By joining the five day sugar solution challenge, you are taking a significant step towards a healthier lifestyle. Throughout this challenge, you will receive helpful tips, delicious sugar-free recipes, and guidance on navigating potential cravings.
Get ready to experience the benefits of a sugar-free diet and discover how small changes can make a big difference in your health and vitality. Let's begin this transformative journey together!
Sugar, though it may be tempting and delicious, offers little to no nutritional value and can have detrimental effects on our bodies. Here are a few compelling health reasons why reducing sugar intake is a wise choice:
- Weight management: Excessive sugar consumption is strongly linked to weight gain and obesity. High-sugar foods and beverages are often calorie-dense and can lead to overeating. By eliminating added sugars from your diet, you can better regulate your calorie intake, promote weight loss, and improve overall body composition.
- Improved energy levels: While sugar provides a quick burst of energy, it often leads to subsequent crashes. High sugar consumption can result in fluctuations in blood sugar levels, leaving you feeling tired, irritable, and craving more sweets. By reducing your sugar intake, you can achieve more stable energy levels throughout the day.
- Reduced risk of chronic diseases: Excessive sugar consumption has been associated with an increased risk of chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and certain types of cancer. By taking control of your sugar intake, you can lower your risk factors for these conditions and promote long-term health.
- Better dental health: Sugar is a primary contributor to tooth decay and cavities. Bacteria in the mouth feed on sugar, producing acid that erodes tooth enamel. By cutting out sugar, you can protect your teeth and maintain a healthier smile.
- Enhanced overall wellbeing: Sugar has been shown to negatively impact mood and mental health. Studies suggest that high sugar consumption is linked to an increased risk of depression, anxiety, and cognitive decline. By reducing your sugar intake, you can support better mental and emotional wellbeing.
Introduction to the five day sugar solution challenge
[Music]
Hi, if we’ve not met before, I’m Anna Earl, a Registered Nutritional Therapist and former police officer. Why am I encouraging you to join the five day sugar-free solution? Well, chronic health conditions are on the increase, as are statistics regarding average weight both amongst adults and children, and they come with health implications.
Two major changes to our diets over the last generation or two are the amount of sugar and the amount of processed food that we consume. Nutrition science provides evidence that a wholefood diet low in sugar and processed foods can help to reduce your risk of chronic disease, can boost low energy and mood, and help you restore your motivation and drive to perform at your best.
I’ve experienced the energy highs and lows of relying on sugary treats for an energy boost, for comfort, out of boredom, and purely out of habit, and the consequent impact on health. But now I’ve got a better understanding of what those sweet treats do in your body and how they can be the root cause of symptoms like regular energy slumps in the afternoons as well as putting our long-term health under strain. So I’d like to share with you how to live without feeling you’re on that constant rollercoaster with your energy spiking from sugar intake, but then crashing and causing strong cravings for unhealthy boosts because that’s the pattern that sugary foods causes.
Come to a place where you are able to decide and control when you have those occasional treat foods, and in what quantity, to still really enjoy them now and again, but they don’t control you. You don’t end up feeling guilty and like you have no willpower, perhaps struggling to lose stubborn weight gain. Foods high in sugar may give that instant hit of energy, but they actually make you feel more fatigued.
I know how hard it is to juggle healthy eating with a busy working life; it can feel like a huge effort. But taking time to plan, prioritise, and prepare nutritious meals can soon make you feel more energised, healthier, happier, and slimmer if that’s one of your goals. So could you be addicted to sugar? Does the thought of cutting down on certain foods feel overwhelming? But do you regularly feel sluggish and fatigued, especially from overeating? Do you eat certain foods as a response to cravings rather than real hunger, but then you need more and more of the foods that you crave to experience any pleasure or reduce negative emotions?
So what does sugar free actually look like? Sugar is present in such a vast spread of our food and drink options we barely question its presence as we consume it throughout the day. It’s not just the white stuff that we might add to tea and coffee, or find in bars of chocolate, many people don’t realise that white floury goods such as white bread and pasta, pizza bases, pastries, white rice, biscuits and cakes, as well as breakfast cereals, fruit juices, and fizzy drinks, they’re all quickly converted to sugar as we digest these simple carbohydrate foods.
Sugar is calories with no nutritional benefit other than that temporary spike of energy but followed by a crash. However, our average consumption of sugar is at such a level that it is chronically detrimental to our health. Many of us are totally unaware of the impact it has on our general energy, our mood, skin, gut health, and weight, our increased risk of Type 2 diabetes, and the extra pressure on our heart health.
Sugar can have an inflammatory effect, so reducing your intake can help to alleviate some of the aches and pains that are driven by inflammation in the body. So this week we are going to reduce reliance on foods and drinks with added sugar and sweeteners and to boost your energy with nourishing foods. This is a recalibrate week to adapt to fuelling your bodies with essential nutrients without an unnatural dependence and desire for sweetness.
If you need any further convincing, check out a two minute trailer on YouTube for a film that’s called That Sugar Film. It was filmed in 2015 by an Australian guy who followed a low fat, high sugar diet just for 60 days but with dire consequences on his health. He gained weight, became incredibly lethargic, and developed fatty liver disease from sugar, not from fat. Sugar adds calories, not nutrients.
Sugar is present in foods in so many different forms other than your regular sugarcane granulated type. Check for ingredients ending in -ose. That’s the chemical name for many types of sugar such as fructose, glucose, maltose, and dextrose. But when it comes to fructose, don’t worry and panic about the amount of fruit you’re eating. Eating a whole fruit is so beneficial; it’s just the fruit juice that can give that sugary spike.
And other common types of added sugars are corn sweetener and high fructose corn syrup, fruit juice concentrate, and nectar, honey, maple syrup, molasses, and malt. If you’re used to counting calories and choosing low fat foods for weight loss, and yet your diet is high in sugar, you may be struggling to lose those stubborn pounds. Sugar that we don’t burn for energy after eating gets stored as fat.
Sweet processed treats and snack foods manufactured by the food industry are generally not designed for your brain to tell you that you’re full and to stop eating. They’re designed to make you want more, and the more your brain gets used to – used to certain amounts of sugar for that dopamine fix, that feeling of comfort and reward – the more it wants.
So cutting it out or even cutting down can feel hard, especially if you have habitually turned to sweet foods to give you a boost of energy throughout the day to get you through, or as a little treat for something, or a pick me up.
So as you start this five day sugar-free solution, could you consider packaging it up in an appealing way to get those you live with to join in to? If you have young people at home, consider that British children are some of the biggest consumers of sugar in Europe. A study by scientists at Birmingham University found that children are consuming an average of 75 grams of sugar a day. That’s the equivalent of 19 teaspoons rather than their maximum of five to seven teaspoons per day depending on their age. And this rises from 95 to 110 grams in teenagers; that’s four times their recommended daily allowance. Small wonder that sugar has been singled out as the biggest contributing factor in the national obesity crisis.
