When I arrived in Salt Lake for spring break in March, I was amazed when I saw my sister. She had lost 25 pounds since I had seen her at Christmas time. I asked her what she had done, and she said she had given up sugar. I asked for more details, and she explained what she had been eating. I wondered if I could ever do the same thing.
It really hit home with me. I was addicted to sugar. Cookies were never my weakness. Sure, I love to bake them, but I don't necessarily love to eat them. I was especially addicted to candy! I thought about candy all the time, and if I had a bag of candy, I would eat it until it was gone. I was crazy. This all worked fine until I turned 40 last year. Then things started catching up with me, and I put on 10 pounds. This made me sad. I was running and exercising, but I could not budge the scale back down.
I decided that if my sister could live without sugar, I would give it a try. I was hesitant to get started right away, because I was heading to New York and Boston, and I wasn't sure I could do it while on vacation. But then I decided that I had to get started, no matter what!
April first was my first day home after spring break, and I actually made it the whole day without sugar. The next few days I was very lightheaded and I had an intense headache. I realized my body was going through sugar withdrawals. By giving up sugar, I mean things with sugar in the first 4 ingredients. I'm talking about cookies, cake, candy, syrup, brown sugar, white sugar, etc. When I need a snack, I have an apple and a tablespoon of peanut butter, or crackers, or fruit. I have a stash of sugar-free pudding I mix up for those times I'm craving something sweet and cold. A fruit smoothie is a perfect craving breaker for me. For breakfast, lunch and dinner, I'm eating perfectly normal and healthful stuff--just not the junk. I still eat bread, pizza, yogurt, fruit, crackers, pretzels, granola. I haven't counted calories at all. Most importantly, I have never felt hungry.
My one cheat so far was in New York. We were in Little Italy, and I had to have gelato. It was the best gelato I ever tasted, but even then, after a few spoonfuls I had reached my sugar saturation point. Other than that, the whole time we were in Boston and New York, I stuck to my sugar fast and lost 3 pounds on vacation.
It took about a week before the weight started coming off.
Here are the results:
One month later, I am down 9 pounds. NINE POUNDS! That's 31,500 calories just from giving up junk. I have lost an inch from my thigh, hip, waist and arm measurements.
I definitely don't plan to be sugar-free for the rest of my life. There are too many delicious things in this world to avoid them forever! But as long as the scale keeps moving down, I can definitely do without Sour Patch Kids and Red Vines. I never thought I would say that! When I get down to my ideal healthy weight, I will hopefully be able to enjoy a treat now and then without being completely crazy about candy like I was before.
3 comments:
Way to go, Jill! I have gone sugar-free several times in my life-- the longest stretch was about 2 years, in which I was the skinniest I've ever been. I had no sugar for the last half of my mission and the weight all came off so fast. It gets easier and easier I think. I've considered doing it again-- I love treats too-- chocolate most of all. I recently heard about someone who only has sweets on holidays-- I might try that! Good luck!!
Good job Jill! Mikel and I have been following a Military diet 3 days a week for about 5 weeks. The other 4 days each week, we try to limit sugars or unhealthy foods. We are finding that we don't crave junk like we both used to. Isn't life fun? Always learning and trying to master our weaknesses.
Good for you! This is so inspiring. I'll have to try it...some day!
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