From TehAis to TehSiAisKosong: Is giving up sugar in Malaysia worth it? #40D40NGeramGula

This is Part 2 of my experiences in giving up sugar for 40 days and 40 nights. If you want to read why I’m doing this, and what it’s like to give up sugar during CNY, click here.

So anyways, long story short, since the start of CNY, me, the sweet-toothed editor of CILISOS, can’t even eat… cilisos. I’ve now just passed the 20th day of my torture. The goal – to see if just giving up added-sugar can help me to lose the 10kg I’ve gained since starting this job.

Here are the rules again, for your convenience. From 0001 on 18th February to 0000 on 2nd April GMT+0800,

• No sugar in anything sweet, except fruits – this includes cookies, cakes, softdrinks, tehais, milo kosong, and even herbal tea.
• No fruit juices or honey either – cos that’s kinda cheating, and the calories can pile up.
• Yes to Yee Sang – cos I want to be prosperous yo, but only one serving each dinner.
• Yes to sugar in savoury things like pasta, rice, bread – Cos if not, might as well give up eatin

• Yes to Alcohol (but no to sweet mixers) – Cos I am not and have never been an excessive drinker. Beer ok, Whiskey Coke or Vodka Cranberry no.
• Yes to calorie-less sugar replacements – Yes, this was the number one tip I received – stevia of course – for my little adventure. (more on this later.)

While we’re on that last point…

Day 11: Celebrating with Coke Zero

On Day 11, I celebrated my first milestone by buying a 1.5L bottle of Coke Zero. To anyone who’s known me, they’ll know that giving up Coke was pretty much the hardest part of this challenge. Even though my challenge allows sugar-replacements, I didn’t want to use it immediately – so I waited till after the first 10 days. Which explains why my craving has been the same every day since I started.

And honestly, I didn’t think Coke Zero would cut it. It would probably taste artificial. I’ve tasted Coke Zero before, and yes it’s much closer to Coke than Coke Light or Diet Coke, but still. I kinda knew it would probably be like scratching the outside of a broken foot cast, rather than the actual point I needed to scratch.

And I was wrong. It tasted….

OMG OMG. I don’t even need Coke anymore. Here’s a really cool video showing the difference in sugar content of Coke Zero and Coke.

Coke Zero uses a combo of good ol aspartame (the most common sweetener in DietCoke and pretty much everything else) with acesulfame Potassium, which passes through the system without changing much. 0 calories and all of the taste? Yes please.

Now to be fair, there are a few studies showing that an over-consumption of sugar supplements can lead to obesity, and another study shows that 318 people given a prescription of Coke, Coke light and Coke Zero showed no difference in results at the end of the study.

Of course, we, as always, believe everything in moderation. Besides…

 Day 14: Monday coffee blues and everything tastes funny

I used to to drink all drinks with sugar. But one of the first things I cut off was sugar from coffees, ever since I started making cappuccinos like this. This was unusual at first, but now I can’t imagine adding sugar and ‘ruining’ the taste.  If you see me adding sugar into a cappuccino, it means it’s crap.

My first experiment at home was with this new trend of Coffee with Butter and there’s all sorts of health benefits to it. So I thought I’d try it with my instant Nescafe at home, with some Durpak butter.

Hmm. Maybe I should put some paikuat and herbs inside.

No, that’s a different image. Anyways, it tasted a bit like Bakuteh as well, albeit not as nice, and not first thing in the morning. Somemore  later I found out most of the health benefits are BS as well, so forget it.

I knew I wanted to remove sugar from mamak drinks as well. So instead of barley no sugar, I started ordering Kopi C Ais and Teh C Ais kosong (with Evaporated rather than Condensed milk), to see if I could get used to it. There’s about 100+ calories in 2 tablespoons of condensed milk (which is your typical Teh Ais). Switching to evaporated milk cuts that down by more than 70%, to roughly just 30 calories.

I did it once in the first 10 days and it tasted awful. This time tho, I had one at the mamak on Monday morning at work, and I had to pass it to my colleague to check if there was any sugar in it – cos it tasted a bit sweet.

By his expression, I guessed that my tastebuds have changed.

And it’s true. I’m a whiskey fan as well, but lately, all my whiskeys have started tasting different. Even the grapes I had with my staff over dinner tasted almost disgustingly sweet.

Despite all these experiments, I gotta say tho… now that I know  I can drink Coke Zero occasionally (I try not to drink it every day), I am actually quite settled into this new life. The only thing I occasionally crave are those yummy desserts after dinner. But one good thing about giving up sugar (vs say alcohol.. sorry William) is that your friends don’t egg you to eat more dessert 🙂

Day 20: Deng deng deng… So how much more weight have I lost?

In my first 10-day report, I indicated that I don’t feel any thinner, and that had been a major cause of demotivation that was only aided by the fact that I could now have Coke Zero. However, a few days ago, some friends came back from a holiday and hadn’t seen me for the last 10 days. They both commented I look thinner, and now comparing these images, it’s actually pretty obvious 🙂 🙂

Waistine is also down from  43, to 41 inches.

Weight however, hasn’t gone down all that much, now just down to 101kg, from 102kg on Day 10, and 104kg on Day 0.

Click here to view my #40D40NGeramGula Day 0-10 log.

Am gonna maintain my current habits and we’ll see what’s what on Day 40, April 2nd (not 4th as I previously spelt out). If you have any experiences with sugar cutting or any interesting experiments you’d like me to try, let me know in the comments below.

In the meantime, I’m gonna admit. The appearance of weight loss makes me feel…