Sugar creates imbalances in energy that can contribute to erratic behaviour and mood changes, and paves the way towards Type 2 diabetes. I’m not telling you this to scare you; this could be a wake-up call. So if you can get others on board at home you’ll also be investing in their health, plus you won’t be tormented by them all scoffing sugary treats in front of you. You can reduce the amount of temptation that you have around the house this week.
You could also benefit from some peer support if you do this as a team at work. If you feel tired, sorely tempted or demotivated, sharing this experience with your colleagues could be the key to your success. The support from sharing your challenges and wins with those around you can be significant.
At the end of the week you can decide whether you want to manage reintroducing it in a controlled and conscious way, or manage without it all together for a while longer, and see what happens. So here’s what you get – a 10 page Sugar Solution Guide that you can download to breaking free from sugar, and this will help you understand where sugar can sneak into your diet. Discover healthier swaps, particularly ideas for breakfast and snacks, which are usually the worst offenders. A Health and Energy Questionnaire for you to complete before you start to see how you score and how this compares to how you feel at the end of the week. And a short daily video with a different focus to help you put the ideas into practice.
You might want to keep a notebook to hand to just jot down tips, ideas, thoughts, and perhaps a symptoms tracker along the way. And you might want to keep a blank copy of the Health and Energy Questionnaire too so you can complete it again at a later date without being influenced by your scores that you gave on day one. You might just jot your answers down in that notebook instead, and this can be a really handy gauge to monitor your progress.
So here’s how to prepare for a positive start for day one whenever you’re ready. Give yourself 15 minutes to sit and decide what your health goal is, and how reducing sugar is going to make you feel. What do you hope to achieve? Then have a look through the Sugar Solution Guide, particularly at the suggestions for less sweet breakfasts. Familiarise yourself with sources of protein; there are many options from meat, cheese, dairy, eggs, and plant-based such as beans, and then lentils, nuts, and seeds, and aim to include a portion of protein with every meal. This will help keep you fuller and reduce your cravings and desire to snack between meals.
And then plan out those low sugar meals for next week and create a shopping list with just those ingredients so that you are ready. Remember, the simple carbohydrates quickly convert to glucose, that simplest form of sugar in your blood, so you’re looking to substitute refined floury goods with wholegrain versions. So white bread, white pasta, and rice to wholemeal and brown versions. Keep high sugar foods at home to a minimum if possible to provide you with a more supportive and encouraging environment.
So two health alerts before we finish. As reducing sugar can start to reduce inflammation in your body, it can also encourage detoxification, so you may feel some temporary withdrawal symptoms similar to those if you withdraw from caffeine – headaches, low mood, dizziness, and nausea. Be prepared for this, but also know it does not last. Whole foods, good hydration, and some restorative sleep – which I know can be a challenge in your role – will help this process which usually lasts only a day or two. And on the other side of those detox symptoms is a new healthier you.
And then secondly, if you have any health reasons why reducing sugar quickly might be detrimental to you such as you are diabetic, you need to do this with supervision from your health practitioner. You might need to take a more gradual approach to reducing your sugar intake where your blood sugar is monitored.
So that’s it. If you’re really unsure where to start, maybe go back to the Oscar Kilo Nutrition for Wellbeing Resources, watch some of the other bite-sized videos there on healthy swaps and snacks. Check out the recipes and the toolkits, or view the Feed Your Body Clock webinar series. It’s all there to help you feel better, healthier, and more energised to do your amazing job.
So proceed to day one when you’re ready.
[Music]
Hi, if we’ve not met before, I’m Anna Earl, a Registered Nutritional Therapist and former police officer. Why am I encouraging you to join the five day sugar-free solution? Well, chronic health conditions are on the increase, as are statistics regarding average weight both amongst adults and children, and they come with health implications.
Two major changes to our diets over the last generation or two are the amount of sugar and the amount of processed food that we consume. Nutrition science provides evidence that a wholefood diet low in sugar and processed foods can help to reduce your risk of chronic disease, can boost low energy and mood, and help you restore your motivation and drive to perform at your best.
I’ve experienced the energy highs and lows of relying on sugary treats for an energy boost, for comfort, out of boredom, and purely out of habit, and the consequent impact on health. But now I’ve got a better understanding of what those sweet treats do in your body and how they can be the root cause of symptoms like regular energy slumps in the afternoons as well as putting our long-term health under strain. So I’d like to share with you how to live without feeling you’re on that constant rollercoaster with your energy spiking from sugar intake, but then crashing and causing strong cravings for unhealthy boosts because that’s the pattern that sugary foods causes.
Come to a place where you are able to decide and control when you have those occasional treat foods, and in what quantity, to still really enjoy them now and again, but they don’t control you. You don’t end up feeling guilty and like you have no willpower, perhaps struggling to lose stubborn weight gain. Foods high in sugar may give that instant hit of energy, but they actually make you feel more fatigued.
I know how hard it is to juggle healthy eating with a busy working life; it can feel like a huge effort. But taking time to plan, prioritise, and prepare nutritious meals can soon make you feel more energised, healthier, happier, and slimmer if that’s one of your goals. So could you be addicted to sugar? Does the thought of cutting down on certain foods feel overwhelming? But do you regularly feel sluggish and fatigued, especially from overeating? Do you eat certain foods as a response to cravings rather than real hunger, but then you need more and more of the foods that you crave to experience any pleasure or reduce negative emotions?
So what does sugar free actually look like? Sugar is present in such a vast spread of our food and drink options we barely question its presence as we consume it throughout the day. It’s not just the white stuff that we might add to tea and coffee, or find in bars of chocolate, many people don’t realise that white floury goods such as white bread and pasta, pizza bases, pastries, white rice, biscuits and cakes, as well as breakfast cereals, fruit juices, and fizzy drinks, they’re all quickly converted to sugar as we digest these simple carbohydrate foods.
Sugar is calories with no nutritional benefit other than that temporary spike of energy but followed by a crash. However, our average consumption of sugar is at such a level that it is chronically detrimental to our health. Many of us are totally unaware of the impact it has on our general energy, our mood, skin, gut health, and weight, our increased risk of Type 2 diabetes, and the extra pressure on our heart health.
Sugar can have an inflammatory effect, so reducing your intake can help to alleviate some of the aches and pains that are driven by inflammation in the body. So this week we are going to reduce reliance on foods and drinks with added sugar and sweeteners and to boost your energy with nourishing foods. This is a recalibrate week to adapt to fuelling your bodies with essential nutrients without an unnatural dependence and desire for sweetness.
