So you may remember that I formally decided that I would give up all refined sugar, white flours and grains on my birthday and I did indeed start on my birthday weekend although I have to admit that my last alcoholic drink before starting was a glass of wine on the 3rd of February.

So it's been around a month and I'm entering the 5th week and what can I tell you?  Well you're probably wondering dear reader if I have found it hard and the answer would be, no, not so much, the tricky things have been eating out but I always seem to have found something I could eat and on one occasion I even had fish and chips, though I did of course take the fish out of all of the batter.

Cake avoidance has also been tricky when out with friends for coffee, especially if they're enjoying a scrumptious morsel but I've been pretty resolute and I know now that I definitely have will power and determination when I want to!

I think for me the best thing that has happened is the increase in energy, just after Christmas I bought my first Fitbit and I have gradually seen my activity rates creep up and now I am happy to report that I've never done less than 10K steps since 13th Feb and even when I have had office days and I'm working I've made up for it when I have come home, I've even done the last couple of thousand steps around my sitting room if necessary.

Last week at my official Slimming World weigh in I had lost 6lb since I started the sugar free plan but remarkably for me it's the inches which I seem to have lost, I wish I'd taken measurements.  I took a photo in the mirror when I was staying in Edinburgh earlier in the week and for the first time in ages I didn't totally hate what I saw.

I've 13lb to get to my target so still some way but I think if I can do it my leggies are going to look pretty brilliant.

I thought I would also share with you my favourite recipe I've created over the last month so here it is, I give you Chilli Con Quinoa

So first of all you have to cook the Quinoa, this is tri-coloured but I've also used the normal stuff which is fine also.

So you take your Quinoa, add double the amount of water or slightly more, give it a good salting, peppering and then add a heaped teaspoon of hot chilli power in (the one which contains paprika etc, not just chilli) and then cook until ready, Quinoa when ready goes slightly translucent but it's still got a crunch to it.

Now at this point you could eat it warm and add chicken etc but I like to let it cool down and then I pop it into a large container with chopped peppers and onion and then I keep it in the fridge and eat when required, the above photo I added beetroot and goats cheese and I can confirm that it was a super tasty salad which is syn free on Slimming World (as long as you count your goats cheese as a HEA) really filling, full of the right type of fats and totally delish!

Now I do have to admit that when I was at the bloggers event in Edinburgh on Thurs/Fri I had a tiny bit of alcohol and also some sugars but yesterday I was straight back on the sugar free wagon.  What I did find is that if you don't eat sugar and then you do it's actually quite a high for a while, peculiar how it seems to have a drug like effect, that can't be good can it?

Sweet Poison and Davina's 5 weeks to Sugar Free

Ever since I joined Slimming World and started to respect my body a little more dear reader i've become fascinated with trying to understand how my body works and why I've always had a problem with my weight, it's only in the last couple of years I've really got to grips with that and that's why I'm more than 2 stone lighter than I was in April 2013.

Just lately as I've really been changing my life in all aspects for it I've taken a really hard look at what's going on inside my body as much as I've looked at all of the external things which affect me, my life and my business.

Last week I tentatively started on Davina's 5 weeks to Sugar Free and I'm actually really enjoying it, I've not cut out all sugar yet as it was my birthday, I went out for drinks but it's around a week since I started putting most of it into practice and I'm 2lb down, feel a lot brighter and definitely have more energy during the day.  I am also reading "Sweet Poison, why sugar makes us fat" by David Gillespie recommended to me by a friend and it's a good (although quite heavy in places) book  all around the same subject that refined sugar isn't good for us at all but we're all blooming addicted to it and if we can just restore our bodies to the way they're supposed to work we'll feel and look a whole lot better.

Now obviously I'm not a diet guru just like I'm not a life guru and actually it's probably more the case that if I can do it anyone can but we're all in this together right?  We made it through January and came out of the end better people because we took control, well this is one of the next step because we need to love ourselves and respect ourselves in all areas and that includes what we're putting in our bodies.  I love cake, i'm sorry, I do, it's not my fault!  I've just experimented by making a Victoria sponge using a recipe from Davina's book which substitutes the sugar by using Maple Syrup and which swaps white flour for wholemeal spelt, I can tell you that it was so delish that Looby asked for more!!  Ideally I think no maple syrup or honey would be the ideal but none of us are perfect so if we can just cut out most of the sugar, swap white flour for wholemeal spelt (yes I know, spelt, it sounds hideous but I promise it's not, I made a loaf, I didn't die and I didn't suffer from bloating, I didn't even have middle aged lady night sweats)  I also made our Yorkshire puddings with it yesterday and Iain (yes the one with aspergers who doesn't like anything and won't try anything) didn't notice the difference, obviously I didn't tell him until after he'd eaten them!

So if like me you're on a path to changing your whole entire life for the better why not give it a go, you can still have pies (wholemeal spelt crust) and you can still have pizza (home made with wholemeal spelt) and you can still have bread and the changes you need to make are minimal, it's actually a lot simpler than I thought and I was doing a lot of it with Slimming World anyway, the one thing I wasn't doing was I was having a lot of low fat things and they seem to contain some not very nice things and some hidden sugars in some cases so now I'm making sure I'm moving back to basics, I'm a pretty good cook and I really enjoy baking and cooking, I find it's actually relaxing, especially if you can put on the radio and dance with your beagle!

So now we're into February, I hope you're continuing on the path to being a better you, you know what I'm working on, well lets just say by the end of the year I hope I'll be able to help you be a better you in person and online, more about that coming up soon...