- 5 weeks ago
Episode 2: Challenge - No Sugar. Host Marc Ford and Jeremiah LaBrue go 7 days with zero added sugar, sharing the raw truth of sugar detox struggles (headaches, cravings, mood swings) and powerful wins. Steady energy, less bloating, clearer skin, sharper focus, fewer sugar cravings, better sleep, and subtle weight loss from cutting hidden sugars. This fun, honest episode delivers practical tips, food swaps, mindset hacks, epic fails, and laughs to inspire your own no added sugar experiment. No perfection needed. Just say yes to the reset. Hit play and upgrade your health, one sugar-free day at a time. Level Up!
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00:00And now, for the moment you've all been waiting for...
00:04Timster! Timster! Timster!
00:12Hey! Can you hear me?
00:14How's it going?
00:14Hey, it's going good. How are you?
00:16Good.
00:16Yeah, so what's going on?
00:17It's been a good week. Just got done walking the dog.
00:21He took a long time to poop, so sorry I'm late to meet up with you.
00:26But yeah, it's been a great week.
00:28I just think I'm like, what? It's kind of like how my week was, to be honest.
00:32Because, you know, with no sugar this week, I was like cleaning out, not to be too graphic.
00:36But it was really disgusting.
00:38So your dog basically had sympathy pains.
00:41Yeah, yeah. He was getting on my cycle.
00:46Yeah, so I did good, though. I made it all week.
00:50No sugar, no added sugar. I'm sure there's, you know, everything's got some form of sugar in it.
00:56But the focus was no added sugar.
00:59And last night I was tested.
01:01My wife and I went to a concert.
01:03And she brought some candy that I had bought that I didn't eat.
01:07And it's like, you want some?
01:09I'm like, no.
01:09And she kept offering it to me.
01:10But I didn't eat it.
01:12So anyway, I learned a lot.
01:14I learned a lot on this challenge this week.
01:16And did you explain to her why?
01:17Yeah, and it seemed to make her want to, like, tempt me more.
01:20She's like, oh, okay.
01:21Well, why don't you try it?
01:23Well, that's fantastic.
01:25Yeah, I mean, did you learn anything during the week?
01:27Yeah, you know, let's think through it.
01:29But, you know, the high level, like I said, started, you know, getting to kind of clean out.
01:34I learned that there must be a lot of toxins that sugar creates that we don't even know about.
01:38The other thing I noticed is I lost to about four pounds this week just by not eating sugar.
01:46My workouts, I felt better when I woke up in the morning.
01:49I didn't feel fatigued.
01:50Normally, I have, and I've, you know, I've been tested for diabetes and all that.
01:55And I don't have it.
01:57But I mean, I think everybody's pretty diabetic to a point.
01:59So I noticed, though, I wasn't as tired as much.
02:02So those are some things I learned.
02:05I'm actually planning on continuing at least, you know, I know we'll probably do another challenge.
02:10But I'm planning on continuing this another week.
02:13So I'll kind of like just let you know how it goes.
02:16Yeah, that's the whole point is that we challenge ourselves to do things either for the fun of it,
02:20for the health benefits, or whatever it is, just for the experience of it.
02:24And just like everything else in life, if you see something or you do something that you like,
02:28or you see the benefit of it, you keep doing it.
02:30And I'm the same way.
02:31I was concerned.
02:33I mean, I've never been a big sugar eater anyway.
02:35I've never been a candy eater.
02:38I've always been one of those weird ones that I enjoyed the game of collecting a lot of stuff during
02:44Halloween.
02:45And then I just wouldn't eat it.
02:46I would just give it all away.
02:47I just don't eat candy.
02:49Yeah, I've never been into candy.
02:52I don't really eat desserts.
02:53I've never been into like cakes and pies.
02:56I don't eat any pies or anything like that.
02:59And it really hasn't been that much of a big stretch.
03:01But the key was just, you know, like you said, just finding things, not things that don't have sugar,
03:06because so much has sugar, but where you look at the label and you go added sugar.
03:10And, you know, we're going to have a big storm here.
03:13So I went grocery shopping on Wednesday.
03:15And the one thing it did is it probably added another 15 minutes to half an hour to my grocery
03:21shopping,
03:22because I took the time to read the label on everything that I was buying.
