Vanessa has traveled all over the world.And she came to the conclusion that sugar is literally everywhere!That's not good news for anyone... but especially for her, because as she freely admits, Vanessa is a sugar addict.So how did she go from being completely obsessed about food (or rather, ultra-processed foods) to feeling peace around food, especially sugar?You'll hear about Vanessa's road to recovery in this episode.Find Vanessa here.Need guidance and support to get rid of cravings so tha...

It's the 200th episode of the Life After Sugar podcast! Woo hoo!!I started this podcast in January 2021, and it's become a passion for me, and an inspiration to thousands of people. So thank you for listening!!In this episode, I tell my own personal story of my struggles with cravings and sugar. And how I got to my "life after sugar".You'll also hear why I created this podcast, and how it's helped others.Need guidance and support to get rid of cravings so that you can slim down and finally fe...

Carol didn't really have a problem with sugar until later in life.After each of her 4 pregnancies, she put on weight. Despite challenges like a divorce when her children were still young, Carol was a fighter. But she did overeat... especially sweet and salty foods. And it just got out of control. Her weight climbed, and eventually her nurse practitioner suggested the drug Ozempic, which cost $1000 per month.Listen to how Carol saved herself from taking the drug... and saved thousands of dolla...

Sarah grew up with a mother who was very intentional with feeding her family healthy food. She cooked everything from scratch. As a child, Sarah didn't have any exposure to sugar whatsoever.And because there was no option for sugar in her life, Sarah says that she was neutral around food.Until her late thirties, when she decided to do a popular elimination diet. She had no weight to lose at the time, but she wanted to see what the hype was about.So she went on a 30-day elimination diet where ...

Acquanda grew up eating what she calls "semi-healthy foods", like flavoured yogurts.Then when she moved close to her sister, who's a great cook and dessert maker, Acquanda started eating sweets more often... and craving them!That's when she realized that she had a problem with sugar. She felt powerless.Acquanda was doing research on African American women in the southern states who are breastfeeding. That's when she noticed that packaged and fast foods were everywhere. The food options at the...

Whole foods... processed foods... and ultra-processed foods (UPFs)... What's the difference?I'm not the first to ask this question.In fact, the NOVA system assigns foods to one of four groups, based on how much processing they have been through:Group 1 - Unprocessed or minimally processed foodsGroup 2 - Processed culinary ingredientsGroup 3 - Processed foodsGroup 4 - Ultra-processed food and drink productsIn this episode, you'll get examples of foods from each group. Unsurprisingly, I also ta...

Barry is 62 years old. He's a 4-time world juggling champion. He spent 34 years touring around the world doing shows, corporate events, TV shows, and being on TED stages.2012 was a leap year. On February 29, Barry's 8-year-old son challenged him to "leap" something. So Barry decided to "leap" sugar for 24 hours.Barry went to sleep that night and couldn't believe how great he felt. He woke up the next morning and said: "I gotta do 30 days of this". And about halfway through that 30 days, he sa...

Ellen was a food addict from the age of about 7, she says, with a history of obesity. Doctors and dietitians had put her on many diets as she was growing up, to the point of her doctor suggesting bariatric surgery.She spent a lot of time alone in her bedroom eating ultra processed foods like crisps and chocolate, with the radio on so that nobody would know. And thinking about how to end it all because she was just so miserable.Then when Ellen was 26, she read Dr. Atkins' book, and so started ...

Maybe you believe that a meal isn't complete without dessert.I mean, you can't have a meal without finishing it off with something sweet. Right? It's just not done.Or maybe you feel that if you don't have sweet treats, you'll feel deprived. And you don't want to feel like you're missing out.Maybe you're wondering how you can get through the summer without frozen treats. Or actually, any time of year - because each season has its special sweet foods.But how do you get to "life after sugar...

Judi came from a home with a lot of trauma. Growing up, there was always sugar around. Her mother baked a lot, and that was Judi's go-to whenever she felt any kind of emotional need. As she started to grow older, she felt like she didn't belong. She just didn't fit in. She felt so different - like an outcast, not connected with people and not connected with herself, but she didn't know why.As an adult, severe depression took over to the point where Judi had thoughts like: Why am I on this Ear...

In this episode, I'll be answering a few common questions that I often get from listeners, including: how do you know if a product has naturally occurring sugars or added sugars? and are natural sugars okay?andI've reduced my sugar intake. Why am I still getting cravings?Even if the questions and answers were recorded a year or two ago, they're still relevant today. Need guidance and support to get rid of cravings so that you can slim down and finally feel in control aroun...

When Lisa was around 20 years old, she was diagnosed with hypothyroidism. One of the main side effects was weight gain. And that set her down a path of obsession with food and exercise because she didn't want to gain weight.Previous to that, she had digestive issues. So to try to find a solution, Lisa did everything to the extreme. For example, massive elimination diets. She cut all starchy, carby, and sugary foods.But it was exhausting for her, and she felt restricted... which led to craving...

