Last week I launched a secret mission into a life free of added sugar. I was planning on starting said mission on Sunday, January 3, after New Years Eve and an all day bird count on the 2nd that I knew would leave me craving sweets at its end. However, after a night of gluttony on Sunday, January 27 and feeling like sheer hell upon waking on the Monday, I decided why not give it a whirl.
This was helped by the fact that I'd just polished off the book "Sweet Poison" and had recently started "Suicide by Sugar". There are some scary facts about sugar out there. What scared me the most:
- the hypoglycemia I have developed over the past several years and was formally diagnosed with in 2014 (before that, I just called it "hangry") is likely related to over-consumption of sugar; some people's pancreas under-produce insulin in the face of too much sugar (aka. high blood sugar/diabetes) - mine seem to overproduce it and suck too much sugar out of my blood, leaving me weak, shaky and feeling just downright sick. The idea here is less sugar = less insulin over-production = less hypoglycemic moments.
- our bodies don't have a mechanism for feeling "full" from fructose. Unlike fat or protein, where we have an enzyme/hormone system that clicks on to tell your body: "ok, stop, you're full!" there isn't one for fructose because in caveman days if you came across a berry patch you WERE supposed to gorge your face off. And our bodies, always looking out for our caveman selves, transform fructose in the liver directly to fat, to keep our cavemen selves warm. Or as it's known today, to expand a muffin top on a well-fed modern human...
- Big Sugar controls A LOT. There are so much politics involved in why sugar is everywhere, including places you didn't even want it (why does a pizza need added sugar? bread, cheese, toppings, crushed tomato - these things would be delicious without added g's of sugar - why is it there?!). Big Sugar does not want us to stop eating/loving big amounts of sugar, that's for sure - and I don't like someone contaminating the food supply for no reason other than $$!
- I am fully addicted to sugar and was consuming at least 20g of added sugar per day (on a "normal", "healthy" day - it was upwards of 75 - 100g on days when I was being less conscious of my food choices), in addition to sugars naturally occurring in my food (which were likely another 25 - 30g - or about the amount found in a couple of pieces of fruit and some dairy).
- Those pangs of hunger I felt/feel mid-morning are known as "toxic hunger" or "fructose withdrawal", and it's just my body/brain looking for my next hit of sugar. I used to jokingly define it to my coworkers as "false hunger", while scarfing another granola bar halfway through a morning in the field, wondering out loud how I could feel so hungry after a double bowl of oatmeal only 2 hours before. Now I know I was right and I wasn't really hungry - and that freaks me out
So here I am. It's DAY #10!!!!!! And I haven't had a drop of added sugar. This is largely thanks to my awesome supporters including Jeff, my mom, Dawn, my New Years crew, my co-sugar-quitter Aynsley, and my coworkers, who have all been just amazing! Thank you guys!!!!
A lot of the research I've done has recommended that a full sugar detox should include the removal of ALL sugar, including sugar from fruit (fructose) and sugar from milk (lactose) to completely eliminate the dependency on it. I hear that, but I have also thought about the fact that I WANT to have a diet where I'm excited to eat fruit! I also can't imagine how sad/itchy I'd be without fruit and dairy in my diet, even for just a few weeks! I don't know that I see the point in going through that withdrawal, only to end up reintroducing fruit back in. The idea is that to completely recalibrate your palate, you need to remove fruit. So far I haven't entirely found that to be true, I have had major changes to my palate and cravings with small amounts of fruit in my diet per day, so for now, fruit and yogurt stay!
What has made me the most pleasantly surprised:
- after 10 years of REQUIRING chocolate or other sweets after every single meal, I have had 16 lunches and dinners total in which I have not finished them off with 2 squares of dark chocolate, and most of the time, I don't even think about it
- 4 lbs melted off me in 4 days without even trying and I can now fit comfortably into most of my pants again - hoorah! I plateaued after that, but hey, I'll take it! I haven't been staying under any sort of caloric goal, and I haven't been exercising much because I feel like crap a little bit every day (I'll detail that a bit more below) so the weight loss is all due to the removal of sugar.
- when I saw a bag of marshmallows in the grocery store (which I used to keep in the cupboard between fire/roasting season and sneak from time to time when I needed a "hit") I physically flinched, my stomach clenched and I felt gross just thinking about eating them
- the smell of sugar in the grocery store no longer enchants me the way it used to (you know that smell by the bags of sugar in the baking aisle? oh man it used to get me) - now I have a neutral reaction to it: "that is the smell of sugar". I can also walk down the candy and cookie aisles with minimal interest in what's around me. I used to drool over those things while shopping!
