Successes and failures…

It has been now almost 3 weeks since I officially gave up sugar. I am at the same time, slightly disappointed in the amount I have cheated, and also quite proud of how many times I have resisted the urge to cheat. When I began this, I was determined to do it right. I was determined that no matter how difficult it was to control my cravings and how difficult it was to find things that I was allowed to eat, I would not cheat (except for modest alcohol consumption, as it was the only exception I was allowing myself).

I found it was surprisingly easy to find things I could eat and drink. As I generally ate pretty healthy to begin with, I only had to eliminate the bad stuff and find a few new healthy replacements. Whole wheat crackers and unsalted peanuts substituted when I craved the crunch of chips, and the bubbles of seltzer replaced the bubbles I missed in my ginger ale (although I do still miss the ginger in my ginger ale. I think I will have to start drinking more ginger tea and try to incorporate it into my meals occasionally). I consider my greatest success so far in this challenge to be that I have not once cheated due to loss of control and letting my cravings get the better of me. Each and every time I cheated on my diet, I made the conscious decision to do so, and did so at a time when I was not feeling an uncontrollable urge to cheat. Maybe everyone won’t see the difference, but to me it is a big one. I feel in complete control of my cravings, and it feels great!

My biggest disappointment or failure so far is that I have not been cooking healthy meals. I originally planned to try one new recipe a week, to start gradually, but so far I have done this only once in 3 weeks. Despite this, I have not been cheating when I eat dinner. I simply revert to my easy standbys of Trader Joe’s burritos, whole wheat pasta, or a variety of veggies, fruit, whole wheat pita w/ hummus, and whole wheat crackers, or whatever other healthy snack options I keep around the house now.

Ok, I have to change the subject now, because I just had a revelation of sorts… I spent the weekend drinking with a friend from out of town. I made the conscious decision to cheat a little because it’s not often I have friends from out of town. All of my meal choices still followed my required diet, but I indulged in many sugary cocktails this weekend. When I cheat like this, I try to pay attention to the differences I notice in my body. So far, whenever I drink, I notice that my dizziness returns, but I’m never sure if it’s the alcohol or the sugar causing it. Tonight however, just now as I was writing this blog, I experienced one of the more unusual symptoms of sugar overload… eyeball or eye socket ache. When I realized tonight that my eyes were aching, I also realized I haven’t experienced this once since I began my new diet. During my sugar heydays, I experienced eyeball ache frequently and just thought it was a symptom of being overtired.

It is quite an “eye-opener”, and a wonderful motivator when I realize that these symptoms truly are tied to my sugar consumption, and it reminds me how much better I feel when I avoid sugar and all simple carbs. The more I am aware of this, the easier it is to resist temptation. To be honest, a lot of the things I used to crave are now starting to not look so tempting anymore. I still have some seriously bad cravings from time to time (my whole body was shaking on Friday as I tried to resist the temptation to indulge in some delicious looking cupcakes that someone brought in to work), but I am starting to see that I will reach the day when my cravings will disappear or at least fade to almost nothing. I look forward to that day. I am now focusing on all the delicious foods I DO get to eat. It’s been quite an exciting culinary adventure so far, and I haven’t even started cooking for myself yet. Once I get to that phase, I think is when I will really start to forget about all those once-delicious, misery-inducing candies!

And now it is time to rest my weary, aching eyes…

Next blog: The sugar/cancer link…

The first week…

The first thing I did when I woke up the day after returning from my Labor Day vacation was to go through all the food in my kitchen and get rid of all sugary foods and simple carbs (it was a lot..). My lucky roommate received a few donations, although I did feel a bit guilty passing them on, now knowing the damage it does to our bodies and the diseases they cause (which I will talk about in future blogs).

Each person’s body and response to sugar and simple carbs is different. For someone who is not very sensitive to the effects of sugar in their body, eating small amounts would not be so damaging. My body apparently is very sensitive to the effects of sugar and any simple carb which is converted very quickly into sugar. My blood sugar spikes dramatically, and the higher it spikes, the lower it drops. This causes me to suffer from Reactive Hypoglycemia. Reactive Hypoglycemia is different from Hypoglycemia in that it is caused by what we eat.

