Controlled by Sugar
Overcoming my addiction
I’ve done it again
Apr 11th
Aaaaarrrrrrhhhhhh! I have done it again. I just polished off two chocolate bars and a bag of lollies. I feel like shit!
What a week this has been, I have barely been able to control myself. I know I need to stop this, I know I need to quit sugar, I know it makes me feel bad but I also know that only I can help myself. And this is my greatest weakness!
I feel down, I feel tired and I need to sort this shit out before I affects me for ever. I am genuinely worried about my addiction, I even think my sugar binges are increasing my rate of hair loss (more on that in another post). What is more worrying however is the impact it is having on my insides, what do they look like? And how are they affected by a constant bombardment of sugar.
It’s time to stop this madness, I simply must do it!
4 Days of Failure
Apr 10th
Wow, I haven’t posted in a while, the days sure do fly by when your on a sugar bender. After I had made it through the wedding last Saturday I caved in on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. I was like I could not stop.
To break it down for you on Tuesday I had a bag of lollies, 2 killer pythons and a block of chocolate. On Wednesday I continued my downward spiral with a bag of lollies and a large bag of malteasers. I repeated this binge on Thursday and by Friday had decided to eat to packets of cookies and a large block of chocolate. Even typing this now is making my mouth water for more.
It’s been a tough couple of days and I need to get back on the horse and keep going. I had made it 15 or so days which is an achievement but to then ruin it with a sugar binge worth of an award feels disheartening.
Not eating sugar at a wedding
Apr 3rd
Last night was the first major social challenge I have faced since quitting sugar. I was attending one of my wife’s cousins wedding and being Italian I knew there would be plenty of beer, wine, food and dessert available.
I am glad go report that I did not have any sugar at all. The first challenge came when we sat down at our tables and my extended family offered me a beer, or perhaps a scotch and coke. With both containing sugar I politely declined, that didn’t however stop them ordering one for me any way. The glass was still full and sitting on the table when we left.
entrée and main was easy to pay with no sugar present in the dishes. I was gearing up for dessert and the torrent of abuse that would come when I declined some cake. In the past I have normally been the one who finishes my dessert first and instantly goes looking for seconds. Luckily most of my table were up dancing when dessert was served so I simply passed my plate to the side without a second thought.
So if you are going to a wedding some tips I would have include:
1. Telling the people you are sitting with whether you have quit alcohol. Hopefully they respect your decision and don’t try to offer you any.
2. If you quit sugar well in advance of the wedding you could note on the RSVP that you do not wish to have dessert.
3. If you have not done this and desert is served wait until everyone is half way through their dessert before offering them seconds. By offerings yours halfway through theirs they will hopefully love the dessert to want more but not be completely stuffed and unable to eat.
4. Stay strong and committed the night will only last about 6 hours and you have already gone x number of days without sugar.
Lastly I observed the reason my our population is stuffed in the future. At the wedding was a kid who is part of my extended family and I have seen him grow up over the last 4 or 5 years. He is only 6 or 7 but he waddles like a duck. I don’t mean to be rude but it is clear that he is carrying way too much fat for his age and looks like a 50 year old overweight lawyer with only his height shrunk down to childs size.
I feel sorry for this kid because by the time he is able to make his own decisions in regard to his diet it will probably be too late. So please if you are a parent learn about the effects of sugar and excess fat intake for children and don’t dismiss their weight problem as being big boned. Everyone wants the best for their children but for some reason many do not extend this logic to the kitchen table.
Benefits of quitting sugar
Apr 1st
Google benefits of quitting sugar and you will bmget literally millions of results. Most of these focus on the direct health benefits of reducing sugar intake. At the top of the list is normally diabetes and obseity. Now although avoiding these diseases and health related issues is extremely important I wanted to talk about some other benefits, ones that you may not have read about before. These all come from my personal experience, not some fact theory or scientific study carried out in a lab.
The benefits are:
1. Quitting sugar means you will reduce your intake of processed food. This occurs because nearly every processed food item contains sugar or one of it’s substitutes.
2. Cutting back on processed foods also means cutting back on sugar and artifical preservatives. Processed food is normally filled with these bad guys!
3. You will save money. Reducing your intake of processed food or take away will mean you make your own which normally costs less.
4. You will actually cook and prepare your own food so you know exactly what goes into it. You may even learn new skills or fall in love with new food.
5. You will increase your intake of fruit and vegetables. After you exclude products with sugar there is not much left on supermarket shelves so you will naturally eat more fruit and vegetables and as a result benefit from their high vitamin, nutrient and fibre content.
6. Your body will be better regulated. All that fibre from fruit and vegetables will mean you body processses waste efficiently and you won’t feel like a clogged up mess.
