Dark chocolate, penny sweets, fizzy chews, chocolate cake, blueberry muffins, fizzy sherbet, chocolate mousse, crumble, spotted dick, apple tart, chocolate pudding… Are you noticing a theme here? I was addicted to those sticky toffee puddings, and would laddle a thick spoonful of custard on the top, washed down with a nice bar of chocolate.

I had a serious sweet tooth, and despite my best efforts to conquer my love of sugar, I was addicted. And for me, the addiction continued for probably 25 years from the minute I was old enough to walk to the corner shop to buy my own stash of penny sweets. Over the years, I had succeeded in eating healthily, ramping up the exercise, and looking good. But I was still addicted to the sugar and it showed!

My sugar addiction was carried out in secret, hidden behind scoffing sessions at the movies, or on illicit missions while shopping or racing to an appointment. I didn’t realise the impact it was having on my health, my waistline, and my periods. Each month, my mood would swing from lows to highs, and my periods would abruptly halt my day. I would faint or go green, and couldn’t walk, talk and had little inclination to leave the sofa.

It was miserable, and I was trapped in this monthly cycle. Doctors wanted me to pop pills, and as someone cautious about swallowing a bunch of tablets without knowing the impact it could have on my body. Talking to my acupuncturist one day, she suggested that I try her diet: no wheat, no alcohol, no sugar, no dairy, and no red meat.

It was extreme. The dairy, meat and the wheat I could handle… BUT NO SUGAR!

Honey, I neeeeeeed sugar! I’m like a bee to the honey, it’s the thing that motivates me to exercise, it cheered me when I was low, and it was a friend during the dark times. The first week on my no-sugar diet was hard. I was grumpy, and miserable and probably the most moody I’ve been in years.

But gradually the sugar low diminished, and I didn’t miss the sugar rush. The period pains diminished, and I was just more balanced. The impact on my body has just been life changing. I was the fat girl in my twenties – the sweet one, the pretty girl’s side kick… the fat one no one kissed… Twenty years later I’m in better shape, look younger, and of course I now have my lovely but occasionally grumpy prince charming.

I still eat honey, and some dried fruit, but the crazy sugar rush cravings have gone. And they only come back when I’m exhausted and running on empty. The other day I was surviving on about 3 hours sleep after little one was up all night, and I bought myself a big bag of liquorice and would have scoffed the lot, but I put them in with all the shopping bags in the car and couldn’t find them. The universe definitely had my back that day!!

I’m not a food coach, but when you become more present in your life, and when you are focused and driven in other areas of your life, then it’s easier to focus on something else other than the biscuits. And once you break the habit, anything’s possible. Go on, you can do it.