If you need any further convincing, check out a two minute trailer on YouTube for a film that’s called That Sugar Film. It was filmed in 2015 by an Australian guy who followed a low fat, high sugar diet just for 60 days but with dire consequences on his health. He gained weight, became incredibly lethargic, and developed fatty liver disease from sugar, not from fat. Sugar adds calories, not nutrients.
Sugar is present in foods in so many different forms other than your regular sugarcane granulated type. Check for ingredients ending in -ose. That’s the chemical name for many types of sugar such as fructose, glucose, maltose, and dextrose. But when it comes to fructose, don’t worry and panic about the amount of fruit you’re eating. Eating a whole fruit is so beneficial; it’s just the fruit juice that can give that sugary spike.
And other common types of added sugars are corn sweetener and high fructose corn syrup, fruit juice concentrate, and nectar, honey, maple syrup, molasses, and malt. If you’re used to counting calories and choosing low fat foods for weight loss, and yet your diet is high in sugar, you may be struggling to lose those stubborn pounds. Sugar that we don’t burn for energy after eating gets stored as fat.
Sweet processed treats and snack foods manufactured by the food industry are generally not designed for your brain to tell you that you’re full and to stop eating. They’re designed to make you want more, and the more your brain gets used to – used to certain amounts of sugar for that dopamine fix, that feeling of comfort and reward – the more it wants.
So cutting it out or even cutting down can feel hard, especially if you have habitually turned to sweet foods to give you a boost of energy throughout the day to get you through, or as a little treat for something, or a pick me up.
So as you start this five day sugar-free solution, could you consider packaging it up in an appealing way to get those you live with to join in to? If you have young people at home, consider that British children are some of the biggest consumers of sugar in Europe. A study by scientists at Birmingham University found that children are consuming an average of 75 grams of sugar a day. That’s the equivalent of 19 teaspoons rather than their maximum of five to seven teaspoons per day depending on their age. And this rises from 95 to 110 grams in teenagers; that’s four times their recommended daily allowance. Small wonder that sugar has been singled out as the biggest contributing factor in the national obesity crisis.
Sugar creates imbalances in energy that can contribute to erratic behaviour and mood changes, and paves the way towards Type 2 diabetes. I’m not telling you this to scare you; this could be a wake-up call. So if you can get others on board at home you’ll also be investing in their health, plus you won’t be tormented by them all scoffing sugary treats in front of you. You can reduce the amount of temptation that you have around the house this week.
You could also benefit from some peer support if you do this as a team at work. If you feel tired, sorely tempted or demotivated, sharing this experience with your colleagues could be the key to your success. The support from sharing your challenges and wins with those around you can be significant.
At the end of the week you can decide whether you want to manage reintroducing it in a controlled and conscious way, or manage without it all together for a while longer, and see what happens. So here’s what you get – a 10 page Sugar Solution Guide that you can download to breaking free from sugar, and this will help you understand where sugar can sneak into your diet. Discover healthier swaps, particularly ideas for breakfast and snacks, which are usually the worst offenders. A Health and Energy Questionnaire for you to complete before you start to see how you score and how this compares to how you feel at the end of the week. And a short daily video with a different focus to help you put the ideas into practice.
You might want to keep a notebook to hand to just jot down tips, ideas, thoughts, and perhaps a symptoms tracker along the way. And you might want to keep a blank copy of the Health and Energy Questionnaire too so you can complete it again at a later date without being influenced by your scores that you gave on day one. You might just jot your answers down in that notebook instead, and this can be a really handy gauge to monitor your progress.
So here’s how to prepare for a positive start for day one whenever you’re ready. Give yourself 15 minutes to sit and decide what your health goal is, and how reducing sugar is going to make you feel. What do you hope to achieve? Then have a look through the Sugar Solution Guide, particularly at the suggestions for less sweet breakfasts. Familiarise yourself with sources of protein; there are many options from meat, cheese, dairy, eggs, and plant-based such as beans, and then lentils, nuts, and seeds, and aim to include a portion of protein with every meal. This will help keep you fuller and reduce your cravings and desire to snack between meals.
And then plan out those low sugar meals for next week and create a shopping list with just those ingredients so that you are ready. Remember, the simple carbohydrates quickly convert to glucose, that simplest form of sugar in your blood, so you’re looking to substitute refined floury goods with wholegrain versions. So white bread, white pasta, and rice to wholemeal and brown versions. Keep high sugar foods at home to a minimum if possible to provide you with a more supportive and encouraging environment.
So two health alerts before we finish. As reducing sugar can start to reduce inflammation in your body, it can also encourage detoxification, so you may feel some temporary withdrawal symptoms similar to those if you withdraw from caffeine – headaches, low mood, dizziness, and nausea. Be prepared for this, but also know it does not last. Whole foods, good hydration, and some restorative sleep – which I know can be a challenge in your role – will help this process which usually lasts only a day or two. And on the other side of those detox symptoms is a new healthier you.
And then secondly, if you have any health reasons why reducing sugar quickly might be detrimental to you such as you are diabetic, you need to do this with supervision from your health practitioner. You might need to take a more gradual approach to reducing your sugar intake where your blood sugar is monitored.
So that’s it. If you’re really unsure where to start, maybe go back to the Oscar Kilo Nutrition for Wellbeing Resources, watch some of the other bite-sized videos there on healthy swaps and snacks. Check out the recipes and the toolkits, or view the Feed Your Body Clock webinar series. It’s all there to help you feel better, healthier, and more energised to do your amazing job.
So proceed to day one when you’re ready.
[Music]
So let's get started
Before you embark on this challenge we recommend you take our health and energy questionnaire. It doesn't take long and it's only for your benefit, as we recommend you take another at the end of the challenge so you can see any marked changes in your health and your energy.
You can also download 'The Sugar Solution' booklet. In here you'll find more about sugar addiction, and there are lots of healthy meal swaps to help you on your sugar rebalance journey.
Watch short daily videos
Each day, watch a video from Anna with instructions and guidance on how to follow the five day challenge and how to put the ideas you learn into practice.
DAY ONE
Here's what you'll be doing on day one of your sugar rebalance challenge
- Complete Health and Energy questionnaire to monitor progress
- Motivation and mindset – identify why you want to reduce sugar / go sugar free. What will it mean to you?
- A look at recommended daily intakes
- Starting the day without added sugar.
[Music]
A really big welcome to the Sugar Solution Challenge, everyone, where we’re going to try and significantly reduce, if not eliminate, sugary foods this week to give you a health reset and an energy boost for the summer, so thank you for joining in.
Hopefully you’ve watched the intro video. In that I explain why it could be a good idea for you to reduce your sugar intake and explain what foods give you that sugar spike causing your blood glucose to rise above healthy levels. If your diet contains many of those foods, this can cause an endless rollercoaster of energy spikes and crashes resulting in low energy and mood, cravings, weight gain, and that increased risk of Type 2 diabetes, but this is all avoidable.