03:25And, you know, I bought a lot of food to basically hibernate for the next couple of weeks.
03:29But one thing that I added to my diet was just a lot of natural products.
03:33So just a lot of lettuce, a lot of fruit, a lot of vegetables, things that I just know just
03:38don't have added sugar to it, a lot of berries.
03:41But, yeah, so for me, it's just going through that exercise.
03:44I don't know about you, but I think the first couple of days I didn't really have the cleansing experience,
03:49because I told you before we started the challenge, I had already done a cleanse,
03:53which, you know, you kind of experienced the same discomforts and bowel pleasures as I had.
03:59I felt that in the beginning my sleep patterns were a little bit off.
04:03I also felt that, you know, I don't really have, like I love juice.
04:06And so, you know, I had to cut that out and I had to replace drinking my grape juice and
04:12my cranberry juice with green tea.
04:14And I did notice a little bit of a dip in energy level.
04:17And then, of course, I didn't drink any coffee.
04:19I don't really drink a lot of coffee, but I can't drink coffee without creamer.
04:23And creamer just has a lot of sugar in it.
04:25So there was no coffee in my diet this week.
04:27So it was really just lemon juice and green tea and a lot of water.
04:31And, yeah, so I think like you, you know, when I was working out as well,
04:34I didn't really notice a big difference other than the recovery was better.
04:38Like I wasn't fatigued after.
04:40I didn't, you know, usually after a workout, I'm a little bit fatigued.
04:43But this time I wasn't fatigued.
04:45Actually, I felt more of an energy.
04:47Yeah, well, that's awesome.
04:49I was curious.
04:50One thing I tried to not do, and I'm curious if you did this.
04:54I didn't really tell a lot of people because I find that annoying as hell when people are like,
04:57hey, just so you know, I'm not doing that this week.
05:00Just wanted you to know, like repeat over and over again.
05:03So hopefully you didn't do that.
05:05No, no, I just, you know, you know me.
05:06I don't really do that anyway.
05:09I wait for someone to react to something and then they ask, you know, why don't you do that?
05:13And then I just tell them, well, I'm just choosing not to do that.
05:16You know, like I don't drink any alcohol.
05:17And in the beginning, a lot of people would say, oh, is it for religious reasons?
05:21Is it for, you know, whatever reasons and blah, blah.
05:24And I'm like, no, I just quite honestly don't like the taste.
05:27You know what the best answer to that is?
05:28It has nothing to do with anything.
05:30That's a good one.
05:31And another one I find is I just tell people I don't have a dull personality.
05:36Like I can say it with a straight face.
05:38And they're like, what do you mean?
05:39You know, like, well, I, yeah, I'm, I'm not like you.
05:41I, I don't, you know, I, I don't struggle with a personality, so I don't have to drink.
05:46It makes it really awkward for people.
05:48You have to say that would depend, depends who the person is.
05:52Yeah.
05:52I usually try to, I usually try to say it to somebody that can beat it on me.
05:55I don't even see myself saying that to my dad.
05:59Yeah.
06:00Yeah.
06:00It might not go over well with your dad.
06:02Yeah.
06:02Because for the longest time, like, you know, every single time I would come, like my parents
06:07are just so incredibly hospitable.
06:09Right.
06:09So it's always, you know, if my dad, like my dad doesn't drink, I mean, he barely ever
06:13drinks, but maybe in the summer he may crack open a beer to watch his, you know, Yankees
06:18baseball game.
06:19He'd say you'd want one.
06:20I'd be like, no, thanks.
06:21Or, you know, at Christmas time, obviously people tend to enjoy a nice glass of wine
06:25or something like that on the, with their meal and no, no thanks.
06:29Like over and over and over again, no thanks, no thanks, no thanks.
06:32And it really had nothing.
06:33I mean, the nice thing is everything that I'm reading now is, is all about how alcohol
06:38is just not good for you.
06:39This whole idea of, you know, a beer a day is better for you than no beer.
06:42Yeah.
06:43I mean, that's really coming out to, to prove absolutely wrong.
06:46No alcohol is good for you.
06:47And for me, it's just one of those lucky things where cutting it out of my diet was
06:51very, very easy because I just didn't like the taste.
