No Sugar November

Every year in my country #Barbados we have challenge ourselves in the month of #November to cut out sugar.

We do this because Barbados has an extremely high rate of #diabetes and people who suffer from #hypertension.

Reasons : 1) our society is over 90% #Black and black people are more likely to have these diseases.

2) Since we are a #small #island of just over 265,000 people these diseases run in families therefore lots of people will have high risk factors of getting one or both of these non communicable diseases.

3) We as #Bajans our culture includes lots of surgary foods. I suffer from hypertension & fibroids, diagnosed this year and have been taking medication and changing my eating habits. So I started this year more determined to follow through till the end and to shed some pounds. Myself and my fellow #Barbadians do this challenge as a personal goal and I started in at a weight of 199 Lbs and as of today I am at 190 lbs.

What I did in my challenge is to cut out added sugars, no sweets, no sweet drinks nothing. This is not the first year I have done it but it takes the first year I made it almost all the way.

I added in more for myself where I cut out Flour, carbs and hardly salty items.

To do this is actually challenging and I will admit there were days where I fell off.The month of November is a special time in Barbados because it’s our month of Independence. November 30 to be exact is our Independence Day, and we celebrate by bracing our culture of local desserts, foods during this month. So if you see them through the year it is even more prevalent during November and December and the pressure of eating something sweet or salty as well as the cost of eating healthy in Barbados is daunting. Food overall in Barbados is rather expensive. But what I did if I fell off a particular day for that week I would try to keep on track. However I persevered.

I am totally happy with myself and plan to do a modified version going into Christmas which is going to be just at difficult.

So despite it being the holidays what are your weight and eating goals?