Sugar-free and Bertie the badger

I’m nearly two weeks into my sugar-free diet. My plan is to do it for a month and I expect by then my tastes will have changed such that I’ll no longer find sweet food appealing. This is largely what happened with salt.

I’m already noticing changes. In the first week I craved chocolate and spent several days looking longingly at a packet of raisins. This week that temptation has gone and I’m now enjoying 100% dark chocolate which was bitter and unpleasant last week. Fresh fruit is permitted and I have stocked up on yummy things like mangoes and papaya to satisfy any cravings. I eat the seeds with the papaya as these are good for you.

The other night a badger appeared on the wildlife camera in our garden. I’ve never seen a badger before other than a dead one on the road so I was naturally thrilled to have one in our backyard. He appears from about 20 seconds in the video. He looks like a big, healthy boy.

Recently I’ve been trying to catch some pigeons in the local shopping centre that have string wrapped around their feet. One of them can’t walk because his legs are tied together. I want to help them. They’re very wary of me now and I’ve had no luck so far but I will keep trying.

Pigeons in the shopping mall eating sunflower seeds

Posted

March 6, 2026

Journal

Rachel M

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6 responses to “Sugar-free and Bertie the badger”

Katrina

March 8, 2026

Cool badger vid 🙂 Re: the pigeon – I don’t know what methods you’ve tried to catch it, but I’ve had some success catching birds by holding a large piece of cloth in front of me and approaching them behind that, so they can’t see your head and at least the top half of your torso. It’s tricky to see where you’re going, of course, but if you can get close enough you can then put the cloth over them, and carry them in that. They don’t seem to panic so much if they can’t see what’s going on.

Reply
1. Rachel M
  
  March 8, 2026
  
  That’s a good idea. I tried again today and got really close but he was too quick for me. I was thinking of getting a net next time – have you ever tried with a net?
  
  Reply
  1. Katrina
    
    March 8, 2026
    
    No, I haven’t tried a net, but a fine mesh one might work.
  2. Katrina
    
    March 11, 2026
    
    No, but a fine mesh one might work. Look forward to hearing if you have any success.
Denise

March 8, 2026

That’s a good idea to eat 100% chocolate, so you still have something similar to replace the sugary chocolates. It’s also a good idea to take the attitude that you just want to change your body’s taste – I’ve tried to give up sugar before and it was just too awkward because it’s in so many things. I only knew one person who managed to do that permanently, and she was very nice but like a machine, very single minded.

Reply
1. Rachel M
  
  March 8, 2026
  
  Yes I’d still like to enjoy celebratory things like birthday cakes and Christmas puddings so the plan is to ease up on the sugar restriction after 1 month but hopefully by then my relationship with sugar will have changed.
  
  Reply