06:54There wasn't really anything I liked.
06:56And then because I don't like sweet things, you know, I don't like the sweet cocktails
06:59and mixed drinks.
07:00I don't like beer unless it's really, really cold and basically watered down.
07:05So it's just basically flavored water.
07:07Alcohol has a ton of sugar in it.
07:09A ton.
07:09Yeah.
07:09Yeah.
07:10So yeah, for the challenge went well this week and plan on continuing it on.
07:15The other thing I was thinking about is I want to do a lot of studying on how, uh, sugar,
07:20cutting out sugar affects cancer markers because my father is, as you know, he passed away from
07:27small cell lung cancer.
07:28And I'm curious, um, you know, if maybe I should, should cut sugar out just for those
07:33reasons.
07:34I'm going to do a lot of research on that and I'll maybe talk about it in our, you know,
07:37our coming, uh, podcast.
07:39But, um.
07:39Yeah, definitely.
07:40I want to do the same.
07:41I mean, because I've read studies and of course it all depends on the source of the material,
07:46right?
07:46We just have a lot of dairy in our, in our diet.
07:48The only dairy I really have is I, that I consume on a regular basis.
07:52I don't know about you is, is, um, is, uh, is yogurt.
07:55I just love yogurt, Greek yogurt, plain yogurt, whatever kind of yogurt.
07:59I love it.
07:59Yeah, I do.
08:00I do a Greek yogurt.
08:02Yeah.
08:02Do you add berries to it?
08:03I do.
08:04I put blueberries in it.
08:05And what I did use, uh, for a sweetener this week was honey.
08:10And, you know, some people would argue that, but, uh, I, I didn't consider that, you know,
08:15I consider that natural.
08:17So it was, uh, I found that helped out.
08:19It was interesting because when I was at the grocery store, I had this massive bag of mixed
08:23berries.
08:24So I had the blueberries, the raspberries, the blackberries and the, um, cashier said, Ed,
08:28you know, what are you planning to do with this?
08:30Are you making like something?
08:31I said, no, no, I, this is my version of ice cream.
08:33And she said, well, what do you mean?
08:34I said, well, I just keep this in the freezer.
08:36And then at night as a snack, I'll just make myself a bowl of these mixed berries and I'll
08:40eat it like I'm eating instead of eating ice cream.
08:43And she said, oh, that was, that's such a great idea.
08:45She goes, I'm always looking for something healthy, like a healthy snack to eat.
08:48And I said, yeah, it's basically, it's just a, it's just a frozen drink, just a bowl full
08:52of frozen berries.
08:54And I love it.
08:55I absolutely love it.
08:56I do that with my grapes too.
08:57I, when I buy grape, I'll put them in the freezer and then freeze them.
09:00Yeah.
09:00One thing I learned is, I don't know why it made me think of this.
09:04Don't, don't ever give frozen grapes.
09:06If you ever have a dog, cause I have a friend that gave his dog frozen grapes and it killed
09:11his dog.
09:12You know, a lot of people think, oh, that's healthy.
09:14Dogs can eat that.
09:14Random thought just cause I love dogs.
09:16No.
09:17And that's a great, great point.
09:18I mean, I think my sister was the one who taught me that never give a dog scraps from the
09:22table
09:23because the first time you do that, the rest of their lives, they're going to be begging,
09:26begging for food.
09:27She says her dogs never beg for food because she never gives them people food and she never
09:31gives them scraps from the table.
09:33Our dog begs for food, but only for my wife because my wife fed the dog from the table.
09:41He knows like, he, he knows like, I'm not going to, I'm not going to even try with that
09:45guy yet.
09:45So he doesn't, he doesn't even try to ask for, you know, beg for anything from me.
09:49Yeah.
09:50Yeah.
09:50No, no, I, I totally get it.
09:52But, uh, anything else you learned?
09:54I mean, did you, did you add anything new to your diet?
09:57Did you say, Hey, listen, like, did you try and find substitutes?
10:00You know, like I did with, uh, with not drinking grape juice or cranberry juice, I switched
10:05green tea.
10:06Did you switch anything out?
10:07Like, did you say, okay, I'm going to stop eating this and going forward, I'm going to
10:11eat this other thing.
