Have you been starting your morning right? For how long? Did you manage a week? 2 weeks? 3 days?

If you have managed even a week, get that right first. Remember, to start small and be consistent.

If you have managed at least a week, your next big challenge, is SUGAR.

There’s 3 macronutrient categories that most foods fall into: Carbohydrates, fat and Sugar. We’ll keep it simple on this post and just take note of the fact that sugar is not a necessary part of any kind of diet. Sugar is a carbohydrate and there are plenty of other sources of carbohydrates that you can eat without as many of the problems sugar comes with. So for the next 3 weeks, focus on eliminating sugar.

Here’s a few helpful tips/substitutes for most of the common forms of sugar:

1) If you’re a tea/coffee drinker, and you like your drink sweet, halve the amount of sugar first. If it doesn’t taste right, then maybe its time you accepted that its not really the coffee/tea you care for. If thats the case, maybe you can replace the whole drink with something sweet instead. Like a fruit or a few dried fruits.

If you can go black…

2) Replace all obvious forms of white sugar only(at first) So throw out sweets and milk chocolate and substitute it with dark chocolate(over 70%) and dried fruit like dates or figs.

3) Make your evening drink of choice tender coconut water

4) If you absolutely must have some sugar. Pick one meal a week to indulge, buy your favourite dessert and eat only one serving of it.

5) Replace fruit juice with whole fruit. Blended fruits have less fibre and tend to be high on fructose anyway.

Do this for 3 weeks and you’ll find you’ll slowly lose your taste for sugar. Its an addiction, and like all addictions you need to patiently wean yourself off it. The results will be well worth the discomfort.

The Author, Jyotsna John, is a fitness enthusiast who turned her passion for fitness into a full time career. She has travelled to UK and the US and studied a lot about fitness while she was there. She has a list of certifications, and is currently a trainer at The Unit, in Chennai.