This is an opportunity to stop and identify where sugar is creeping into your diet, giving you the chance to share your wins and challenges to help you stay motivated and on track. Along with a short video with the focus for the day you have the Sugar Solution download giving you a summary of the material we’ll cover this week, as well as a Health and Energy questionnaire to complete by the end of today.
If you haven’t done so yet, download these from the dedicated Oscar Kilo Sugar Solution website. Have a look through the guide to help you with planning your meals and snacks this week, as well as the OK Nutrition for Wellbeing recipe section. And I’ll also be sharing some low sugar ideas this week too. We’ll look more at meal planning on day three, so once you understand what foods contain sugar, have a think about where those foods currently stack up in your weekly food intake and where you can make some healthier swaps.
So let’s look now at that day one Health and Energy Level quiz. You might want to use a notebook – paper or digital – to record your health symptoms, tips, and thoughts during this week’s challenge. And you can also record your health and energy scores in that to look back at and track your progress, hopefully seeing some improvements as you make reduced sugar and sugar-free changes. So if you haven’t already completed it already, pause the recording now and come back with those health and energy scores.
So if your total score in each category is less than 16 you’re doing great. Still take part in this challenge and you may reduce the scores and enhance how you feel even further. Any scores of over 16, and I invite you to really commit to this week’s challenge. Adopting the recommended tips could be really powerful in supporting your health and wellbeing now and long term.
Some of your energy scores may be linked to sleep difficulties. Going sugar free can have a positive impact on sleep as you rebalance your energy, blood sugar, and appetite hormones. Stress and sleep management techniques alongside this guidance on nutritious foods may also be helpful as our energy levels are also so affected by those factors.
In light of those scores, let’s think about setting some health goals. Do the scores in this questionnaire help you identify where reducing sugar might help you? What could you gain? What are the benefits to you going to be to your health, your life, your work performance? So where to start?
Try and start each day with a healthier lower sugar breakfast than our typical boxes of sweetened breakfast cereals. There are a number of examples in the guide. Starting the day with more savoury foods, and including a good source of protein, can help you avoid a mid-morning energy slump. We’ll look at the daily recommendations for maximum sugar intake in a moment, and you’ll see where it can soon add up for example when added to hot drinks.
And it’s easy to think that fruit juices are healthy options, one of your five a day, but one glass of orange juice can contain the equivalent of five teaspoons of sugar and none of the fibre to slow its progress into your bloodstream.
Root-laden smoothies do just the same because, as a liquid, they hit your digestive system so quickly. When biting and chewing a whole piece of fruit, that process slows digestion and your blood sugar response and is the better option. Dilute your juice if you don’t want to give it up, or have a smaller glass with a meal, and include some protein with your smoothie such as yogurt, nuts or seeds, and maybe a portion of vegetables like spinach or kale, and that will reduce the sugar spike.
So the daily recommendations for maximum sugar intake, first of all, for four to six year olds is 19 grams; that’s roughly five teaspoons. Then seven to 10 year olds is 24 grams – one extra teaspoon – so six teaspoons per day. And then over 11 years and including adults is 30 grams - seven teaspoons.
Remember in my intro video I said that the average child in the UK consumes 75 grams of sugar a day, the equivalent of 19 teaspoons, and that rises even higher for teenagers.
So think ahead to what your day looks like. Where are your challenging points going to be? Where do you need to plan low sugar alternatives? And then how supportive is your home environment right now in helping you reduce sugar this week? I don’t suggest you ban it completely; we have to learn to live alongside sugar without it controlling us. And others at home may feel resentful and rebel. Help them to understand why you are doing this and how the practices could benefit them too.
Explain which foods contain high sugar – listed in the intro video – as it can be a surprise, for example, that a large bowl of white pasta is a high sugar food. If you have a snack cupboard, can you gradually start to tweak it to reduce the quantities of processed white floury goods, crisps, biscuits, sweets, and chocolates? Often we reach for these out of habit because they are there, but we have other taste senses beside the sensation of sweetness that we can feed to and create new healthier habits.
Have a look at the alternative healthy snacks in your guide and in the daily posts and try these between meals if you have an energy slump or cravings during the day. And remember to keep hydrated with plenty of fluid –water, unsweetened tea and coffee, some herbal teas. This will help with the detoxing process and can be a helpful delay in managing hunger between meals.
So I’ll leave you with Day One Tip – think of some helpful distractions to divert your attention away from those sweet treats. Here’s an example. If you crave chocolate in the evening, try brushing your teeth after dinner. You are actually less likely to have those late sweet treats because you’ve already done your teeth. I know it’s all in the mind, but it can be effective. That’s it for day one. Do share your experiences, your challenges, those small wins, and I look forward to hearing from you and seeing you tomorrow.
[Music]
A really big welcome to the Sugar Solution Challenge, everyone, where we’re going to try and significantly reduce, if not eliminate, sugary foods this week to give you a health reset and an energy boost for the summer, so thank you for joining in.
Hopefully you’ve watched the intro video. In that I explain why it could be a good idea for you to reduce your sugar intake and explain what foods give you that sugar spike causing your blood glucose to rise above healthy levels. If your diet contains many of those foods, this can cause an endless rollercoaster of energy spikes and crashes resulting in low energy and mood, cravings, weight gain, and that increased risk of Type 2 diabetes, but this is all avoidable.
This is an opportunity to stop and identify where sugar is creeping into your diet, giving you the chance to share your wins and challenges to help you stay motivated and on track. Along with a short video with the focus for the day you have the Sugar Solution download giving you a summary of the material we’ll cover this week, as well as a Health and Energy questionnaire to complete by the end of today.
If you haven’t done so yet, download these from the dedicated Oscar Kilo Sugar Solution website. Have a look through the guide to help you with planning your meals and snacks this week, as well as the OK Nutrition for Wellbeing recipe section. And I’ll also be sharing some low sugar ideas this week too. We’ll look more at meal planning on day three, so once you understand what foods contain sugar, have a think about where those foods currently stack up in your weekly food intake and where you can make some healthier swaps.
So let’s look now at that day one Health and Energy Level quiz. You might want to use a notebook – paper or digital – to record your health symptoms, tips, and thoughts during this week’s challenge. And you can also record your health and energy scores in that to look back at and track your progress, hopefully seeing some improvements as you make reduced sugar and sugar-free changes. So if you haven’t already completed it already, pause the recording now and come back with those health and energy scores.
So if your total score in each category is less than 16 you’re doing great. Still take part in this challenge and you may reduce the scores and enhance how you feel even further. Any scores of over 16, and I invite you to really commit to this week’s challenge. Adopting the recommended tips could be really powerful in supporting your health and wellbeing now and long term.
