Sugar & me

This is basically an entry of personal nattering about having given up sugar for forty days. Behind the cut tag, ’cause I’m not sure how many people really care. :)

On October 6, 2004, Ted and I were on our way out of Hot Licks, the local homemade ice cream place, when we saw my dad, who said he’d given up sugar. I, all full of smashingly good ice cream, said, “Me too!”

And for reasons that I can’t quantify, I actually did. I declared a personal Lent: 40 days of sugarlessness. I didn’t give up sugar by switching to artificial sweetners or by hunting down all the hidden sugars in foods. I just stopped eating all dessert-type things, which are my weaknesses, entirely. Cold turkey. I didn’t think I could do it, but it turned out what I couldn’t do was moderate.

I started eating apples and grapes, and allowed myself a teaspoon of sugar on my cereal, a measured serving (2-3 tbsps) of trail mix with M&Ms if I was really hungry, and if I was desperate, a very small handful (20 or so) of chocolate chips. In what turned out to be about 7 weeks of sugarlessness, I only got really desperate and had chocolate chips about 3 times.

It was about the 4th day that I started going AUGH THIS IS HARD. By around day 10 it was much easier, and after a bit I started to realize it wasn’t just the sugar I was missing, but also the fat content that came along with those cookies and ice cream and cakes and all that good stuff. An apple with a tablespoon or two of peanutbutter, or with an ounce of cheese cures both the sweet tooth and the need for fat, and it fills me up *way* better than half a dozen cookies do.

By the time 40 days was up, my sweet tooth had reduced by a whole lot and I’d lost 7 pounds, as well as learned a whole lot about my eating habits. I learned that very, very quickly I could tell the difference between being hungry and bored, and that when I *was* hungry, eating real food was *much* better for me. It made me feel much better, whereas before if I’d had a cookie and then four cookies I would continue to feel dissatisfied and vaguely hungry, and it’s because my body wasn’t after sugar, but my *brain* didn’t know any better.

I’ve let sweets creep back into my diet now, but I’m far better at moderating them than I used to be, because I have so much more awareness of whether I’m really *hungry* or not. I still don’t keep them around the house (critical, because I work from home) and I’m basically happier that way. I can’t be tempted if they’re not on hand, and if I really am hungry, now I’ve got different kinds of fruit lying around, and that, almost every time, is just fine.