10:12You know, yeah, the main thing was I had, I don't, I don't always have yogurt.
10:16So I attended, I had Greek yogurt with berries.
10:19That was kind of my go-to.
10:21Yeah.
10:21So those were the main things I noticed.
10:24That's really the only, I don't, I don't need a lot of bread, but for me, the other thing
10:29that was hard is just, I just reading the labels, making sure stuff didn't have sugar
10:34in it, like added sugar, because a lot of stuff does.
10:37And then I, um, I found that protein was, is always a good filler.
10:42There's actually a lot of protein in, and this could be argued, but there's a lot of
10:45protein bars that have one gram of sugar, which I don't consider that like added sugar.
10:51I mean, so that, that was, that was helpful.
10:54But yeah, how about you?
10:55Did you, did you, uh, do anything different or add anything to your diet?
10:59Yeah, I think, you know, the, with the vegetables.
11:01So even, even when I said, okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna make the salad and, and usually my
11:06salads are just plain.
11:07I usually just get romaine lettuce or something like that.
11:09But this time I said, I'm gonna get some lettuce and then add some cucumbers and things
11:12like that.
11:12But then you even have to look at the dressing because the dressing has tons and tons of sugar
11:17in it.
11:17So usually I, I, my favorite dressing is, is Greek, uh, Greek dressing, salad dressing.
11:23So this week I switched to, um, which is kind of classic in, in Europe.
11:26I don't know if it's so much here in the U S but in Europe, I grew up on, um,
11:30uh, vinegar
11:30and oil.
11:31So that was basically with, with some herbs and spices, but my mom would make homemade
11:35salad dressing, which was just a mixture of vinegar and oil.
11:38So because neither of those have sugar in it, that's what I, that was my go-to salad dressing
11:42for this week.
11:43And so that was, that was a switch.
11:45Again, like I said, I, I bought a lot of tangerines.
11:48I bought some apples, bought some grapes.
11:50I bought obviously the mixed berries.
11:52So just a heavy dose of just, just, I guess, lack of a better word, real food, which everyone
11:56is saying is kind of the new diet, which is stay away from processed stuff and just go
12:00to real food.
12:00Things that are real, like, like you said, beef, chicken, things that are not man-made.
12:04Did you have any cravings?
12:05Yeah, not, not really.
12:08You know, the first few days I did for me, I, ice cream is a huge one.
12:12I love ice cream.
12:13And so I thought about it, but then like we went to the store and I passed the ice
12:17cream aisle and I thought about it and I'm like, uh, no, I just can't do it.
12:21And so, but I found about midweek, it's weird.
12:24My wife started like, there's this place called Soda Rush that we go to and they, and they
12:28have cookies and you know, she normally wants to go there once a week and I don't know if
12:32I split a cookie with her.
12:34My, my wife, uh, seemed to want to go to this place called Soda Rush more than she ever
12:39has.
12:40So I felt like she was trying to tempt me, but the cool thing is I didn't, the first
12:44time we went, I was thinking about it.
12:46Second time I didn't even, it didn't phase me.
12:48And she asked me like two or three times, you sure you don't want a cookie?
12:51You sure?
12:52You sure?
12:52You sure?
12:53Yeah.
12:53How about, how about you?
12:54Were you tempted?
12:55Well, yeah, you know, cause I, over Christmas, I tend to let things slip just because it's
13:00the holidays and I say, okay, I'm going to make up for it.
13:02I'm going to burn it off some way or, or, you know, do something.
13:05And, uh, during the holidays, I never buy myself any kind of sweets or anything like
13:09that, but I, I had a lot of coffee ice cream and I had a lot of chocolate chip cookies
13:13and
13:14things that I just never, ever eat.
13:15You tend to eat what's in front of you.
13:17So it took me like about, yeah, a couple of weeks I'd say to kind of, I didn't buy any
13:21when
13:21I, when I got back home from the holidays, but I did crave it every single time I was
13:25in the grocery store and I passed by the cookie dough.
13:28And especially nowadays, cause I don't know if you know this, but cookie dough, you can
13:31eat, they have edible cookie dough.
13:33And so.
13:33Oh yes.
13:34Oh yeah.
13:34We, we do that all the time.
13:36Uh, Sam's club, you can buy a tub of cookie dough and we'll just get it and eat the cookie
13:42dough.
