Kyle17 life is more than a game of win or lose.
I’m really proud of the other people who have cut sugar out of their life. I’ve cut soda pop, but white flour and sugar are hard for me. I still have a couple things I need to phase out first.
How I did it: I'm totally a potential sugar addict. I don't start out eating a lot: the first time I have ice cream, I can limit myself to one scoop eaten from a teacup. The second time I have ice cream, I want seconds. And before I know it, I'm finishing off the quart 3 days after buying it. I've given up sugar before, and I feel so much better without it. But anyone reading this knows how it is. Totally just like that 1970s book Sugar Busters.
My current stance on sugar is that I don't keep any in the house, and I'm allowed one special sugar treat per week. I often don't take advantage of that treat, but I have given myself permission to have the one treat so that I don't feel that I have failed if I eat some sugar.
Something that I learned this time around is that I'm allergic to tree nuts. Who knew. Deprived of sugar, one day in May I ate an entire pound of plain almonds over the course of the day. Two months later, I ate almost an entire pound of cashews (still in the house after the almonds debacle). Both times I itched all over afterwards. No more tree nuts for me. Apparently people with hay fever can be allergic to nuts when pollen is in the air even if they aren't usually. Peanut butter doesn't have the same effect.
Lessons & tips: Here are my rules:
1. Do not keep high glycemic or other carbohydrate foods in the house that feel "addictive". For me those are sugar, sweets, breakfast cereal, bread, and oats.
2. Eat one special treat per week, if I want.
3. Do not keep other foods that feel addictive in the house such as nuts and cheese.
4. Drink enough water and eat enough protein and vegetables. Fish especially feels like it helps me. Maybe it is the omega 3. Whatever it is, I feel more balanced after eating fish or taking high EPA fish oil supplements.
5. Cook other high glycemic foods only rarely, such as pasta and potatoes. I keep these in the house and for whatever reason, I can go months without thinking about them even though they're right there on the shelf waiting to be cooked. When I cook pasta, I measure out 2 oz pasta per serving on my diet scale.
6. I will eat any amount of fruit. And I do eat BBQ sauce even though it's all corn syrup, though not so often.
7. Eat fat if I want it. Full fat plain yogurt is amazing.
Resources: 1. Fish.
2. Fresh and plain frozen fruit.
3. Beef. Chicken. Turkey.
Kyle17 life is more than a game of win or lose.
I’m really proud of the other people who have cut sugar out of their life. I’ve cut soda pop, but white flour and sugar are hard for me. I still have a couple things I need to phase out first.
Kyle17 life is more than a game of win or lose.
I still need dark chocolate peanut chews.
I don’t want to give up sugar entirely. I want to reduce the amount of refined sugar I eat as much as I can. I know the cookies and sweet cereals I eat happen when I am tired, haven’t eaten enough, am stressed, am in social situtations, etc. I don’t feel great when buzzed on sugar but I can’t seem to stop myself. So I will be looking for substitutes. Fruit, non-white sugar natural sweeteners (honey, etc). But not to go crazy on them. The goal is reduce sugar intake overall. I did Joey Schulmann’s natural diet makeoever once. No sugar, wheat, meat for 5 days. Lots of veggies, only a bit of fish, brown rice and non-gluten grains and lots of water for 5 days. No eating after 7 p.m. After 5 days I felt amazing, with no other supplemements or crazy detox things to take. Just based on food. But that was hard to sustain. So wonder if cold turkey for 5 days again, then see what happens.
I’m doing this for an almost week, that is, from now (Thursday night) to Wednesday night.
Morning Song is changing her life one habit at a time
Thank God for nuts. Whenever I have a sugar craving, I go for a handful of nuts. They have same amount of calories, but the nuts do not fluctuate my blood sugar level.
Morning Song is changing her life one habit at a time
I have normal fasting blood sugar level (95) at the annual physical. It has stayed in the 90s range during the last three years, but I have developed increasing sensitivity to it over the years. The breakfast cereal that I used to eat (Raisin Bran, Clusters) are now giving me sugar headaches in the morning. The only grain I can handle now is oatmeal and brown rice. I’m not sure what’s going on. Maybe it’s part of getting old.
Morning Song is changing her life one habit at a time
I had some coffee cake and ice cream earlier. It tasted sweet at the moment, but I totally hate the effect it has on me a couple of hours later. Sugar made me grumpy, irritable, with poor concentration.
No more sugars!!!
Morning Song is changing her life one habit at a time
I want to be aware of what I consume. There are hidden sugars everywhere in our foods. I need to be read the ingredients list more carefully and try to eliminate all sugars.
I want to do this too so desperately I feel that I am addicted to sugar and the only way to truly loose the weight I need to and be emotionally stable is to kick it for good. I have in the past… NO sugar no white flour… I did that for 120 days and than went crazy and ate sugar again…