Some of your energy scores may be linked to sleep difficulties. Going sugar free can have a positive impact on sleep as you rebalance your energy, blood sugar, and appetite hormones. Stress and sleep management techniques alongside this guidance on nutritious foods may also be helpful as our energy levels are also so affected by those factors.
In light of those scores, let’s think about setting some health goals. Do the scores in this questionnaire help you identify where reducing sugar might help you? What could you gain? What are the benefits to you going to be to your health, your life, your work performance? So where to start?
Try and start each day with a healthier lower sugar breakfast than our typical boxes of sweetened breakfast cereals. There are a number of examples in the guide. Starting the day with more savoury foods, and including a good source of protein, can help you avoid a mid-morning energy slump. We’ll look at the daily recommendations for maximum sugar intake in a moment, and you’ll see where it can soon add up for example when added to hot drinks.
And it’s easy to think that fruit juices are healthy options, one of your five a day, but one glass of orange juice can contain the equivalent of five teaspoons of sugar and none of the fibre to slow its progress into your bloodstream.
Root-laden smoothies do just the same because, as a liquid, they hit your digestive system so quickly. When biting and chewing a whole piece of fruit, that process slows digestion and your blood sugar response and is the better option. Dilute your juice if you don’t want to give it up, or have a smaller glass with a meal, and include some protein with your smoothie such as yogurt, nuts or seeds, and maybe a portion of vegetables like spinach or kale, and that will reduce the sugar spike.
So the daily recommendations for maximum sugar intake, first of all, for four to six year olds is 19 grams; that’s roughly five teaspoons. Then seven to 10 year olds is 24 grams – one extra teaspoon – so six teaspoons per day. And then over 11 years and including adults is 30 grams - seven teaspoons.
Remember in my intro video I said that the average child in the UK consumes 75 grams of sugar a day, the equivalent of 19 teaspoons, and that rises even higher for teenagers.
So think ahead to what your day looks like. Where are your challenging points going to be? Where do you need to plan low sugar alternatives? And then how supportive is your home environment right now in helping you reduce sugar this week? I don’t suggest you ban it completely; we have to learn to live alongside sugar without it controlling us. And others at home may feel resentful and rebel. Help them to understand why you are doing this and how the practices could benefit them too.
Explain which foods contain high sugar – listed in the intro video – as it can be a surprise, for example, that a large bowl of white pasta is a high sugar food. If you have a snack cupboard, can you gradually start to tweak it to reduce the quantities of processed white floury goods, crisps, biscuits, sweets, and chocolates? Often we reach for these out of habit because they are there, but we have other taste senses beside the sensation of sweetness that we can feed to and create new healthier habits.
Have a look at the alternative healthy snacks in your guide and in the daily posts and try these between meals if you have an energy slump or cravings during the day. And remember to keep hydrated with plenty of fluid –water, unsweetened tea and coffee, some herbal teas. This will help with the detoxing process and can be a helpful delay in managing hunger between meals.
So I’ll leave you with Day One Tip – think of some helpful distractions to divert your attention away from those sweet treats. Here’s an example. If you crave chocolate in the evening, try brushing your teeth after dinner. You are actually less likely to have those late sweet treats because you’ve already done your teeth. I know it’s all in the mind, but it can be effective. That’s it for day one. Do share your experiences, your challenges, those small wins, and I look forward to hearing from you and seeing you tomorrow.
[Music]
DAY TWO
Here's what you'll be addressing on day two of your sugar rebalance challenge
- The cause of cravings
- Artificial sweeteners
- Being prepared for temptation
Music]
Hello and welcome to the Five Day Sugar Solution Challenge day two. Do you experience cravings for sweet foods? They can be extremely powerful and hard to resist. Once we give into a craving, and crack open the biscuit barrel, it can be hard to stop, and that can then lead to frustration and regret; self-blame for lack of willpower. But often cravings are caused by our hormones. I’m not just talking about the sex hormones linked to the female monthly cycle, but our hunger hormones. These are influenced by an empty stomach and also by low blood sugar. It’s a natural survival instinct, nudging us into topping up our fuel reserves. Our body senses a drop in blood sugar which can cause an energy slump and triggers that craving for some instant fuel. A similar thing happens when we’re tired; we tend to crave less healthy foods, so balancing our blood sugar with good food choices can really help with cravings.
Have a look at your regular daily food intake and see what proportion of your diet comes from simple carbohydrates; that’s your foods made from refined flour, pasta, white bread, pastries, breakfast cereals, cakes and biscuits, then white rice, chocolate and sweets, ice cream, jam, sweetened drinks and juices.
So reducing your intake of these, and replacing them with either their whole grain versions or healthy alternatives, is the best place to control your blood sugar levels and manage those cravings. Look at your sugar solution guide and our posts this week for ideas.
You might experience a bit of withdrawal first, similar to caffeine withdrawal symptoms, but that doesn’t last. And ultimately the less you have, the less your body will crave. You can do this. Your Sugar-Free Guide also includes a page on artificial sweeteners. These are mainly found in diet or sugar-free foods – so diet drinks, chewing gums, and some yogurts. Unfortunately, there is currently no such thing as a healthy sweetener.
Despite their extensive use and their lower calorific value to regular sugar, artificial sweeteners have not been proven to significantly affect weight loss, nor to improve health. There may be some dental benefits compared with sugar, but sweeteners keeps you attuned to sweet flavours. It may continue to affect your blood sugar and energy, and there are concerns of their impact on your gut microbiome – that population of gut bugs that are also influenced by our food choices – and they can affect our systemic health.
So reducing a reliance altogether on sweetness, on a particular level of sweetness, and reducing that, recalibrating that is by far the better and healthier option. So tip for day two – pre-empt your main challenges. Where and when are you going to feel most tempted to reach for your sugary treats? Can you walk into that coffeeshop, or the petrol station, and avoid the sweet snacks on offer? Where are your healthier food outlet options? How can you prepare in advance to deal with the temptation in those situations, especially when you are tired and hungry?
So give those questions some thought, and I’ll see you on day three.
[Music]
Hello and welcome to the Five Day Sugar Solution Challenge day two. Do you experience cravings for sweet foods? They can be extremely powerful and hard to resist. Once we give into a craving, and crack open the biscuit barrel, it can be hard to stop, and that can then lead to frustration and regret; self-blame for lack of willpower. But often cravings are caused by our hormones. I’m not just talking about the sex hormones linked to the female monthly cycle, but our hunger hormones. These are influenced by an empty stomach and also by low blood sugar. It’s a natural survival instinct, nudging us into topping up our fuel reserves. Our body senses a drop in blood sugar which can cause an energy slump and triggers that craving for some instant fuel. A similar thing happens when we’re tired; we tend to crave less healthy foods, so balancing our blood sugar with good food choices can really help with cravings.
