along because they weren't addicted to sugar and that's why they ate it! What's bland to us tastes sweet to a baby.

I wanted to post again today because, although it has only been two days since my last post I have noticed a couple of rather striking changes. Firstly, yesterday was a shocker again, it was like I'd stepped 5 days back and was in the midst of the withdrawals. All of the above mentioned symptoms were back and after having such a good day on Tuesday I was a bit surprised, I didn't expect that at all. I did notice though that over the past few ays my appetite has declined quite a lot and I think I just didn't eat enough calories yesterday, hence the slump.

Today I made sure that I ate more fruits and vegetables and I was fine, in fact I'd say today was my best day yet. I was full of beans and was able to get through so much more than I usually do. I'm a stay at home Mum with three very little ones so energy is not something I usually have a lot of. but, today I noticed a marked difference in my energy levels. My appetite seems to have levelled out which is good. I'm no longer foraging for food I don't need.

The other thing I have noticed is my skin. Having two pregnancies with gestational diabetes and then contracting type 2 diabetes did terrible things to my skin. I don't remember the name the endocrinoligist gave it but I had kind of butterfly shaped brown markings across my face, chest and on the backs of my hands and harms. It's really strong pigmentation and I remember him saying it's damage from insulin resistance. The face marks are all over my cheeks, jaw line and almost to my nose. They're not disfiguring at all, they're just there and I look like I've had a little too much sun.

Well, yesterday I noticed that the brown markings are fading, not only that, they are receeding. It's not something that others would notice but I see my face every day and to me it's rather striking. I'd say at a guess the markings have receded about 1.5cm back from my nose and there are small patches throughout where they have lightened quite a bit.

I'm assuming (hoping!) that it's from the sugar leaving my body as I can't account for anything else. I'll keep you posted as to what happens there!

Thanks Kate. The chloasma I definitely had but this was something different. A quick Google tells me it might have been Acanthosis Nigricans, very rare to have it on the face but not impossible. I remember my endo telling me he could see by the browning that my insulin wasn't working properly. My shockingly high blood sugar levels agreed with him!

Hi Jacqui. It does get better, believe me! For me there seemed to be a different set of symptoms almost every day but then I noticed days with little or no symptoms. I honestly think it will be at least 6 weeks all up until I'm really over it and then the rest will be just avoiding the habit of sugar. But, as for the physical symptoms, it's day 16 and I think I'm over the worst of it.

I went cold turkey and decided prior that I would do what I had to do to get through it. I probably ate a bucket of glucose a day and I think I've paid the Bali fund for my local fruit shop! When the cravings hit hard I would eat fruit (or two) and drink tea with glucose. Honestly, there were some days where I ate 6 pieces of fruit just in the afternoon which is when the cravings and symptoms were at their worst for me. I drank up to 6 cups of tea a day during the worst of it, just to get the glucose. The 'worst of it' lasted from about day 6 to day 10 and I had a really bad time on day 13 too.

Today was my first day of not needing any fruit, at all. Yesterday I ate two pieces and the day before I think I was still having 2-4 pieces a day. I ate a lot of nectarines and peaches because they're very sweet tasting. So you can see that as time goes on things will settle down on their own. I am still drinking the tea but am down to 3 cups a day and as time goes on I hope to reduce this to just one a day. I love having a hot drink with breakfast!

So, at my worst I was eating 6-8 pieces of fruit and drinking up to 6 cups of tea per day, now I'm fine with no fruit and am only having three cups of tea per day. It really does get easier as you go along. Don't be worried if you have a few good days and then suddenly feel like you've taken ten steps backwards. I think like any addiction it will rear it's ugly head now and then, you just need to keep going and it will eventually fade away again.

I also wanted to note another change I have noticed. I am now finding it much easier to sense when I am full. I can actually feel the pressure of the food in my stomach after I have eaten a much smaller amount than before. Previously I'd not sense I was full or that I had even eaten until I'd had a very substantial amount to eat, like a full meal. Now I notice that after two small pieces of fruit I can literally feel that food sitting in my stomach. Hopefully that means my appetite is naturally decreasing.

I'd love to hear how everyone else is going??