It has now been 3 weeks since I began my foray into banning all refined sugar.
If this is your first time reading about my experiment, you might want to read all about here first. I have also written two updates (one and two), which detail my experiences.
I am happy to report that I am still free of all refined sugar and sugar alcohols. 😀 I am enjoying natural sugar that isn’t in high concentrations, and in case you missed it, yesterday I outlined all of the “sweets” that I enjoy eating now that I’m off of refined sugar.
Even though once I was past the first few days of my experiment I haven’t been having those physical sugar cravings that hang on for hours (or an entire day!), I still have had fleeting thoughts of giving in to some processed foods. This week, like last week, I’ve had some days filled with extreme stress, and when I get stressed, I want to comfort myself with food.
I know without a doubt that if I had been eating processed foods (most contain sugar of some kind) during the past weeks, that I would have been overeating and gaining weight. I would have said “to heck with it” and just given in because my resistance would have already been so low.
This week, I’ve continued to experience all of the positive benefits that I listed in the last two weeks’ updates (continued motivation, lack of food obsessions and physical sugar cravings, excellent health and energy), and I have also lost another pound. The largest benefit that I would like to impress upon you though, is the absence of food obsessions. While it’s true that I have had thoughts here and there about eating processed food, they haven’t been obsessions that I couldn’t let go of. In my opinion, this is the greatest gift of giving up sugar.
In the past two weeks I have given you day-by-day breakdowns. This past week, many of the days were the same: Friday – Wednesday I was stressing and had fleeting thoughts of sugar. Since Thursday, I’ve only had those thoughts when I was hungry and as soon as I ate my healthy, whole foods, they passed.
I found myself really wanted something different to eat on Wednesday night just because I was stressed out, and I almost gave in and ate some raisins. I didn’t and I realize that this might sound extreme since the only ingredient in raisins is California Seedless Raisins; so why avoid them? I’ve noticed that when I eat them, I binge on them (eat uncontrollably), and they cause me to crave refined sugar. This is because they are so high in natural sugar.
As it has turned out, I did not give in to my emotional cravings for sugar this week, and I am again grateful that I made this commitment here at Fearless Fat Loss. If I hadn’t committed to this experiment, I wouldn’t be doing so well with weight loss, food addiction, overeating, or emotional eating. Thank you very much for reading and following along with me. 🙂
I’d like to thank Deb Giordano for recommending that her readers read all about my experiment in her post, The Big Bad Wolf: SUGAR, and for Michael Byrd doing the same in his post, Watch As JoLynn Goes Sugar Free. Both of their blogs are related to health, so check them out!
I sincerely hope that anyone who reads these logs of my experiment can benefit from them and see that giving up sugar has many more benefits than drawbacks.
Read my experiment guidelines and my updates:
JoLynn,
Great article. I gave up refined sugars for several months last year and I’d never felt better in my life. The first week can be very hard because your body is so used to them, but once that was over my energy level was incomparable to how it had been before. I’ve been burning the candle at both ends lately and I think you’ve inspired me to ditch the sugars again.
Thanks!
Sara
Hi JoLynn,
Way to go on avoiding those raisins! It may sound extreme in the beginning, but as your body adjust to your new way of eating, you’ll find that even things like raisins are just too sweet for you.
Keep up the great work. You’re an inspiration!
Michael
Hi JoLynn,
That is so interesting about your lack of food obsessions since giving up sugar! I think processed food and especially sugar has such an addictive quality that we tend to think it’s in our minds but actually it’s a physical addiction that can cause the obsessing over foods. Thanks again for keeping us updated.
Deb
Hi Deb,
It is extremely amazing, I can attest to that!! 🙂
Yes, processed food is highly addictive and when you look at the ingredients, you will find that most of it contains sugar in some form. Sugar is an addictive drug, your brain actually reacts to it the same way it reacts to heroin. Luckily I’ve never been a heroin addict, but I’ve lived as a sugar addict and I have much more peace of mind when I abstain from it! 😉
I’ve thought about extending my updates for another month, mainly because it will keep me committed to staying off the sugar. I don’t know if this would be interesting for everyone to read, though.
Thanks for hanging in there with me Deb and following my updates! 😀
Hi Michael,
Thank you so much! I hope that I can offer some inspiration to others, I’d love for that to be the case!
Yes, those raisins are still something that I enjoy, they just give me those annoying cravings for sugar. 😐
I honestly don’t know if I will ever find sweets to be too sweet…I started eating this way (healthy) in 2004, but have had forays back into “the dark side” since then. I found that if I started eating those foods again, at first they were sweet, but I ended up adjusting, even though my body was in pain from all of the junk.
This is why today, I am determined to resolve any and all issues that I have with the topic of weight, food, exercise, food addiction, emotional eating, the whole gamut! I’m in this for the long haul, not just a short term diet. 😉