7. You will get a sense of achievement and know that nothing is impossible. If you can quit sugar will all it’s social acceptance and marketing then you can conquer anything.
8. You will feel better – literally every day I feel better and better I wake up with more energy and I am more alert. I don’t feel chained down or sluggish. I don’t experience huge ups and downs caused by sugar binges.
9. You will lose weight. I was reluctant to include this because I am not on a diet and never will be, I have simply changed my lifestyle. However the results speak for themselves as I have lost over 4 kilos now.
If you have quit sugar and have experience another benefit I would love to hear from you.
Day 10 – Give me sugar!!!
Mar 31st
Ignoring my little hiccup where I accidentally had maple syrup that was included in a vegan banana bread I have not touched sugar for ten whole days.
Day ten as you know has previously been a challenge for me and I am certainly feeling it again today. In this mornings post I blogged about a sudden drop in my blood sugar levels (very weird). It would have been easy for me to grab a chocolate bar or some lollies, I really wanted to, but I didn’t. I stuck with the fruit and after a little bit of time I was ok again.
As the afternoon came around I didn’t get the sudden urge to grab the sugar but I began getting little urges that continued to get stronger as the day progressed. My mind wandered and as I passed and ice cream shop I dreamed of stopping and buying a cookies and cream and chocolate ice cream….. Mmmm I can still picture it now. This was not a good sign, not only did I want sugar I was actively thinking about buying it and I needed to stop this crazy thinking pronto.
Back to the shops in went, this time I bought 3 bananas and organic chips (potato, a little bit of oil and a sprinkling of salt). Now I know the chips are not the healthiest option but it’s ok to treat yourself every now and then (as long as it doesn’t contain sugar). My cravings and hunger pains have been satisfied for a few more hours and I am confident of passing day ten.
Just on that final two words “day ten” some of you will be saying but Paul you had maple syrup and said you would start over again. Yes I said that, but after thinking about it rationally I have decided to skip over that mistake and continue with the normal count. I have decided on this for a number of reasons:
1. I did no intentionally break my sugar free lifestyle. In fact I specifically asked if the banana cake contained any sugar.
2. It was cooked by my vegan brother who doesn’t eat sugar either.
3. Although I have decided to quit all forms of sugar including natural alternatives and artificial sweeteners I would put maple syrup in the least worst offender category.
4. Perhaps most importantly I did not get any cravings for sugar like I have done in the past when I have eaten a hot cross bun or some other bread with a high refined sugar content.
I am prepared for the fact that some of you may call me a cop out and to be honest I understand but don’t really mind. This journey is a personal one that I am sharing with the world. Along with my strict plan of not eating sugar needs to be a mixture of understanding and logical thinking. This will not and is not however a precursor to allowing a few sweets to creep back in but more an acknowledgement that I took appropriate actions to check for sugar but a simple misunderstanding was made and therefore punishment would be both unfair and probably detrimental to my desire to beat this addiction once and for all.
Well that was scary!!!
Mar 31st
I just had the scariest moment since I quit sugar. I was walking along and all of a sudden I had a massive drop in my blood sugar levels to the point where I started feeling physically sick and trembling.
I rushed to the nearest Coles supermarket, I literally couldn’t get there quick enough, and bought a fruit salad. It was a very bizarre experience. Sure in the past I have craved sugar because of the ups and downs of my blood sugar levels, but nothing like that before.
Now that I have finished the fruit I’m feeling a bit better, but not quiet 100%. I haven’t done anything different today I had my shredded wheat for breakfast as well as an orange. An hour ago I had half of a rockmelon so it wasn’t like I was hungry or needing food after a massive work out of something.
Hopefully it doesn’t happen again, I’ll keep you posted if it does.
50 Names For Sugar
Mar 29th
This is a common post on many forums or blogs which talk about quitting sugar, however it is a valuable resource so it deserves to be posted on my blog as well. Since I first quit sugar I have got into the habit of checking the label on all foods that I eat. Not only can this help you avoid sugar, but by reading labels you can easily avoid artificial colourings and preservatives as well as gain a better understanding of what exactly is in your food. So look out for any of the below names!
You will also note the list below includes honey and maple syrup which I have previously talked about avoiding. A strange item included on the list is fruit juice. I have noticed some products say “naturally sweetened with fruit juice” I avoid these because I want to break the association sweet foods have on me. I.e. when I am hungry I don’t want to crave processed sweet foods whether they be muesli bars, lollies or chocolate. This does however not mean that I avoid 100% fresh fruit juice, which contains many vitamins and minerals which are important for living a healthy lifestyle. Please do not avoid fresh fruit juice, it is good for you!
