Sugar Addiction

Day 1 of my SHREDDED FOR HOLIDAY programme. It's been an odd day and now I want chocolate.

Trying to get through 15 litres of water around normal life is tough enough, but eating less than 50grams of carbohydrate per day is a massive challenge.
I've also discovered that I'm seriously addicted to sugar, right now I'm pretty much going cold turkey.

Sugar Addiction Cycle

Monday was the first day on this. At first it was quite a novelty carrying big bottles of water around and going shopping for my meals. I bought a selection of meats, salad items and herbs & spices to make the high protein meals less dull. I also made sure I had enough Super Protein to last me the week. With very little added to it, Super Protein is a good source of protein for this experiment (it also uses Stevia as a sweetener).
Monday was a busy day for work. Between clients, teaching in schools and evening classes I didn't train.

- Breakfast was a Super Protein shake and a banana (half my carbohydrate for the day)
- Mid morning I had a chicken breast and 100g of sliced beef.
- Lunch was pork chops with red chilli, lettuce and an avocado (the other half of my carbs for the day)
- Mid afternoon I had another Super Protein shake.
- Evening meal was a small portion of homemade Bolognese meat sauce (carrots, tomatoes and mushrooms almost certainly put me over my carb allowance for the day)

What concerned me most was that for the whole afternoon and evening I was literally craving chocolate. I've never known anything like it; I didn't just fancy a chocolate bar, I NEEDED one.
It's a very uncomfortable feeling and took a lot of willpower not to give in.

Everywhere you go there's sugar and high carbohydrate foods, waiting to pay for my shopping there was chocolate and sweets everywhere. I stopped for petrol and there's sugary snacks, crisps, pastries and biscuits staring me in the face. No wonder so many people fail at diets, you can't go anywhere without being stared down by a Curly Wurly!

Chocolate cravings aside, I was pleasantly surprised at how satisfied my appetite was by such high protein / low carb meals. Drinking 3 gallons of water was a bit of a grind though. Just had to keep drinking and keep peeing.

15 litres of water is a LOT of water (2 litre bottle on left for reference)

I am now looking forward to loading up on carbs at the end of the week. This sugar craving is driving me mad!