Viewing: Tips, Tricks, Info & News

I Purchased Pop Tarts

In anticipation of my upcoming sugar-ban lift, I purchased a package of Strawberry flavored Pop Tarts with Frosting to be eaten as breakfast. For the most part I can pretty much forget about them. But every once in a while—if I open the cabinet and notice them—the thought flashes through my mind that nobody would know if I ate them early. It’s just a week away and I’ve waited a whole year; I can wait a few more days.

Posted on Oct 25, 2006

Scared to Not Eat Sugar?

What can you expect if you decide to quit sugar?

It will be difficult in the first month. Friends and family members will question and test you. They’ll wonder why you’re taking on such a crazy thing while secretly they’ll wish they had the willpower to stop as well. Wanting to see if it’s actually possible, they’ll tease and tempt you with your favorite desserts and snacks.

You see, they’ve told themselves it’s impossible to Stop Being Sweet. When you tell them you’re about to quit sugar, they think you are doing something impossible—something they have already become resigned about. Nobody likes to be wrong so they’re gonna try to see if you are full of sugar or full of bull.

Instead show them that you’re full of willpower!

During the first month you will experience the worst of the cravings. Your body will withdrawal and you’ll find yourself facing reality in new ways. You can’t sit in front of the television and polish off a bowl of ice cream as a way to relieve stress. No more eating cookies while surfing the web. You can’t sample from the snack table at work. It’s a tough adjustment, especially if you eat sugar when you’re under pressure!

23 days. That’s what it takes to start to feel the effects of quitting sugar.

After you make it through the first month will people grow comfortable with you not eating sweets. It will become normal. In fact, it will become you.

Good friends and family members will make unsweetened desserts (for everyone!) when you share dinners. People around you will start to re-evaluate how much they eat sugar based on your ability to not eat it. Suddenly you no longer need to explain anything to anyone…as if you ever did.

Once you have been off sugar for two or more months you’ll start to take hold of other areas of your life that you’ve been meaning to improve upon. You may find yourself full of natural energy, ready and willing to exercise more frequently and wanting to be active.

After four or more months it becomes easier to cut down on complex carbohydrates. I still eat pasta and will have a bagel here and there, but I don’t crave carbs like when I fist quit. You must take it one step at a time.

The first step is to see how long you can last without anything sweet. Anything includes soda, most flavored beverages, “healthy” energy bars, chocolate, and just about every food product that has a mascot/character associated with it.

If you have to ask if it’s okay to eat, it probably isn’t.

So, how long can you last? One year? One month? One week? One day?

Posted on Oct 23, 2006

Suggestions Wanted!

In my next year of unsweetness I’m working to make this website into a place where you can also Stop Being Sweet.

What kinds of things would help you?

Recipes?

A step-by-step guide on how-to-quit?

Group support?

Please tell me and I’ll do my best to incorporate it into the Stop Being Sweet website.

Thanks!

Posted on Oct 21, 2006

Preparing for Halloween

It’s just days away from Halloween now. For a while I didn’t care and didn’t want to eat sugar but as it approaches and I keep seeing candy everywhere (today at the bank they had buckets of candy on the counter for customers to take) and have begun to get a little bit excited about the idea of eating brownies, chocolate covered pretzels, cookies, cake, ice cream, Pop Tarts, and maybe even some Froot Loops or something.

For those of you who don’t know, I’m going to eat nothing but sweets (or close to it) from Halloween until November 3rd, then I’ll quit sugar for another year. I chose those days because Halloween is the holiday most associated with sugary sweets and my birthday is a few days later. I’m not one to make resolutions on New Year’s Eve, but have always done so on my birthday.

I’m a bit nervous, however, because I have to teach classes—fitness classes—during the four days in which I plan to eat nothing but sugar. Maybe something other than sugar will get eaten in those four days…

Posted on Oct 20, 2006 : Comments: (0)

I Crashed the Other Day

Woke up early and ate a breakfast of bread, cheese, watermelon, and fruit. Rode my bike to work and taught a Tai Chi class during which my legs felt weak and shaky. I rode home tired.

A nap began to seem more and more enticing. I felt as if I’d eaten seven bags of M&Ms and fell into a deep sleep. A few hours later I woke up slowly. This hasn’t happened in a long time. It made me really glad I’m off sugar. It’s my ninth month!

Lately I’ve been dreaming about eating sweets. In one dream I ate a bunch of generic cream sandwich cookies before “realizing” what I was doing.

In another dream I made the choice to eat sweets and was rummaging through a kitchen cabinet (not mine) to find candy and Hostess snacks. When I “realized” what that I was eating sugar I told myself things were just too stressful to not do it. Then this website came to mind and the guit hit me because people would know.

Luckily it was just a dream.

Sugar Blogging

Another one bites the good stuff!

Posted on Jul 17, 2006