- Barley malt
- Beet sugar
- Brown sugar
- Buttered syrup
- Cane juice crystals
- Cane sugar
- Caramel
- Corn syrup
- Corn syrup solids
- Confectioner’s sugar
- Carob syrup
- Castor sugar
- Date sugar
- Demerara sugar
- Dextran
- Dextrose
- Diastatic malt
- Diatase
- Ethyl maltol
- Fructose
- Fruit juice
- Fruit juice concentrate
- Galactose
- Glucose
- Glucose solids
- Golden sugar
- Golden syrup
- Grape sugar
- High Fructose Corn Syrup
- Honey
- Icing sugar
- Invert sugar
- Lactose
- Maltodextrin
- Maltose
- Malt syrup
- Maple syrup
- Molasses
- Muscovado sugar
- Panocha
- Raw sugar
- Refiner’s syrup
- Rice syrup
- Sorbitol
- Sorghum syrup
- Sucrose
- Sugar
- Treacle
- Turbinado sugar
- Yellow sugar
Day’s 6, 7 & 8 – Trying again
Mar 29th
Ok so after accidentally eating maple syrup on day 5 (this goes against my plan to avoid all sweet stuff, whether artificial sweetners or natural alternatives) I have gone another 3 days without sugar. This time around it wasn’t hard at all and I have barely thought about sugar at all.
I believe that once you have done something, it is easier to do it the next time around. The challenge to stay sugar free will probably kick up a gear after day 5 or 6, before I hit day seven and ten which I have found hard to get over in the past.
To help me get over these periods I have been trying to focus on other challenges and activities that I enjoy. The soccer season is about to start which gives me something to look forward to on Thursday (training) and Saturday (match day). I know from previous experience that eating sugar certainly affects my performance and makes me feel heavy and sluggish, because of my competitive streak and desire to win I don’t crave sugar as much on these days.
Tuesday is another easy day because it is one of my rostered days off, I go to the gym and don’t really have quick access to lollies or chocolate. Work days are the hardest!
I look forward to keeping you updated as things progress. If anyone else is trying to quit sugar, I would love to hear from you and how you are approaching the challenge.
Day 5: What a failure
Mar 26th
I cannot believe it, after less than five days I have already FAILED!!! It was however unintentional (please trust me when I say that). My brother is a vegan and also does not eat sugar, after work this afternoon he invited me over for one of his vegan banana cakes. I happily obliged and double checked there is no added sugar? the reply was a resounding NO.
Anyway after some afternoon tea I proceed to drive home when I suddenly remember than he puts MAPLE SYRUP in his cakes. Now I know some of you will say what are you worrying about, it’s not sugar. However since making the decision to quit sugar I decided to quit all forms of sugar, their substitutes and artificial alternatives. In fact I was planning on blogging about this every issue in the next week or so.
To some quitting so many products (including natural alternatives such as maple syrup and honey) may seem a bit extreme, however my point is well founded. Whenever I have gotten the taste of sugar, or indeed a sweet alternative on my tounge my body has gone into overdrive and craves sugar even more. To change from a no sugar diet to one that includes maple syrup or honey is a bit like a heroin addict getting hooked on methadone, all you are doing is replacing one addiction with another.
Tomorrow I will start from day 1 again, as you can imagine I feel like a massive LOSER at the moment. I still can’t believe it!
Day 4: Mid life crisis at 21!
Mar 25th
Welcome to day four of my quest to quit sugar. Last night at soccer was awesome, I always love getting out on the training field and with the soccer season fast approaching the excitement levels are certainly building. I still have not touched sugar (I know its only been four days, but you have to start someehere) and although I am getting constant cravings my will power is holding and I am yet to touch the sweet stuff.
That is the positive, the negative is the rest of my life is shit house at the moment. My job is a hard slog and I don’t know what to do anymore. Ever since a young age I have always had a well thought out plan for the way my life would go and what job I would do. I started working at 14, owned a business at 16 and started a fulltime career at 17 (while also studying fulltime university). However it feels like I am having a mid-life crisis at 21. I don’t know what job I want to do anymore and for the first time in my life I feel like a bit of a quitter. Which is kind of ironic seeing how I am quitting sugar aswell, but you get what I mean.
In the past it sugar has been an escape for me and I am sure that is the case for many other people aswell. When you are bored or down it is easy to eat and it is even easier to eat bad food. This time however, I am determined to not let my work problems interfere with my quest to quit sugar and I remain confident that I will be able to stay on track.
Now all I need to do is work out what I want to do with my life and everything will be perfect! (easier said than done….. Time to go ponder my future).
