Ellen announced on her show that for this season, at least, she is completely cutting sugar out of her daily eating. Yup, she's going cold turkey on the sweet stuff because she wants to have natural energy versus sugar-induced energy.
I'm excited about Ellen's announcement, and secretly since the beginning of the year, I have made a commitment to start weaning from sugar myself. Admittedly, one of two healthy habit changes I want to make for myself is to cut down my sugar consumption, and to wean from night eating. I am a notorious sweet tooth and night eater, and usually what I eat at night is sweet stuff like chocolate, ice cream, and cookies.
I like cold turkey better on a sandwich
I know there are many people who are working on either cutting out sugar or cutting way back on the sugar from their daily eating as well. My motivation is for overall health because I do know I eat too much sugar, and diabetes runs on both sides of my family. I may not avoid getting diabetes, but I can sure prolong it, and I'm all about prevention versus reaction.
On Twitter @puppyshine and I have been chatting about our journey to cut out the sugar in her case, and cut back in my case. In fact, if you go to her blog Whole Pup, she is blogging her nearly day-to-day experience of cutting out sugar. Brave woman!
For me, I cannot go completely cold turkey on the sugar. If I did, I will most surely have a nervous breakdown and be miserable. There is also no medical reason for me to go cold turkey, so I'm not going to aim for sugar free. I cut out artificial sweeteners about four years now, and it's the best thing I've ever done.
"Oh how I love the delectable crunchiness of caramel covered popcorn!"
Fortunately I already don't do the fake sweets
The only sugars I do eat are either raw cane sugar, agave nectar, or any natural sugars that Whole Foods uses in their baked goods or drinks they carry. Ditto with Trader Joes stuff. It may be higher quality sugar, but it's still sugar and too much of it. Whole Foods is my sugar dealer as I am at the bakery almost every day. In fact, when I lived in the Bay Area, one month I spent $40 just in vegan cookies. Yeah, I know, it sounds like a sugar addiction. Luckily, there are no vegan cookies here in Phoenix which is both a bummer but good because the temptation has been eliminated.
If you go completely sugar free that also means many alcohols like my favorite Mojitos go to because they contain sugars in them, and ahem, I am sorry I am a writer and I need my booze. How else am I supposed to live my tormented creative life like Hemingway and Fitzgerald? Yeah okay, I have delusions of grandeur, but no matter, me cannot be completely alcohol free or sugar free. I need some vices even if it's only tiny amounts like airplane liquor bottle size.
We go sugar little
So, in 2010 I am going sugar little which means I can have sugar in my life but in smaller doses. Right now, I did some food journaling and I'm eating about 80-90g of sugar a day which equals to about 6-1/2 to 7 tablespoons of sugar. According to the American Heart Association, the ideal amount of sugar intake in a day is about 25g or 2 tablespoons. So, yeah, like the average American, I am way over the ideal amount.
The eye opening part of my sugar consumption is that the bulk of it comes from drinks. Yeah, yikes! I drink most of my sugars in the form of sweetened iced teas, coffees, bubbly fruit drinks, juices, and Whole Foods 365 brand sodas. The other chunk of my sugar consumption comes from the fact that I eat some form of dessert every night in the likes of cookies, ice cream, rice krispy treats, or cake like doughy things.
And when it comes to desserts, I am also notoriously naughty at consuming the dairy and eggs because coming by vegan desserts besides sorbet at restaurants is nearly impossible. I totally forgo the food allergy attention because the sugar junkie in me doesn't care. MUST have sugar! So, going sugar little is also going to help me get more disciplined about heeding my food allergies.
My sugar little goal
My goal is to get to the AHA ideal of 25g/ day or 175g/week. I figure, there might be times when I know I have to go to sweet laced events like a birthday party or a fancy dinner, and I want to enjoy a piece of cake or sorbet so I can conserve sugar rations on some days before the event and still stay on the 175g/week ideal.
I am going to do what I did when I weaned from Diet Coke, and not put a time deadline on reaching my ideal intake, and will it do it slowly and naturally. It took me nearly two years to completely wean from Diet Coke because I was seriously addicted to the stuff. I was drinking like 2-3 cans/day for years. I started by cutting out one can/day and doing that for about a month. Then I cut down to one can/day, and did that for about a month or two, then cut down to one can every other day, and so on.
I'm okay doing the slow wean because for my body and psyche namely the Inner resistance monster who hates change, tiny changes and slowly detaching makes the process less painful and makes the change stick for good. Today, I take one sip of Diet Coke and I become physically ill.
Come join the fun!
If you are weaning from sugar too or cutting it out, and would like some additional support and some ideas, check back here every Wednesday, as I will do Weaning Wednesday and report on what I'm doing that week in going sugar little.
Are you blogging or tweeting about your sugar wean/cut journey? Let me know in comments as I too am looking for others doing the same thing.
