Giving Up Sugar for a Month

Photo Credit: Uwe Hermann

On Sunday I will start a month-long journey of giving up sugar.  Why?  I have become lazy over the past year and let sugar creep back into my diet.  Too much into my diet!  I know friends and family already feel like I don't eat that much, but I do.  And I can feel it.  I don't like the way my body craves it for a pick-up in the afternoon or the example I set for my kids when they see me eat it.  I don't like the few pounds I have gained because of it.  So the time has come to give it up for another month.

This isn't the first time I have given up sugar, I did it back in November and it was a good experience.  So I will do it again, but with a difference.  This time I would love to have people join me on the journey.  So I would like to invite others who would like to do this with me to guest post on the blog about your experience.  Why are you giving up sugar?  How is it going?  Why do you like it?  Why don't you like it?  How do your family and friends feel about your decision?  

Is anyone with me?

I think giving up sugar could look different for different people depending where you are at right now.  Maybe some people do it for a week, maybe two.  Maybe you give up all sweets, but don't worry about the sugar in your pasta sauce or hot dogs.  

To me a Giving Up Sugar in May means: 

• * No sugar.  
• * No corn syrup.  
• * No sweeteners, fake or real, of any kind in the ingredients list of anything I buy.  
• * Naturally occurring fruit and milk sugars are OK - but I will limit fruit to no more than 1 per day.

So if you are interested in doing this with me, send me an email at j m a g r o @ g m a i l . c o m (remove the spaces) and let me know.

Questions I ask Myself

I feel that my sweet tooth is my biggest road block to feeling fully healthy.  Avoiding sweet treats, candies and pastries is something that is important to me because I think sugar wreaks havoc on my body.  As I have omitted sugar from my diet, the effects when I do eat it are immediatly obvious.  Yet, even with my desire to stop indulging in sweets, I've still been know to eat a few too many cookies.  I don't think I will ever fully give up sweets, because I want to be able to enjoy birthday cake with my kids and an ice cream on a warm summer night, but I really want it to be the exception rather than the rule.  So when I am deciding whether I am going to have a cookie (or another one), here is a list of questions I am trying to get in the habit of asking myself.

• Am I hungry?
• Is this a food that will aid me in my long term goal of being healthy?
• Would I let my children eat this?
• Am I setting a healthy example for my children by eating this (or this much) ?
• What is this food going to do to my body?
• And when I am out, would it be better to donate the money I would spend on this treat to someone who is REALLY hungry?

I am not perfect, and despite answering these questions, I still eat more sweets than I want to, but getting in the habit of answering them before I eat my sweets has helped me cut out a lot of junk and I hope they take me even further.

Do you have questions you ask yourself to curb what temps you?

Thanks for the photo Bossacafez

No Sugar November - Results

I did it...or at least came pretty close.

There are two times when it is nearly impossible to avoid eating sugar:

1) When you are eating at someone else's house (even when you avoid dessert): Because sugar is in basically everything, I would have had to bring my own food wherever I went all month. That is a little too much for me to think about right now. I know I had sugar when I had a sandwich at a friend's house, bacon in mashed potatoes at my mom's house, and stuffing and bread at thanksgiving (and the stuffing I ate at a Whole Foods Cooking Class) but I am not about imposing inconvenience on my friends and family.

2) When you are sick. My daughter was very sick at the beginning of the month. Never took her to the doctor, so I don't know what she had but I took Elderberry Syrup that has glucose in it to boost my immune system along with some oscillococcinum that has sugar in it.

and Ohh there is one more 3) Thanksgiving day. Although I told myself that I was going to skip the dessert on Thanksgiving, when the time came I just couldn't resist a piece of homemade cherry pie. It was good and worth it. One other failure, I ate a veal nitrate-free hot dog. After I finished, I thought to myself, wow that was sweet and when I checked the package sure enough, it had cane juice in it. Really? Even hot dogs? Incredible!

As I initially said, I was doing this as a health test, not to lose weight. And in case you were wondering, I didn't gain or loose weight. I stayed the same. Here is what I noticed during my little experiment:

* It was really hard in the beginning. If I had been doing it for any other reason, I would have given in and eaten sugar within the first 3 days. But I really wanted to see if I felt different without sugar.

* My sugar cravings diminished over time. In the beginning it was really really hard to not think about what I wasn't having. By week three, it was much easier.

* I never realized I had such a Pavlovian response to sugar. Two times my kids ate ice cream while I was doing this and the whole time my mouth was seriously salivating over the ice cream. It was a very strong response that really surprised me.

* It was awesome to see my kids encourage me. My dad was teasing me trying to tell me that the homemade caramel he made didn't have sugar in it and my son (4 years old) said "Momma I think Grandpa is trying to trick you, I know you are trying not to eat any sugar." When we walked into Maggie Moos to get the kids ice cream at the mall, my daughter (2 years old), put both of her hands to her head in dismay and said "Ohh Noooo. Ice Cream has a lot of sugar in it Mama." I assured her that I would skip the ice cream, but she could still have hers. I think I will make this a yearly thing, although probably not in November again. It was a great conversation starter for the kids.

* Not to get too personal, but my luteal phase is usually too short. This time it was as long as it should be.

* My energy was more constant throughout the day. I didn't have the usual lows of tiredness.

* Although I have been eliminating sugar slowly for the past six months, I was surprised how much I had to still say no too. Mainly desserts when at other people's houses. At first it was hard, but by the end sitting dessert out is a lot easier than I thought it would be.

From doing this I learned that I can give up sugar and feel better when doing so. I honestly don't think one month is long enough to fully realize the benefits of no sugar, so I plan to watch my sugar intake and keep it low over the coming months.

No Sugar November

Photo Credit: Uwe Hermann

My next birthday goal (March 2010) is to kick my sugar habit.  I've been slowly chipping away at it for the past 6 months by doing the following:

• Changing my relationship with food choices to something I do for my health rather than for my weight.
• Educating myself about sugar and what it does to my body.  
• Being aware of how my body feels after I eat sugar.
• Finding healthy replacements, not artificial ones when I do feel like sweetness.
• Omitting foods that don't have healthy replacements (granola bars, sugar in my coffee, cereal)
• Reading labels to make sure there are no added sweeteners in the ingredient list.

These things have made a big dent in how much sugar I eat compared to six months ago.  I have noticed a lot of differences since reducing my sugar.  But now I am interested in what would change if I gave up all sugar for a month?  So that is what I am doing, November of 2009 is going to be sugar free for me.

To me a No Sugar November means: 

• No sugar.  
• No corn syrup.  
• No sweeteners, fake or real, of any kind in the ingredients list of anything I buy.  
• Naturally occurring fruit and milk sugars are OK.  

Those are the rules I made for myself.  Some of this will be easy for me (I haven't had Corn Syrup in a long time).  Some of it will be hard.

I think my biggest challenges are going to be:

• Giving up my baked good.  I don't bake nearly as much as I used to, and what I do bake now, usually has raw honey or sucanat in it in place of sugar, but I think I will miss them.
• Giving up raw honey.  I thought a long time to see what I was going to do about raw honey.  I believe that raw honey can be a great sweetener with health benefits, but for this month I will give it up.
• Giving up my teaspoon of brown sugar in my morning oatmeal.
• Giving up my occasional treats with friends and the kids.  

So why am I excited about "Giving Up" so much?  I think it is going to be fun to see all that I GAIN from giving up my bad sugar habits!