A naturally sweet and exciting life

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I’ve always had a terrible sweet tooth and comfort eating is something I’ve done a lot during the years, usually when stressed. And I mean quite serious binge eating here; a pizza washed down with Coke, followed by sweets, ice cream and/or various other things, often for several days in a row. And even when not stressed, I would indulge on Coke and chocolate after lunch at work, thinking that it would alleviate the boredom I felt about having to get through the afternoon. I fooled myself into believing that chocolate could make it better.

 

Of course it couldn’t. it was a very temporary help and soon after I’d either feel uncomfortably full of sweets or was fighting against the urge to go and buy some more to supposedly get me through a terrible afternoon slump, fooling myself to think that more sugar would give me an energy boost when I knew better. It would only make it worse.

 

I wasn’t always this bad but in the past 6 months or so it had got out of control, especially during the day. Evenings were better, I could eat sensibly and have no sweets. My body was starting to give me subtle signs that this couldn’t go on, that it couldn’t cope with the amount of sugar that I was forcing it to deal with. And it wasn’t just my teeth that were struggling. My poor gut was clearly finding it difficult. And then there were all the studies showing how sugar is connected to so many illnesses; cancer, type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease… I wanted to stay healthy.

 

My biggest problem was lunch time at work. Since finding out last autumn that I’m gluten intolerant it’s been difficult for me to find something ready-made in shops that I can eat. Sandwiches are of course no good (no more salmon cream cheese bagels, ever) but surprisingly many other foods aren’t suitable either. Sushi practically swims in soy sauce, most varieties of which contain wheat. No good. Many salads have gluten in there somewhere, too, as do some soups. So I’ve had to face a very limited option of what to have for my lunch if not preparing my own in advance.

 I think I was trying to compensate for that limited choice with sweets, comforting myself with chocolate. Even with chocolate my choice was quite limited as, surprise surprise, many manufacturers put barley malt, i.e. gluten, in their chocolate. I’d had to say a teary goodbye to my most favourite chocolate of all, Lindt’s milk chocolate. So I guess I was telling myself that yes, it’s tough for you, you can’t nip downstairs to the shop anymore for a sandwich or bagel, let alone have a chocolate croissant ever again as a morning treat so yes, go ahead and have as much Cherry Coke and gluten free chocolate as you like. Quite understandable when you’re coping with the loss of many things you used to take for granted and saw people all around you still taking for granted and enjoying.

But enough was enough and it wasn’t making me feel good anymore. Something had to be done. I decided to cut down the amount of sugar I ate quite drastically, allowing myself a sweet treat mid-week and again at the weekend but no more. I’d been able to do it before so I knew it was possible. I also knew it wasn’t going to be easy so I set out to plan how to do it.

I planned my lunch time meals and started preparing them at home in advance. That way I knew there was no gluten in my food and I included a good amount of protein and healthy fats to give me a satisfyingly full feeling after my meal. I also planned the other meals of the day but they weren’t really problematic since I always juice fresh vegetables for my breakfast and usually have a healthy vegetarian meal in the evening. I'd also been having almonds for a mid-morning snack for quite a while already. 

It took me by surprise how well it all worked. It worked so well in fact that by Wednesday (I started on a Sunday) when I would have allowed myself to have something sweet I didn’t have any kind of craving for it. So I thought that it was better that I didn’t have anything because I was fearful that eating a chocolate bar at that point might trigger the sugar cravings again, so I didn’t have anything. 
 

I felt a bit headachy the first couple of days but other than that I was feeling fine. I was also noticing that the horrible afternoon slumps that I experienced at work after lunch were quickly disappearing. Like within a couple of days. If I felt I wanted something sweet after lunch, I made some herbal tea. But I was so inspired by how much more energy I had in the afternoons that I didn’t want to spoil that with chocolate. 

Come the first weekend and I still didn’t have any sugar cravings so again I didn’t have anything, thinking some chocolate might start them all over again. 

It’s now been four (4!!!) weeks since I last ate refined sugar. And I feel wonderful, both physically and mentally. One week in I started feeling some fatigue and had to take a break from exercising since my legs felt really tired. I wasn’t sleeping very well either but after googling sugar withdrawal symptoms I realised it seemed to be quite normal to experience all that. I also read that some people became really quite ill after quitting eating refined sugar and couldn’t believe how easy I was finding it in comparison. I guess my diet, if you took out all the sugary sweet stuff and the occasional pizza eating binges, was actually quite healthy, especially after having to go gluten free.  

I’ve been astonished by how easy I’ve found it. And I feel wonderful for it. I’m losing weight, that’s another incentive to keep at it. I’m so much more energetic and it’s particularly noticeable at work in the afternoons. I’m so much more productive in general in so many ways and my mind seems clearer. I still eat fruit but I limit myself to 2-3 pieces a day, too much fructose is still too much fructose. It’s amazing how sweet an orange can taste. The sweet refreshing burst of orange sweetness in my mouth is better than any sweetness I could ever get from chocolate.

Those of you not quite understanding how quitting sugar could be a big deal let me say that studies show that sugar is far more addictive than cocaine.

The other day when I was thinking about this all an exhilarating thought struck me. I always thought it would be impossible for me to not eat sugary things. I didn’t think I could do it, I was so addicted to sugar. But wait, I’d just done it. And found it really quite easy too when I’d put my mind to it. So if I could do the thing that I always thought would be one of the most difficult, if not impossible, things for me to do, then couldn’t I do just about anything? Yes I could! Wow. I really could. And I really can. How motivating.

So an added benefit of this whole thing is that I’m feeling motivated to work on achieving some of my biggest dreams, and they’re so huge that I’m not even going to mention them here because they’re dreams I don’t want to share with anyone. But I’ve already started working on achieving them and I’m motivated to keep it up because all of a sudden they’ve become a lot more achievable and I believe in my abilities much more. 

All this from cutting sugar out of my diet! Who would have thought? Certainly not I.

Image courtesy of Grant Cochrane/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Yes, there are occasions when I think it’s a bit boring not to be able to indulge in an occasional Cherry Coke and Cadbury’s Chocos. It doesn’t seem like a very exciting life, does it, not being able to enjoy something you like on an occasion? I then remind myself that I choose not to because it’s better for me and because of all the other benefits I get from not doing so. And in time I may well choose to do so occasionally but right now I don’t want to take that risk. Right now I want to enjoy this good physical feeling and mental clearness and the empowering feeling of having achieved something big. And that’s really exciting.

Happy Easter!