When Lori was growing up in Los Angeles, she loved all cookies, deserts, and ice cream. Every week when she got her allowance, she spent it on candy and ice cream. Before she knew it she was getting chubby, she says. And she reached 200lbs and started suffering from depression. Her mom tried to help her to lose weight and baked her Atkin’s low carb bread, and Lori was able to get her weight down to about 150lbs. But Lori's weight loss battle had just begun, and her weight yo-yo'd....

Want some simple sugar free recipes?You'll find several in this episode!You'll also find my general tips to avoid refined sugar and starches. And also ideas and recipes for:breakfast foodsmy yummy chia jamsalad dressingsalternatives to pastacondiments like ketchup and mayonnaiseflour free Hollandaise sauceEating real, whole foods that don't contain added sugar doesn't need to be complicated or time-consuming.But just changing what you eat isn't enough.The key is to change how you think.&...

Dana stopped sugar - more specifically, white sugar and flour - in December of 2021. In this episode, Dana tells how she was very addicted to sugar for 40 some years. Today, she recognizes that for her, it's better not to have any than to try to have a little.It was when she was in the hospital in 2021 after an accident that Dana remembered that her grandmother had lost both her legs to diabetes. Dana herself had been diabetic since she was 40 and still didn't give up the sugar. In ...

Beck signed up for the Freedom from Cravings Formula 5-step program in the spring of 2024 because although she knew all about the negative effects of sugar, she was still struggling with sugar cravings.Especially for chocolate.Chocolate with nuts, to be precise.In fact, Step 2 of the program is designed to be a deep dive into learning to make sustainable habit changes.One example is that instead of focusing so much on stopping a bad habit (reaching for chocolate), Beck reframed that into intr...

In this episode, I talk about what I ate on my recent trip to visit my family in the UK.Yes, you can travel and still choose to eat real, whole foods! But it may not always be possible to make the best choices... Do the best you can with the options available. I didn't eat sugar, but I did eat foods that I wasn't used to.Listen to how the temporary change of routine in my diet affected my system, and what I chose to eat (or not eat!) during the 2-week trip. To get personalized guidance from m...

This episode is Part 2 of my chat with Siobhan Harris, who struggled with sugar addiction her whole life.Listen to Part 1 (Episode 179) here. In this episode, Siobhan shares the 5 tools that she uses in her recovery from sugar addiction. These tools are helping Siobhan to remain happily committed to living a sugar-free, flour-free lifestyle for life. These tools may surprise you... and they could help YOU to feel amazing and confident in your sugar-free life too! Find Siobhan and her resourc...

This is a crossover episode with my friend Michelle from the Fast and Fabulous podcast.We talk about:how I fought against cutting sugar for the longest time how I fell into intermittent fasting how eating more often can make you feel more hungry, and eating less often can make you feel less hungrybuilding our relationship up with foodhow the idea of not eating any sugar and flour/grains seems so extremehow we got rid of our sugar cravingshow our relationship with sugar has changed (...

Dr. Michael Mosley is the author of several books, including The Fast 800, The 8-Week Blood Sugar Diet, and The Clever Guts Diet. Sadly, he passed away in June 2024 while on holiday in Greece.In this episode, I want to share with you a book report that I made a couple of years ago for the members of the After Sugar Club private community (find us here). This episode is my summary of his book The Clever Guts Diet that was published in 2017. This book (and this episode) talks about gut health a...

My guest this week is Nikki, who's a fellow mom with 3 boys at home. In this episode, we talk about whole foods, how she feeds her family, and how she helps other moms find more energy in the sometimes overwhelming life that we live as moms.Nikki grew up with pretty healthy meals, usually some sort of meat or fish and vegetables. Rarely desserts, she says - they were just for special occasions.And in college, she went through a phase where she didn't eat as healthy as she should. A...

From November 2023 to June 2024, we had an Italian student staying with us. Not exactly an exchange student, more like a big brother for our daughter.And during those months of his stay with us, I learned quite a few things about food, especially carbs like pasta and flour.For example: teenage boys eat a LOT!he doesn't eat between mealshe doesn't often eat dessertshe didn't grow up with junk food or processed foodshe tried some North American junk foods and wasn't impressedhe's used to e...

From early childhood, Siobhan remembers sneaking cookies before anyone else woke up in the morning. Even as a toddler, she was never able to eat sugar in moderation. Once she hit puberty, this addiction caused her to gain weight and so she started dieting, which led to a diet/binge cycle that lasted decades. After college, Siobhan struggled more and more with weight control and grew increasingly more frustrated around food. She tried every diet, workout method, therapist, alternative mo...

Claire grew up in New England with European parents. She enjoyed a whole foods diet and loved fresh seasonal foods, including fruit, vegetables, and cheeses.Processed foods didn't hold much attraction for her. She grew up loving to cook. So she didn't eat foods with added sugars. So she didn't feel like she was missing out.But with the stress from her job and the breakdown of her marriage, Claire suffered from debilitating adrenal fatigue. She was in her early 40s.After many appointments with...