Life After Sugar

Kate Bee is the founder of The Sober School. Right back from her childhood surrounded by family members who drank, she says that alcohol was the most normalized drug around. When she became an adult, Kate used alcohol to be cool, as well as to help her forget about all the things that she thought were wrong with her. Looking back, she realizes that she'd also used food for comfort and reward....

Martin was lucky enough to have 3 mothers who raised him. As they came from the Depression, they wanted him to eat to make them happy. So he did. And over time, he put on weight. And he overate, especially desserts. Martin recognizes that he had an emotional connection to food. As a businessman, he decided to approach his weight and health as if he was the CEO of a business. He identified 14 probl...

Hi, I'm Netta. All my life, I loved chocolate. Chocolate helped me to feel better whenever I felt sad, or angry, or frustrated, or bored... or when I needed comfort or a way to reward myself. And if you were looking to give me a gift for any type of special occasion, chocolate was always the right choice! So... what happened to make me break up with chocolate? And how did I do it? In this Val...

Erin had spent her life doing things "right". She followed the rules. "Eat less, move more". "Track your calories". All of it. But it was when Erin's health took a dramatic turn for the worse that she really woke up to the fact that everything she'd learned was wrong. She'd spent her career in the fitness industry, and she realized that what she'd...

Most foods that contain refined and added sugars and grains are manufactured by the processed foods industry to make consumers crave them so that they eat more... and buy more! So when you stop buying and eating all those industrially processed food products and snacks, what's left to eat? Real, whole foods, that's what! But with rising grocery prices , how can you save money (and time!)...

When she was younger, Kerri spent a lot of her life sad, anxious, overweight, and frustrated — convinced that if she just lost weight, her life would change. She'd spent tens of thousands of dollars on doctors, diets, supplements, medications, and fitness plans, trying to find a magic pill to help her lose weight quickly. She thought losing weight would cure her crippling anxiety and fatigue...

Joy Kiddie, a Canadian dietitian known as the "low carb healthy fat dietitian", explains how for generations, bread has been a cultural staple for many cultures,. Also tortillas, naan, challah, roti... So it's understandable that when people want to reduce carbs in the form of flour, cutting bread is a struggle. In this episode,  we talk about the cultural importance of bread, and h...

Dr. Michael Roizen is a physician who specializes in anti-aging. He became famous for developing the Real Age concept and has authored or coauthored 5 number one New York Times best sellers. In this episode, Dr. Roizen talks about the concept of real age versus calendar age. In fact, your physiological age, not just how old you are, can make a huge impact on different risk factors for your health....

With my experience of several years of being sugar free, I've discovered that there are 3 essentials to living a confident and joyful sugar free life. And they're probably not what you think. These essentials go way beyond what you eat. For this first episode of 2023, I want to share with you my own vision of how you can get to a place where you don't need, miss, or want sugar in yo...

Tracy was my guest on Episode 10, and we check back in with her in this episode to see how she's doing. Tracy says that she feels that she's grown in the last year since she left sugar behind. She feels like she's no longer enslaved. She's gained the self-confidence that she was lacking for a really long time because she was so ashamed of her secret war with sugar. In this epis...

This episode is Part 2 of answers to listeners' questions for the 100th episode of the Life After Sugar podcast. In this episode, you'll get answers to questions such as: What do you do with cravings that hit at night? Was there ever a moment in my (Netta's) first year when I considered going back to life with sugar? What do you do when you live with people who still consume sugar?...

It's the 100th episode of the Life After Sugar podcast! Woo hoo!! And to celebrate, I asked my listeners to submit the questions they'd like me to answer on the 100th episode... and I got so many that I'm going to answer them in 2 episodes (#100 and #101)! In this episode, you're going to get answers to questions such as: What can you replace sugar with? What can you use to rep...

Jenn Trepek's passion for nutrition and helping others stems from kicking her own food issues and weight management. As a kid, she ate lot of vegetables... but she also consumed lots of bread, chips, pasta... and soda! As she got older, Jenn noticed conversations around cholesterol and weight for her dad, but she didn't question it. Her family followed the food pyramids (with grains as i...

