Are you a sugar addict? I am. In 2005 I vowed to quit sugar and have been blogging about it ever since. This website contains personal journal entries, stories, product reviews, the Sugar Challenge, and advice for people who are trying to be healthy but still continue to eat sugary junk food. Please, learn from my story and let’s Stop Being Sweet together!

December 17, 2005

Treat? Or Trick?

This past week I began an intense project which will last until the end of the year.

On Friday one of the women in the office came to the door and invited my colleagues and I to help ourselves to some “treats” that were on the table in the next room. When I walked to the copier peanut butter Christmas cookies with Hershey’s chocolate kisses on top, oatmeal cookies, and slices of (my trigger food) chocolate chip banana bread leapt up and tried to jump into my mouth!

The thoughts ran through my head but I didn’t eat any of them. Each day I’ve brought plenty of healthy and sugar free foods to snack on so that I remain full. Had I been hungry when those “treats” were presented I might have caved.

The most interesting thing about the whole event was that I noticed something about sweets. The girls in the office were clamoring around the table. Despite the fact that there was a larger portion of cookies in the break area, we were only informed when everyone else had their fill.

The snacks were called “treats”—as if cookies are rare and hard to come by.

Friday is dress down day at the office and it is also common that there’s some kind of “treat” (including being able to wear jeans, oh!) for the staff. Little bowls of candy rest on people’s desks and one lady in particular has offered her candy bowl to everyone who passes.

Sharing sweets is a common social event signifying the end of the work week. Sugar is the reward for a hard earned paycheck. A plate full of cookies reduced everyone to yappy children for having “done good” and they ate it up—quite literally.

Imagine if the treats were cigarettes.

Imagine if the treats were cans of soda.

Imagine if the treats were nice sandwiches.

Imagine if the treat was a bonus.

Posted in My Personal Journal on December 17, 2005

December 11, 2005

Starting 9 to 5

Tonight I was invited out to eat and went. It was nice to see friends. The bad thing was that I ate (salad) despite the fact that I just wasn’t hungry. It seems I can’t turn down food lately. I’m not obese, but it certainly doesn’t feel good to eat so much. My stomach is sticking out! Not really, but a little bit.

I’m going to be working on a 9-5 daily schedule for the next two weeks before Christmas week. It will be interesting to see how that affects my sugar situation.

Posted in My Personal Journal on December 11, 2005

December 10, 2005

Compulsion

My life tends to appear as to me one compulsive, and often impulsive, action after another. I am active on a listserv (an email list with many members who all use email to discuss a topic) and in the past few days I started posting to it. I found myself getting more and more caught up in the discussion to the point where I began to look forward to reading replies. That’s not a bad thing.

What’s bad is that tonight I suddenly felt out of control with it. I worried that I had said something over-the-top and kept thinking that I should shut up. I wanted to write my opinion to every post. Part of it was that the list is about storytelling and I’m really interested to discuss it. But not everything or everything needs my two cents.

Tonight I realized that I am obsessive and since I’m not eating sugar my obsessive behavior is transferring to other things. I heard Steve Barnes (author) say that he dealt with being obsessive by becoming obsessed with balance. For me right now, I’m going to try to transfer my obsession to health and fitness by way of Tai Chi.

Posted in My Personal Journal on December 10, 2005

December 08, 2005

When Do You Binge?

When do you binge?

What do you eat?

How often?

Posted in Tips, Tricks, Info & News on December 08, 2005

December 07, 2005

Cutting The Cycle

We must have something that causes us the desire to eat sweets—especially to binge.

When we cut out the binging and sweet eating, we’re sort of cutting off the top of the tree. It may not solve the underlying problems, but it certainly draws attention to them. Cutting out sweets is like laying off the cashiers at a fast food chain. It stops everything. It removes the connection between us and the degenerative cycle.

You can’t deal with the roots of your addiction if you can’t see the roots. Since I’ve been off sweets for a while, my current behavior is to simply eat more. Lately I’ve been working on eating less, although it’s hard since I’m often quite hungry.

The last time I wanted to binge was Sunday night. I noticed a repetitive thought pattern of telling myself it would be the last time. I promised myself that, if I binged, I’d start fresh on Monday by eating right and getting fit.

I ended up eating toast, apples, and a stir fry, but no sugar! The next time I feel the need to binge I’m going to pay close attention to the events that brought me to that state of wanting to stuff myself. Perhaps I’ll write it all down.

To surmise:
There is something else happening in our lives to cause us to want to binge. It’s not that we just like sweet snacks. Just about everybody likes something sweet. It seems to me that binging usually follows (or is part of) some kind of perceived failure or self deprecation.

Posted in My Personal Journal on December 07, 2005

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