Have a look at your regular daily food intake and see what proportion of your diet comes from simple carbohydrates; that’s your foods made from refined flour, pasta, white bread, pastries, breakfast cereals, cakes and biscuits, then white rice, chocolate and sweets, ice cream, jam, sweetened drinks and juices.
So reducing your intake of these, and replacing them with either their whole grain versions or healthy alternatives, is the best place to control your blood sugar levels and manage those cravings. Look at your sugar solution guide and our posts this week for ideas.
You might experience a bit of withdrawal first, similar to caffeine withdrawal symptoms, but that doesn’t last. And ultimately the less you have, the less your body will crave. You can do this. Your Sugar-Free Guide also includes a page on artificial sweeteners. These are mainly found in diet or sugar-free foods – so diet drinks, chewing gums, and some yogurts. Unfortunately, there is currently no such thing as a healthy sweetener.
Despite their extensive use and their lower calorific value to regular sugar, artificial sweeteners have not been proven to significantly affect weight loss, nor to improve health. There may be some dental benefits compared with sugar, but sweeteners keeps you attuned to sweet flavours. It may continue to affect your blood sugar and energy, and there are concerns of their impact on your gut microbiome – that population of gut bugs that are also influenced by our food choices – and they can affect our systemic health.
So reducing a reliance altogether on sweetness, on a particular level of sweetness, and reducing that, recalibrating that is by far the better and healthier option. So tip for day two – pre-empt your main challenges. Where and when are you going to feel most tempted to reach for your sugary treats? Can you walk into that coffeeshop, or the petrol station, and avoid the sweet snacks on offer? Where are your healthier food outlet options? How can you prepare in advance to deal with the temptation in those situations, especially when you are tired and hungry?
So give those questions some thought, and I’ll see you on day three.
[Music]
DAY THREE
Here's what you will learn on day three of your sugar rebalance challenge
- Understanding the many forms of sugar
- Meal planning for success
[Music]
Day three of the Five Day Sugar Solution Challenge. How are you finding, identifying, and reducing the sugar in your diet? When out buying food, get into the habits of looking at your food labels and recognise the vast range of names for sugar. Often they’re ingredients ending in -ose. If it says sugar-free or no added sugar and yet it has a sweet flavour, what is sweetening it? Even foods sweetened with fruit juice means they likely contain a form of sugar called fructose. This gives fruit their sweetness. So a fruit laden smoothie will likely spike blood sugar, but it doesn’t mean we have to stop eating fruit.
Keeping our blood sugar regulated – by not causing it to spike too much with high sugar foods, which is always followed by our levels then crashing – we can keep our energy and our weight better regulated as well as reducing our risk of conditions such as Type 2 diabetes.
All foods affect our blood sugar differently. Eating a large bunch of grapes on its own will spike some people’s blood sugar more than others. A continuous glucose monitor shows the response, but if you eat certain foods and you have an energy slump soon after, that may be an indication that your blood sugar has spiked and then taken a dive, but it may not affect the next person in the same way.
Eating a variety of fruit has huge health benefits, but rather than eating a large amount on its own, particularly blended into a liquid, combine it with other sources of fibre, whole grains – like adding oats or some low sugar granola topping – some vegetables, some protein and healthy fats, maybe some natural yogurt, some nuts and seeds, for example, and that reduces the impact on your blood sugar whilst getting all the benefits of the vitamins and minerals from your fruit.
One key habit that can help hugely with healthy eating is to plan snacks and meals in advance. It takes a little forward thinking but can pay dividends. Without a weekly food plan it’ll be pure luck if you end up with nourishing food to regularly take with you to work. You can use notes in your phone to plan, a good old paper list to stick somewhere in the kitchen, or an app such as Whisk, to help with your inspiration.
Invest time in planning meals and in some advanced food preparation. If you live with others, can you get them to help you prepare some healthy snacks if they’re around on your rest days so it’s not all on you? This could also encourage them to try some sugar-free or low sugar alternatives that will benefit them too.
Prepare healthy snacks to keep to hand to help with unpredictable events where you would usually grab a chocolate bar, some biscuits, cakes, or pastries as a quick filler on the go. Keep a tub of trail mix in the car, or in your work bag; just a simple mix of nuts, some pumpkin seeds, some dried cranberries, maybe a few dark chocolate chips. And check out the meal planner for shift workers and the snack ideas both on the Oscar Kilo Nutrition for Wellbeing pages as well as the suggestions in your Sugar Solution Guide and give something new a go.
So tip for day three; if you fancy a sugary snack mid-morning, try this four D technique and see if this snack is just a habit or actually a necessity to refuel you. Can you delay, distract, distance yourself, and then consciously decide.
Depending on your level of activity, a nutritious meal at the start of your day should get you through four to five hours to your next meal. Unless there is a medical reason, we shouldn’t really need to constantly graze between meals.
So that’s it for today; a quick recap. Familiarise yourself with the various forms of sugar in foods, and have a go at planning what are you going to eat for four or five meals in the week ahead. See you tomorrow.
[Music]
Day three of the Five Day Sugar Solution Challenge. How are you finding, identifying, and reducing the sugar in your diet? When out buying food, get into the habits of looking at your food labels and recognise the vast range of names for sugar. Often they’re ingredients ending in -ose. If it says sugar-free or no added sugar and yet it has a sweet flavour, what is sweetening it? Even foods sweetened with fruit juice means they likely contain a form of sugar called fructose. This gives fruit their sweetness. So a fruit laden smoothie will likely spike blood sugar, but it doesn’t mean we have to stop eating fruit.
Keeping our blood sugar regulated – by not causing it to spike too much with high sugar foods, which is always followed by our levels then crashing – we can keep our energy and our weight better regulated as well as reducing our risk of conditions such as Type 2 diabetes.
All foods affect our blood sugar differently. Eating a large bunch of grapes on its own will spike some people’s blood sugar more than others. A continuous glucose monitor shows the response, but if you eat certain foods and you have an energy slump soon after, that may be an indication that your blood sugar has spiked and then taken a dive, but it may not affect the next person in the same way.
Eating a variety of fruit has huge health benefits, but rather than eating a large amount on its own, particularly blended into a liquid, combine it with other sources of fibre, whole grains – like adding oats or some low sugar granola topping – some vegetables, some protein and healthy fats, maybe some natural yogurt, some nuts and seeds, for example, and that reduces the impact on your blood sugar whilst getting all the benefits of the vitamins and minerals from your fruit.
One key habit that can help hugely with healthy eating is to plan snacks and meals in advance. It takes a little forward thinking but can pay dividends. Without a weekly food plan it’ll be pure luck if you end up with nourishing food to regularly take with you to work. You can use notes in your phone to plan, a good old paper list to stick somewhere in the kitchen, or an app such as Whisk, to help with your inspiration.
