I quit cold turkey!

Well after YEARS of wanting to reduce my sugar consumption I finally found the only method that seems to be effective --quitting sugar altogether! After reading the amazing blog "My Year Without" it gave me the support I needed to realize that trying to limit sugar, or allowing myself only one "sweet cheat" item just wasn't going to cut it. I was too physically and mentally addicted to the sweet, white powder!

This might sound extreme and difficult (Afterall, sugar is SO incidious!), but the has been quite empowering! It is perhaps the first time in my life that I have experienced such willpower and discipline, and it has extended to other parts of my life beyond my diet. I suppose to be fair that I should mention that this process has not entirely been a piece of cake (pun completely intended). I do get cravings, and I do sometimes look longingly at sugary, delightful baked goods, but when I remind myself that I CAN have that piece of sugary whatever, but CHOOSE not too, I feel the willpower kicking in again, and it makes me proud of myself.

The reason for my new diet change (besides realizing that I was completely addicted, and eating sugar with reckless abandon), was that eating sugar made me feel physically, and mentally terrible. I could honestly see no benefit of eating sugar.

The hardest part of this process is realizing that I have to be an avid food label reader now. It seems like every day I have discovered something (packaged/processed) that I used to eat without a second thought, but now "can't" because it has sugar in it including some: hot sauces, frozen pizza, chips, salad dressings, and bread. I shouldn't be eating this stuff anyway I suppose.

Along with reading labels I have had to become a good detective for sugar "code words." Some of the newly off-limit ingredients that all mean the same thing as "sugar" include:
Saccharose, Sucanat, Granulated Sugar, Refined Sugar, Brown Sugar, Cane Juice, Evaporated Cane Juice, Evaporated Cane Sugar, Cane Sugar, Raw Cane Sugar, Turbinado, Cane syrup, Beet syrup, Beet Sugar, Baker's Sugar, Bar Sugar, Barbados Sugar, Berry Sugar, Chinese Rock Sugar, Confectioners Sugar, Rock sugar, Corn Syrup, High-Fructose Corn Syrup, and AGAVE (yes agave is out! Read about why here).

and that's not the complete list of sneaky names for sugar, just some of the more popular ones. I also, by the way, never have and never will eat artificial sweeteners. I like food, not chemicals and cancer!

Here is a list of items that are "okay by me" (due to the fact that they are natural; unprocessed; don't react in the body the same way as sugar does; and contain vitamins, minerals, and fiber) for this new diet adventure:
honey, molasses, maple syrup, brown rice syrup, "grain sweetened", and date sugar.

two other "sweeteners" that I am okay using, because they come from plants, include:
stevia and xylitol

This new adventure has allowed me to give up completely some of the foods that I shouldn't be eating anyway, get creative with recipes, or hunt for "naturally sweetened" treats. Some of the naturally sweet recipes that I have found are chronicled here and here in my blog. I also found an abundant supply of "grain sweetened" chocolate covered almonds in the bulk section of Whole Foods. mm--mm--good!

more later...