Since this information is all new to me, I decided to eliminate all simple carbs (aside from the occasional drink. Hey, we all need at least 1 vice, right?) from my diet for at least 1 month, or longer. I want to detox my body to see the difference in how I feel. Once I feel that my body is on an even keel, I may allow myself certain simple carbs occasionally. For now though, I’m taking this one day at a time (sound familiar?). Certain candies/treats I know I will never eat again because having just 1 piece or a little bite is not possible. For me, it will lead to a candy binge. I know which ones they are, so I know what to avoid. If I allow myself to indulge, it will only be with something that does not trigger me to binge.

So far I’m doing pretty well. I only cheated twice this week. The first time was a planned or preemptive cheat to prevent worse cheating. I brought a Fiber One bar to the US Open with me on Thursday because I knew I would get hungry, and I knew it would be hard to resist a trip to concessions. Even with the Fiber One bar(which was a lesser evil because it does have a lot of sugar in it, but it also has fiber. Fiber, when eaten at the same time as sugar, helps to slow the release of sugar into the body, so blood sugar does not spike as dramatically.), I still had a hard time ignoring the smells of popcorn and fries… The second cheat was last night. I had 2 margaritas with sugar on the rim, and the first thing I did was lick the sugar off the rim… Ok, that was pretty bad, but considering that I decided to go cold turkey and only cheated twice in the first week, I still think I’m doing pretty good…

The good news is that I have not had even 1 bad hypoglycemic episode since I began. I have had some severe cravings though, and a few withdrawal syptoms. I started to remember all the candies and foods that I love that are now off-limits. I would remember how delicious they taste, and then I would start to panic when I realized I might never taste them again! In my state of panic, I would start shaking and my hands and arms began to tingle, causing me to close and open my hands into fists 2-3 times quickly. I thought this was very odd until a friend of mine told me that it’s a common symptom for what I’m going through… Who knew? I’m learning so much these days!

Aside from my 2 days of severe cravings and withdrawal, during which I felt there was no way I could do this, I now feel better and am starting to think I may actually be able to do this. I’m finding more and more things each day that I CAN eat to help replace the things I can’t eat, and I’m actually a little excited about the challenge!! I thank my lucky stars for Trader Joe’s and their multitude of whole wheat and organic products. This would be much tougher for me to stick with if I had a harder time finding foods I can eat…

That’s all for now. I’ll leave you with this interesting quote from a kindred sugar-addict spirit…

“[Quitting crack] was a walk in the park compared to getting off sugar. Because sugar is everywhere, [but] crack you gotta go looking for.” – Tom Arnold

Admitting I have a problem...

Some of you already know that I have recently decided to cut sugar and all simple/fast-acting carbs out of my diet. I recently bought a book called “Sugar Shock!: How Sweets And Simple Carbs Can Derail Your Life – And How You Can Get Back On Track” and it has completely changed my life by revealing the shocking depths of my sugar addiction and the effects it has been having on my mind and my body. This is NOT a fad diet, and it is NOT about losing weight! This is about halting the damage I have been doing to myself almost my entire life…

Those of you who know about my hypoglycemic episodes and symptoms know that I suffer from them daily and sometimes severely. For as long as I can remember, I have needed to consume food almost constantly throughout the day simply to avoid a drop in my blood sugar. Most of the time my symptoms seemed not too bad, simply a mild to moderate headache, which I have lived with almost every day of my life for the past 10 – 15 years, if not even longer. However, a few chapters into my book, when I read the extensive 40+ list of symptoms of sugar overdose, it blew my mind to see that each and every physical and mental ailment that I have ever suffered from was on that list!

I have long considered myself to be a fairly healthy eater. Although I indulged my sweet tooth quite often, I also ate a lot of fruit, a decent amount of vegetables, and a moderate amount of carbs. Not very much meat in my diet because I don’t cook, so I would only have meat when I ate out, which was not very often. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I realized I suffered from hypoglycemia, when a friend of mine witnessed a particularly severe episode and pointed out to me that it might be hypoglycemia.

Since realizing that I have hypoglycemia, I have made an effort to eat more protein and fiber, but I have still continued to suffer from frequent hypoglycemic episodes. This book has made me realize that the only way to eliminate my symptoms is to completely eliminate or nearly eliminate sugar and simple carbs from my diet.

I decided to start this blog to help keep me on track as I work my way out of my addiction and completely overhaul my eating habits. And also to share my struggles and everything I am learning about the largely unknown dangers of sugar consumption, which even affects people who do not suffer from sugar addiction like me. If you do suffer from an uncontrollable sweet tooth like me, I hope you will find this enlightening. And if you have any advice to share, please do.. Sugar Kickers Unite!!