Invest time in planning meals and in some advanced food preparation. If you live with others, can you get them to help you prepare some healthy snacks if they’re around on your rest days so it’s not all on you? This could also encourage them to try some sugar-free or low sugar alternatives that will benefit them too.
Prepare healthy snacks to keep to hand to help with unpredictable events where you would usually grab a chocolate bar, some biscuits, cakes, or pastries as a quick filler on the go. Keep a tub of trail mix in the car, or in your work bag; just a simple mix of nuts, some pumpkin seeds, some dried cranberries, maybe a few dark chocolate chips. And check out the meal planner for shift workers and the snack ideas both on the Oscar Kilo Nutrition for Wellbeing pages as well as the suggestions in your Sugar Solution Guide and give something new a go.
So tip for day three; if you fancy a sugary snack mid-morning, try this four D technique and see if this snack is just a habit or actually a necessity to refuel you. Can you delay, distract, distance yourself, and then consciously decide.
Depending on your level of activity, a nutritious meal at the start of your day should get you through four to five hours to your next meal. Unless there is a medical reason, we shouldn’t really need to constantly graze between meals.
So that’s it for today; a quick recap. Familiarise yourself with the various forms of sugar in foods, and have a go at planning what are you going to eat for four or five meals in the week ahead. See you tomorrow.
[Music]
DAY FOUR
This is what you will investigate on day four of your sugar rebalance challenge
- Are you comfort eating?
- Natural sweeteners
- Alcohol
[Music]
Hello, it’s day four. If you’ve been on a sugar rollercoaster for a while you can experience some detox symptoms such as headaches. Drinking sufficient fluid, ideally water, is essential for your hydration, particularly for brain and muscle function, as well as getting rid of toxins from the body. So make sure you have provision with you through your day or night for the six to eight recommended glasses of fluid per day, which can be water, tea, and coffee – though watch your caffeine intake – and ideally not mainly from juice or fizzy drinks. And it doesn’t count if it comes from alcoholic drinks.
So, today, we’re looking at the emotional side of sugar cravings. Find an opportunity for some private reflection today, and ask yourself what kind of upsets or events trigger the “I must have some sugar” reaction. If you have your private notebook for this challenge maybe jot down some thoughts.
It’s pretty normal to spend a lot of time in our life feeling upset by something to one degree or another. Recognising what triggers you to reach for the sweets, biscuits, chocolate, and cakes will be helpful going forward in considering other ways to deal with those upsets. What alternative health-promoting practices can you think of to replace seeking sugar? List them, and decide to try a different method to find your comfort.
Perhaps it’s getting out for a walk, catching up with a good friend, doing some exercise, maybe a yoga session, or spending time with a pet. But if you sometimes cave and seek solace in a tub of chocolate ice cream, don’t beat yourself up. Work out a new coping strategy for next time you feel like this, and aim to break that cycle of behaviour with its reliance on that short-term sweet fix.
When you’re going sugar-free, the ideal scenario is to wean yourself off sweet things generally, but this can be tough going at least at first. Natural sweeteners like apple sauce, dates, or mashed banana can be helpful. You’ll find these in lots of healthy recipes, so check out the resources on Page 10 of your Sugar-Free Guide. Just remember to combine these naturally sweet foods with other food groups as we discussed yesterday, keeping that blood sugar in check and your energy levels more even.
And now a word on alcohol. Alcoholic drinks can be high in sugar depending on your choice. Alcohol can contribute to menopausal symptoms such as hot flushes and weight gain. Whilst some spirits are sugar-free, their typical mixers of cola, lemonade, fruit, juices, and tonics are not, so these make them less healthy choices. I’m not suggesting you therefore drink neat vodka.
Alcohol free beers and ciders can also actually be higher in sugar than the alcoholic versions, so check the labels and become aware of the quantities of sugar in your favourite tip that will be adding to that daily intake.
The social aspects of drinking can be beneficial in moderation; this is recognised as a significant social stress reliever and a joy maker in moderation. Mixing a small glass of dry white or red wine into a longer spritzer style drink with some sparkling water and ice is one of the better alcohol low sugar choices.
So two tasks for today – set aside time to work out alternative ways to find comfort when you are upset or bored and tend to turn to sugary foods as solace. And check out the recipe resources in your guide. Find an appealing sugar-free recipe, perhaps containing some fresh apple sauce, dates, carrot puree, or mashed banana, and commit to making it this weekend just for you, or for family and friends to enjoy as well.
Accept that it is likely to be less sweet than similar foods made with actual sugar, but your taste buds will soon adapt. And very often you can quite drastically reduce or replace the amount of sugar in sweet recipes and get used to less sweet bake like your flapjacks, meringues, cookies and cakes. There are always low sugar and sugar-free alternatives that you can practice. So good luck with that and I’ll see you for day five.
[Music]
Hello, it’s day four. If you’ve been on a sugar rollercoaster for a while you can experience some detox symptoms such as headaches. Drinking sufficient fluid, ideally water, is essential for your hydration, particularly for brain and muscle function, as well as getting rid of toxins from the body. So make sure you have provision with you through your day or night for the six to eight recommended glasses of fluid per day, which can be water, tea, and coffee – though watch your caffeine intake – and ideally not mainly from juice or fizzy drinks. And it doesn’t count if it comes from alcoholic drinks.
So, today, we’re looking at the emotional side of sugar cravings. Find an opportunity for some private reflection today, and ask yourself what kind of upsets or events trigger the “I must have some sugar” reaction. If you have your private notebook for this challenge maybe jot down some thoughts.
It’s pretty normal to spend a lot of time in our life feeling upset by something to one degree or another. Recognising what triggers you to reach for the sweets, biscuits, chocolate, and cakes will be helpful going forward in considering other ways to deal with those upsets. What alternative health-promoting practices can you think of to replace seeking sugar? List them, and decide to try a different method to find your comfort.
Perhaps it’s getting out for a walk, catching up with a good friend, doing some exercise, maybe a yoga session, or spending time with a pet. But if you sometimes cave and seek solace in a tub of chocolate ice cream, don’t beat yourself up. Work out a new coping strategy for next time you feel like this, and aim to break that cycle of behaviour with its reliance on that short-term sweet fix.
When you’re going sugar-free, the ideal scenario is to wean yourself off sweet things generally, but this can be tough going at least at first. Natural sweeteners like apple sauce, dates, or mashed banana can be helpful. You’ll find these in lots of healthy recipes, so check out the resources on Page 10 of your Sugar-Free Guide. Just remember to combine these naturally sweet foods with other food groups as we discussed yesterday, keeping that blood sugar in check and your energy levels more even.