13:42But, uh, yeah, that's, it's dangerous.
13:45Yeah.
13:45So I'd say those who, I mean, I'm over it completely.
13:47There's a couple of foods where if I, I, because I don't, because I deprive myself
13:52of them, if I ever, if I'm ever in front of them, I will just devour the thing fast.
13:57One is pizza.
13:58I rarely eat pizza.
14:00I love freaking pizza.
14:01Oh yeah.
14:01But when I eat pizza, like I eat the whole thing and I mean, I eat the whole thing fast.
14:05Like I can eat a medium really, really fast.
14:07Cause I just never eat pizza.
14:09And the other thing too is Doritos.
14:11Like I could finish off a family size bag of Doritos in one sitting.
14:15I have some good news on Doritos.
14:17They have Doritos makes Doritos naked.
14:19It's a new thing.
14:20And, uh, they took out all the additive dyes and chemicals.
14:24So they're supposed to be better for you.
14:25Oh, that's great.
14:26It's just one of those things where it just, it's just, just so delicious.
14:29So when I'm in front of it, I just can't stop.
14:30I just, it's almost, if I'm watching a football game or something like that, I just keep reaching
14:35into the bag.
14:35I mean, I remember once where I said to myself, okay, I'm going to discipline myself.
14:39Cause I do believe in the concept of everything in moderation that just don't overindulge.
14:44Don't eat hamburgers every day.
14:45Don't eat pizza every day.
14:46Don't eat salami every day.
14:48Like, you know, just eat things in moderation and you should be okay.
14:51And so I said, okay, well, you know, maybe I'll apply that to Doritos.
14:54So I bought those, those little mini bags that people do like that people carry to school
14:58and things like that.
14:59The little mini, it was like, uh, those are disappointments to me.
15:02It was like a, it just, there's like 24 in a, in a box or something like that.
15:07And I said, oh, this is great.
15:08This is, this is going to be 24.
15:10This is almost a month's worth.
15:11So one bag a day.
15:12And I remember telling my sister that I did that because my sister knows how much I love
15:16Doritos.
15:17And I said, you know, I bought this box with 24 bags of Doritos, mini bags of Doritos.
15:22And she goes, let me guess.
15:23You finished them all.
15:24I said, yes, I finished them all.
15:26Cause I kept going back and I was like, okay, two more bags.
15:29Okay.
15:29One more bag.
15:30Okay.
15:31Whatever.
15:31Three more bags.
15:32By the end of the day, the all 24 were gone.
15:36And the sad thing is, I'm sure you already know this cause you're, you know, you're an
15:40expert in sales.
15:41The more packaging that's involved, the more expensive it is.
15:45The convenience of taking chips and putting them into 24 bags, those 24, the ounces that you
15:50get in those 24 bags combined are more expensive than just buying a big bag of family size bag
15:56of Doritos, which you get more and it's cheaper.
15:59Yeah.
15:59So it actually costs me more money and it didn't do anything to, to discipline my appetite.
16:07That's funny.
16:07So I'm thinking you just brought up a subject that I thought was really interesting.
16:10And it's something I've been wanting to try and it's, I don't eat a lot of it, but
16:14I know I need to cut down because I eat too much of it.
16:17Let's try a week of no bread.
16:20Okay.
16:21I'm up for that.
16:22So I was going to say no carbs, but I think that's a little bit difficult because I eat
16:25a lot of rice.
16:26I eat a lot of mashed potatoes, things like that.
16:28And, and, and I had just bought a lot of it because, because we have this big storm
16:32coming.
16:32So I, you know, and you can buy, you can make that in bulk, right?
16:35You can make a big pot of that stuff and it can last you two or three days.
16:38I just bought a lot of it.
16:39So I don't want it to go to waste.
16:41Not that it turns bad, but I just didn't want it to go to waste.
16:44So, um, no bread.
16:45Okay.
16:46Yeah.
16:46I mean, do you want to try that?
16:47No bread is, does that sound good?
16:48Yeah.
16:48No bread.
16:49Let's do it.
16:50So no, uh, no carbs, nothing.
16:52Well, no, no, I mean carbs.
16:54Yeah.
16:54But just no bread.
