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…
No comments:
Post a Comment