And now a word on alcohol. Alcoholic drinks can be high in sugar depending on your choice. Alcohol can contribute to menopausal symptoms such as hot flushes and weight gain. Whilst some spirits are sugar-free, their typical mixers of cola, lemonade, fruit, juices, and tonics are not, so these make them less healthy choices. I’m not suggesting you therefore drink neat vodka.
Alcohol free beers and ciders can also actually be higher in sugar than the alcoholic versions, so check the labels and become aware of the quantities of sugar in your favourite tip that will be adding to that daily intake.
The social aspects of drinking can be beneficial in moderation; this is recognised as a significant social stress reliever and a joy maker in moderation. Mixing a small glass of dry white or red wine into a longer spritzer style drink with some sparkling water and ice is one of the better alcohol low sugar choices.
So two tasks for today – set aside time to work out alternative ways to find comfort when you are upset or bored and tend to turn to sugary foods as solace. And check out the recipe resources in your guide. Find an appealing sugar-free recipe, perhaps containing some fresh apple sauce, dates, carrot puree, or mashed banana, and commit to making it this weekend just for you, or for family and friends to enjoy as well.
Accept that it is likely to be less sweet than similar foods made with actual sugar, but your taste buds will soon adapt. And very often you can quite drastically reduce or replace the amount of sugar in sweet recipes and get used to less sweet bake like your flapjacks, meringues, cookies and cakes. There are always low sugar and sugar-free alternatives that you can practice. So good luck with that and I’ll see you for day five.
[Music]
DAY FIVE
Here's what you will do on day five of the sugar rebalance programme
- Assessing the week, highs and lows
- Looking ahead – planning for parties and holidays and a sugar-laden work environment
[Music]
Congratulations, you’ve done it; five days resisting sugar. However you got here, you gave it a bash, and will hopefully have learned why reducing sugar is key to your health, as well as some techniques and tips to continue.
Now what? Do you just stop and go back to your old ways? The answer is what do you want to do? I can tell you that your body and mind want you to carry on feeding it with real food, with whole foods, vegetables and fruit, healthy fats, and those occasional treats. So here are three small tasks to take away with you.
Keep that sugar free guide to hand, refer back to it regularly as a prompt and try those resources for new healthy recipes, name the strategies that helped you in delaying, reducing, avoiding, and resisting your sugary foods and drinks, and continue to implement them as necessary. And make a diary entry to complete the Health and Energy questionnaire again in two weeks’ time, giving yourself a small goal to aim for.
Where would you like that score to be by then? And how are you going to make that happen? This could be the start of an exciting journey for you, getting back your energy, shedding some stubborn pounds, feeling lighter and brighter. It can have a real knock-on effect on your sleep and your stress levels. So how did that make you feel?
Have a look at the Oscar Kilo Nutrition for Wellbeing pages, the Feed Your Body Clock webinar series, the bite-sized videos on Healthy Snacks and Swaps, and there’s also a five minute video especially for nightshift nutrition. I’ll share the YouTube link on the social media channels so you could watch this in your team briefing prior to a nightshift. There’s the meal planning template, and an example of how to build a healthy plate of food with the recommended portions of the nutrient components and examples.
So thanks for joining me on this five day solution challenge. I’d love to know how it’s been, so do share your experience on Oscar Kilo’s Instagram page, especially with any tips that worked for you so your colleagues can also benefit. Thanks very much and well done.
[Music]
Congratulations, you’ve done it; five days resisting sugar. However you got here, you gave it a bash, and will hopefully have learned why reducing sugar is key to your health, as well as some techniques and tips to continue.
Now what? Do you just stop and go back to your old ways? The answer is what do you want to do? I can tell you that your body and mind want you to carry on feeding it with real food, with whole foods, vegetables and fruit, healthy fats, and those occasional treats. So here are three small tasks to take away with you.
Keep that sugar free guide to hand, refer back to it regularly as a prompt and try those resources for new healthy recipes, name the strategies that helped you in delaying, reducing, avoiding, and resisting your sugary foods and drinks, and continue to implement them as necessary. And make a diary entry to complete the Health and Energy questionnaire again in two weeks’ time, giving yourself a small goal to aim for.
Where would you like that score to be by then? And how are you going to make that happen? This could be the start of an exciting journey for you, getting back your energy, shedding some stubborn pounds, feeling lighter and brighter. It can have a real knock-on effect on your sleep and your stress levels. So how did that make you feel?
Have a look at the Oscar Kilo Nutrition for Wellbeing pages, the Feed Your Body Clock webinar series, the bite-sized videos on Healthy Snacks and Swaps, and there’s also a five minute video especially for nightshift nutrition. I’ll share the YouTube link on the social media channels so you could watch this in your team briefing prior to a nightshift. There’s the meal planning template, and an example of how to build a healthy plate of food with the recommended portions of the nutrient components and examples.
So thanks for joining me on this five day solution challenge. I’d love to know how it’s been, so do share your experience on Oscar Kilo’s Instagram page, especially with any tips that worked for you so your colleagues can also benefit. Thanks very much and well done.
[Music]
Quick recipes to help your challenge
Make your own granola
No speaking
Banana pancakes recipe
Try these banana pancakes with just two ingredients.
[00:00:05 - 00:01:10 - Music]
[00:00:05 - 00:01:10 - Music]
Make your own houmous
I didn’t understand the fuss about making your own houmous until I tried it myself. It’s so much more filling and fresh, the flavours and combinations that you can try are great, so here we go.
All the equipment you need is a blender, one drained tin of chickpeas to which I’ve added four tablespoons of water, two tablespoons of lemon juice, two tablespoons of olive oil, two tablespoons of tahini which is a sesame seed paste – a bit like peanut butter – two cloves of garlic, salt and pepper, one teaspoon of smoked paprika, and then whatever flavours you like. I’m adding one teaspoon of cumin. And whizz it all up.
And there we have it; super versatile, healthy little lunch or snack, great on some oat cakes, dip in some vegetable sticks. Done.
[00:01:56 – 00:02:06 - Music]
All the equipment you need is a blender, one drained tin of chickpeas to which I’ve added four tablespoons of water, two tablespoons of lemon juice, two tablespoons of olive oil, two tablespoons of tahini which is a sesame seed paste – a bit like peanut butter – two cloves of garlic, salt and pepper, one teaspoon of smoked paprika, and then whatever flavours you like. I’m adding one teaspoon of cumin. And whizz it all up.
And there we have it; super versatile, healthy little lunch or snack, great on some oat cakes, dip in some vegetable sticks. Done.
[00:01:56 – 00:02:06 - Music]
Energy ball recipe
These energy balls are no cook, no fuss, no nonsense, really quick to make, and really filling.
[00:00:09 – 00:01:17 - Music]
[00:00:09 – 00:01:17 - Music]