- I have been forced to replace things in my diet and it has been pretty easy breezy. In my last post I wondered if I could ever enjoy gross, bland oatmeal without the sweetness of brown sugar. I am not sure I'm interested in eating plain oatmeal still but I have been mashing some raspberries or mixed berries into it each morning and truly enjoying the flavour - more and more each day, too. I lost the granola from my yogurt and replaced it with chia, pepitas, almonds, unsweetened coconut - and I adore it! I also sweeten the yogurt (thick, sour, Greek yogurt - it needs it!) with mashed berries, instead of jam or honey. It takes me a lot longer to eat it, but I enjoy it very much. No more balsamic reduction meant losing my beloved caprese salad, so without tomato salad and parfaits, my "go to" meals have had to become more savoury - and I'm really loving the whole foods I'm eating! Veggies and fruits are simply delicious. Cheeses and nut butters and my new comfort foods. Nuts are the most incredibly filling snack! Eat a handful pecans and see how long you stay full for - it's unreal. Sugared peanut butter is replaced with natural almond butter, which is possibly the nicest tasting thing in my house (and I've had almond butter before, and I did NOT feel about it the way I do now). And crunching on cacao nibs is WEIRD but oddly satisfying, especially knowing I'm getting all the antioxidants of chocolate without the sugar and with the added fibre, good fats and protein.
- comfort food comes in many forms - not just sweet. Heavily buttered, salty homemade popcorn on day #1 was a delicious dream come true!
- I can easily say "no" to desserts at social functions (had to do this 3x in the past 10 days), because I can't imagine going through withdrawal again. I'm not ready to add them back in (...yet? I'm not sure yet), and have no desire to (aside from those occasional moments of my brain screaming for them, like when I saw chocolate cake with white frosting in a movie the other night - my favourite - and didn't stop thinking about it for about 18 hours - weeeeird!)
What has been hard:
- Day #1 I felt absolutely desperate - like a caged animal. I tried to go out in a snowstorm to seek out satisfying sugar-free treats but decided I should let safety be a priority instead of my gnawing toxic hunger. Instead I made the popcorn I mentioned above :)
- Day #2 I got really really stupid and couldn't form sentences or find words I was looking for
- Day #1-3 I had a constant dull headache
- Every single day (up to and including yesterday) I have had one serious 30 minute crash between the hours of 2:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m., depending on when I woke up that day. I found putting my head down or lying down and sipping a cup of black tea with milk was helpful to get me through it. During the crashes, I felt nauseous, dizzy and completely sapped of energy.
- Day #4 I had some wild digestive issues, likely related to the onslaught of veggies and lentils in my diet. Usually I would calm my system with simple carbs, but as most were off the table and we had no bread, I had to keep eating cheese and veggies and fibre and fat an all the things that typically bug my stomach. I made it out alive, though.
- Day #7 I had insane cravings for cake that carried into Day #8. When I think about the cake, I can still feel pleasure centres lighting up in my brain. This is creepy
- Feeling like I'm "doing it wrong" by not cutting out fruit. I still crave sweetness, but find I am then more than satisfied by a serving of my saving grace Vanilla Almond Popcorn http://realfoodrealdeals.com/vanilla-almond-popcorn/ (sweetened with dates) or a piece of fruit. Is it a bad thing to still want sweets, eat them in their whole package with fibre and nutrients, and subsequently feel good??? It doesn't feel bad but I'm really confused.
- Feeling like I'm "doing it wrong" because I have largely been a functional human - exercising lightly, working, cleaning, laughing, birding. I was expecting it to be SO MUCH worse than this.
- So much cooking and food prep. My go to/easy grab meals and snacks which revolved around sweetened cereal, sweetened oatmeal and sweetened sauces are all out, so I am doing a lot of chopping of fruits and veggies, cooking grains and starches (which take forever!!!!), preparing big batches of foods for easy meals and bringing seemingly 3,000 calories of snacks with me to work to ensure I make it through the day (I bring most of them home, but I'm always so worried I'll wig out at the office that I can't go in without my lunch bag brimming over with a million tiny tupperwares)
- When I explain it to people and they feel like I'm somehow judging their habits or there is an expectation that they do this as well. Absolutely untrue! Everyone's journey is their own. Frankly, I don't care what you do as long as you don't wave cookies in my face while I'm trying to quit sugar :) And of course if you are interested in taking the journey, I'm happy to be your "sponsor"!
- Feeling a little bit crappy in unpredictable intervals every day. Blargh!
So. I'm going to keep taking it day by day, and keep thinking about what I eventually want to do with this sugar-free me, and if I should consider a total ban of ALL sugar from all sources until I stop craving it. Currently, I feel like a pile of garbage (may be related to bad sleep, possibly to withdrawal which I've heard can last 3 days or 6 weeks.. oh god..), so I'm going to sign off. Sorry this blog post isn't more entertaining with fun pictures like the last one. I liken it's blandness to being an homage to the blandness of my morning oatmeal.... ;) Kidding, kidding.......
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