I Quit Sugar, Cold Turkey
You can too
I sat on the small office couch trying to look comfortable. My doctor sat at her desk in front of me, sideways so we could both see her computer screen. She was combing through my most recent blood test results with a furrowed brow.
“Do you smoke”? She finally asked me, trying to make sense of my high cholesterol and inflammation.
“Um, no” I responded. I was so embarrassed that she had just asked me that. My eyes fell toward my lap.
“Do you eat a lot of processed food”?
I sighed and and looked down at my hands. “It’s what I eat”, I said. I felt dumb and lazy. I knew better than to just eat sandwiches and pasta every day for lunch. Why hadn’t I made more of an effort?
She sent me on my way and I tried to make sense of the four page report I was given that listed all my results. I was confused and overwhelmed. I didn’t know where to start. Internet searches led me nowhere and I threw the paperwork in a corner. I finally found a nutritionist that I trusted to help me decode all these abbreviations and numbers. She asked me what I ate. “Bagels, protein bars, water”. I told her. It was an exaggeration but it wasn’t that far off honestly.
After keeping a food journal for a week we sat down. “You eat a lot of sugar”. She said as a matter of fact. “Protein bars, granola, fruit, trail mix. That’s a lot of sugar”.
Huh, I guess it was. I never really stopped to read labels before but once I started…wow. There is sugar in everything. Even where you least expect it. I quit drinking soda years ago so I thought I was now “healthy”. I still had a lot of work to do. I finally had some disappointing test results and a concrete reason to quit. I didn’t want to cause myself more medical problems later in life because I ate like a sixteen year old.
The day that I decided to give up sugar was December 10th, 2017. I thought it would be hard to do in December but I also thought — it will be hard no matter what — better just jump in. Let’s just do this already.
The first couple of days were the hardest. I had headaches from sugar withdrawal, cravings, and I was short-tempered. Each day got easier and by day three my withdrawal symptoms had pretty much disappeared. Now that the initial cravings had been cracked, it was time to get to the real work…consistency in not eating sugar.
I don’t eat sugar was my motto so that when I was presented with it, that’s what I would say… “I don’t eat sugar”. I could not bargain with myself and eat one thing a day, one thing a week, or have one cheat day. I had tried that and it didn’t work for me. I would always make excuses as to why I should eat more. It had to be none…I don’t eat sugar.
The first box of donuts someone brought into work was probably the hardest. I opened the box and stared at them. I don’t eat sugar I told myself. I leaned over the box and inhaled deeply. The sweet smell of powdered sugar and jelly hit me and I could imagine the crunch of the sugar between my back teeth. I stood up and walked back to my office. The smell was enough to hold me off. Once I got a good whiff, I knew what those donuts tasted like and I moved on. I started to do this with anything sweet I was presented. I would just take a good sniff, then I didn’t need to eat it. It’s weird, I know, but it worked for me.
If you’re ready to drop kick sugar out of your life here are some things that helped me kick it:
You need a reason.
Why are you quitting? Is it overall health? Want more energy? A reason that’s bigger that you. “I want to lose weight” may not keep you in the game too long. Find your reason, put it somewhere you will look at it, and reference it when you need to. I kept a note in my phone so I could look at it at any time.
Don’t leave yourself hungry.
Have healthy snacks. I stock up on snacks so I’m not left famished and then reach for sugar because it’s easy and I’m cranky. If you’re not hungry, walking away from a box of donuts is a lot easier.
Find a satisfying treat that doesn’t have sugar.
I found that coconut oil fudge did the trick for me. It’s really easy to make, rich, and delicious. When I eat it, I don’t feel deprived. I also can’t eat a lot of it because it is so rich. It also melts super quickly so…just heads up on that.
Consistently is key.
Stay the course. You will start to feel a lot better without it.
If you slip up, that’s okay too.
Be kind to yourself. Look at why you reached for sugar. The reason why you picked it up may give you a key to what it provides for you. Were you tired, hungry, frustrated, sad? What could replace sugar for you when you start to feel this way?
These days if I eat sugar I feel terrible. I get a headache almost instantly and can feel the sugar spreading throughout my bloodstream. It’s a horrible feeling and it’s enough to make me stay away from it.
Quitting sugar is really hard. We are rewarded with it at such an early age and it is highly addictive. The first time I was ever aggressive I was three years old, dressed in a tiger costume, and I was protecting my Halloween candy. You get the picture.
Begin to surround yourself with healthy alternatives, find your reason to quit, and you can do it too…even if it’s not cold turkey. Less sugar is always a win.
