The beginning

We started our unsugared journey over a year ago, after realizing what our sugar addiction was doing to our physical and mental health and wellbeing. With two young kids (4 and 6 at the time), we knew giving up sugar would not be easy but we knew we had to do it for their wellbeing and ours.

One of the questions I often get is: "How do you do it? The change is so overwhelming! Everything has sugar!".

My answer is "slowly" and with a lot of perseverance. I think the transition is easier when your whole family gets into it. The kids see that they aren't the only ones who are limited, and as a parent you're the example for your kids so you're less likely to cheat (at least, when they can see you).

There's a lot of time spent at the beginning revamping your pantry and learning what you can and cannot get from the grocery store. Foods that had been a staple in a household with kids (e.g., ketchup), are now off limits (or don't taste very good).

We started slowly and worked our way up to our current state: A diet in which our sugar intake comes entirely from vegetables and (very) small amounts of fruit.

Here's the general idea... each of these stages took 1-3 months. The later stages we achieved faster than the earlier stages -- the initial changes are the hardest.
1. We eliminated grains and added sugars. I threw out about 2/3 of our pantry in one afternoon, including all sorts of grains and sugars (in my sugared life I was a stellar baker). Corn tortillas were our holdout, as a relatively low glycemic food we felt we could keep them in as special occasion foods. For the kids, we left in a daily "treat" that had sugar and/or grains.
2. We started limiting the treats to once per week.
3. We gave up treats with grains. We also gave up corn tortillas at this point. Treats were still limited to 1x/week.
4. We further constrained the treats to those with minimal amounts of carbs (small pieces of chocolate, a small scoop of ice cream).
5. We gave up dairy (other than the youngest child), and all sugar completely. Yes, we are now the parents who send their kids to birthday parties with apple slices and almond butter.

All in all it took 13-14 months to wean ourselves off of sugar. Adults could accomplish the same goal much faster, but we found the slower pace saved us a lot of battles, fussing and whining. And no, we weren't perfect. We cheated on the sugar from time to time (who doesn't love ice cream??). But at this point we've realized that every cheat leaves us feeling awful, craving more sugar, and unable to cope any problems that arise (e.g., your brother plays with your balloon, your sister gets an extra carrot, your husband forgets to turn on the stove to heat the water for your coffee).

We have reached the point where we understand, deeply, that the fleeting moment of deliciousness is just not worth it.