In the summer of 2019, I decided to quit sugar.
I’d been thinking about it and working to eat healthier and exercise. I knew I was a sugar addict, but the thought of never eating all the things I loved was not a pleasant one.
However, I had what Gretchen Rubin calls a “lighting bolt” moment. This is when a realization triggers a sudden, almost effortless change. (Emphasis on almost effortless, because it did take work and commitment.)
In July 2019, I was talking with someone about health and he said to “pay attention to how you feel”. Later that day, my youngest daughter brought me my favorite drink from Starbucks. I slurped down the iced caramel macchiato and instantly got a headache.
That was it for me. I knew I had to give up sugar.
Here’s how I did it
Ditching dessert was the “easy” part. It’s easy to identify that sugar is in desserts and just avoid them. But I did need to put in a bit of work to figure out all the places sugar was hiding in the other foods I ate.
Giving up sugar also meant giving up ketchup, barbecue sauce, cereal, granola bars, jelly, jam, some salad dressings…
I became very good at reading labels and avoided anything with sugar, high fructose corn syrup, glucose, fructose, lactose, honey, maple syrup, brown sugar, cane sugar, barley malt, agave…
I also avoided anything with artificial sweeteners. I knew that my brain needed a total detox and I couldn’t just trick myself with a artificial sweetener and successfully ditch my addiction.
The Practicalities
At that time, I was still eating dairy, so I ditched all the sugar in my coffee but still added half and half.
I began to associate the sweet treats with headaches. I would see something sweet and think to myself, “that’s just a big headache waiting to happen”.
I ate a lot of fruit. I allowed myself to eat all the fruit I wanted. I know there’s a lot of info out there that fruit also spikes your blood sugar, but for me it really worked to allow myself to eat fruit while others were eating ice cream. Eventually, my fruit intake dropped off to more normal levels.
I still eat pasta and bread (mostly homemade sourdough these days). Certainly at the beginning of giving up sugar, I didn’t worry about other carbs. My goal was to give up the addiction I had to sweets.
Resources
I decided to fortify my decision with some reading. I got the book The Case Against Sugar by Gary Taubes and read it in a few days. That helped solidify all the reasons behind my new no-sugar habit.
I haven’t read it, but I’ve heard good things about Allen Carr’s methods, so this book might help too.
Results
The most surprising result was that immediately my internal fighting went away.
All the brain chatter saying, “You just had two cookies and shouldn’t have more. But maybe I can have one more now and then later still have ice cream….”
All that internal fighting went away and I felt so free! Until it went away, I didn’t realize how much brain space that was taking up in my mind.
Another surprising result – I didn’t lose any weight. This wasn’t the main reason I gave up sugar, but I was hoping I would lose weight as a result. It turns out my body is very slow to change as far as what the scale shows. (I did eventually lose weight, but it took a long while.)
Still, I kept up with the no sugar habit because I felt better. I wasn’t gorging myself on cookies and ice cream like I had in the past and so I didn’t have that sick feeling that I so often did when I used to indulge.
The other benefit was that giving up sugar meant I gave up 80% of the processed foods I’d been eating. That put me on a faster path toward health.
Why Give Up Sugar
There isn’t a single healthy eating plan out there that has processed sugar or processed foods as part of the plan. Every eating plan from whole food plant based to carnivore ditches sugars and processed foods.
In fact, I’d venture to say the common denominator in all those plans – and the reason people see results on very different eating plans – is they all ditch the processed sugars and other processed foods.
Giving up sugar will get you 80% of the way to your goal of eating only whole foods. And that means you’re fast-tracking your health.
Sugar also plays a role in cancer, diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimers…. the list is long. There are big reasons to get off sugar now.
Our Goal: Eat Food that Energizes Us
We want to be healthy and full of energy and that’s going to require changes on our part. I promise that it’s worth it though! We either “pay” for our good health now by putting in the work to make changes or we pay for it later with sickness and disease that robs us of enjoying life.
There are two meal plans included in Eat at Home Meal Plans that will help you with this. The No Flour/No Sugar Plan and the Whole Food Plant Based Plans are great places to start for dinner ideas. You can use the discount code NOW to save 30% off your membership.
Healthy 15 Minute Meals
Mediterranean Chicken Skillet
Tomato Basil Chicken Soup
What’s your “lightning bolt” moment?
That one Starbucks drink changed everything for me.
What’s your “lightning bolt” moment when it comes to health? The time you realized something had to change?
Drop it in the comments. I’d love to hear your story.
(And if you’re ready to start changing your meals, the Eat at Home Meal Plans No Flour/No Sugar Plan or Whole Food Plant Based Plan is a great place to begin. Use code NOW to save 30%.)