16:55No bread.
16:56Okay.
16:56I can do that.
16:56I mean, we could try no carbs, but it's.
16:58No, I don't want to, I'm not really ready for that.
17:00Let's do no bread.
17:01Yeah.
17:01I'm not ready for it either.
17:02Like I said, I just bought a bunch of stuff.
17:04Yeah.
17:05Yeah.
17:05Yeah.
17:05Screw that.
17:06I don't want to, I don't want to, I still need some carbs.
17:08No, no breads is tough because I'm like, geez, I mean, that's no hamburger.
17:12That's like no pizza.
17:13That's like one of my favorite snacks is I eat peanut butter and jelly sandwich at night.
17:17If I get, if I get really, really hungry before bed, I'll just make myself just a quick peanut
17:21butter and jelly sandwich, which I couldn't do last week because both of that has sugar.
17:25So this week I, at the grocery store, I made it a point and it's horrendously expensive
17:31to buy all natural peanut butter, which is a pain in the neck because when you open it,
17:35you have to mix it.
17:36It's just, it's separated, right?
17:37The oil is on the top and then the peanut butter is on the bottom.
17:40You'd literally have to get this knife and you have to, you have to actually stir it and
17:44mix it together.
17:45And then to buy jam preserves, natural preserves without sugar, no sugar added.
17:50And the jars are tiny, like you get nothing.
17:52But I wanted to stay on the discipline of no sugar.
17:54So I bought all natural peanut butter and sugar-free jam.
17:58Well, I, uh, yeah, I'm excited.
18:01Let's, let's do this challenge.
18:02And then no bread.
18:04What I want to research that we could do in coming week is I'm curious too, this is a
18:09different challenge idea, but I'm reading a lot of bad, like I love bacon and I'm reading
18:13a lot of bad things about parasites and pork, even if you cook it.
18:18So I'm going to, I'm going to do some studying in that to see if there's any merit, but that's
18:22when we can look at it down the road.
18:23Yeah.
18:23Let's look into that because I did some research on that because I love bacon too, but even
18:28if you cook it, apparently it's still not good.
18:31No, but even, even the alternatives, like, so I, I did a Google search on, well, actually
18:36a Grok search on the health benefits of turkey bacon.
18:39And it's just, it's just not as good as it's, I mean, it's, it's bacon, but it's still not
18:43good.
18:43Like now I'd rather just not eat bacon.
18:45Cause that's turkey bacon.
18:47It's like my wife the other day was like, I'm going to make turkey meatballs.
18:50I'm like, I'd rather just not eat meatballs, like dry, nasty turkey meatballs are just
18:55disgusting.
18:56Yeah.
18:56But I also didn't realize how big the category of processed food is.
19:02I mean, I did, I, I'm just now learning cause we're, we're, you know, embarking on this,
19:05on this journey.
19:06I, I'm, I just learned, you know, just this week because obviously processed, there's a
19:10lot of sugar and processed stuff as well.
19:12Right.
19:12So I, the difference between ultra processed and processed, but it's, it's, it's really
19:17far reaching how much stuff is actually processed.
19:20Like it's, it's, it's quite substantial.
19:22Yeah.
19:23So yeah.
19:23I mean, you know, nuggets, all that kind of stuff is all processed.
19:26Well, let's yeah, let's do this challenge.
19:28No bread.
19:29Okay.
19:29And I'm excited to talk about it next week.
19:32Yeah.
19:32I'm anticipating maybe some weight loss.
19:34Not that I necessarily need it, but I'm anticipating maybe slimming down just a bit.
19:39I don't know if a week will make a difference, but I, everybody that I've learned that either
19:43gone on the keto diet or have gone on like no carbs or no bread or have always seen like
19:49substantial weight loss in the first week just by eliminating bread.
19:53Yeah.
19:54It should be, uh, yeah, it should be awesome.
19:56I'm excited about it.
19:57Well, great.
19:58Well, okay.
19:58Then we'll reconnect next week.
20:00All right.
20:00Take care.
20:01Okay.
20:01Bye.
20:02Bye.
20:02Bye.
20:03Bye.
20:03Bye.
20:04Bye.
20:05Bye.
20:06Bye.
20:10Bye.
20:22Bye.
20:23Bye.
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