Dr. Lucy Burns used to identify as (in her words) a sweet tooth, a chocoholic, and a lollytarian! Her whole life revolved around getting sugar in some form. Sugar was such a big part of her identity that she wasn't aware of her dependence on it. And because all that sugar made her gain weight, she also went on diets. As a doctor, she was always caring for others... and she turned to reward ea...

In this episode, Rachel talks openly and candidly about her struggles with sugar and food addiction. She says that sugar had been a problem since childhood, but through her teen years and into her twenties, she didn't recognize that sugar and her disordered eating were problematic. As a registered nurse and a nutritionist, Rachel was looking for tools to help her clients. And that's wher...

Michael Moss' book "Hooked" came out in 2021, and when I read it... it blew my mind! As a consumer, it doesn't feel like the food manufacturers care about nourishing us, and even less about our health! How has the processed foods industry "hooked" us on their processed products? Are they really created to be addictive? Moss' book addresses questions about how fas...

Nicola grew up in the 70s and 80s, and says that she doesn't remember food being an issue during her childhood. She wasn't overweight as a child. In her 20s and 30s, once she had her own money, all she wanted to do was to buy the food that was available at the canteen at the hospital where she worked. She also had the attitude that if she needed to lose weight, she would crash diet. It w...

You may self-identify as a sugar addict... But are you really "addicted"? In this episode, I'm talking to my friend Molly Painschab, who is a mental health professional, addiction strategist, behavior specialist, and certified international food addiction counselor. Molly has her own personal experience of a disordered relationship with food. She experienced gestational diabetes, we...

Do you have kids? (Or grandkids) In this episode, I'm talking with Lauren Bryson, who's a cooking instructor for kids, Board Certified in Holistic Nutrition and host of the Go Play in the Dirt Podcast. Lauren  specializes in digestive wellness, the microbiome, autoimmune conditions and the gut-brain connection. And she also teaches kids how to cook with real whole foods! (ie: NOT sugar.....

Robyn and I are friends and we share something that I kind of wish we didn't: our long and difficult struggle with infertility. In this episode, Robyn tells about her childhood in the 80s and her eating habits. She also talks about how later in life she discovered a love for food and cooking. In her early 30s, Robyn and her husband tried unsuccessfully to have a baby. It was a difficult and f...

Letting go of sugar and living happily sugar free is 100% possible... but it's definitely easier when you have guidance and support so that you're not struggling on your own. In this episode, you'll discover the framework and the structure we follow in Life After Sugar. I'll walk you through 3 practical exercises from the Life After Sugar Program, so that you can become more aw...

So you're ready to start reducing or cutting sugar. Wonderful! But where do you start? HOW do you start? Most people make the mistake of concentrating on the food first. I have another approach. I suggest starting with YOU. What's your natural personality? What's your big WHY? Your reason for wanting to reduce or cut sugar? And yes - what's left to eat when you take away sugar...

Dr. Orlena Kerek is a paediatric doctor turned family health advocate. She worked as a doctor in the UK and now she practices in Spain. It broke her heart to see so many sick people in hospital dying of “lifestyle disease” that could have been prevented with a healthy lifestyle. She has 4 kids so she knows how crazy life can get.  Dr. Orlena helps ambitious mums have more energy and overcome the f...

Sugar was a reward during Scott's childhood. And as a result, Scott was overweight as a child, and his mother put him on all kinds of diets. He felt like a disappointment at weigh-ins. It was a struggle to keep his weight down most of his life. As he grew up, his mental framework was that sugar was a treat... it was fun and enjoyable and decadent. But he also wondered: Why is something that t...

Gabrielle had leukemia as a very young child. But it wasn't until her 20s that she started to realize what some of the long term effects of chemotherapy were. Gabrielle tells how during her younger years, her lack of knowledge about nutrition did her a disservice. Up to her her mid 20s, she'd been following the classic American diet. And she started having weight issues, even though she...