Today marks 6 months, half a year, that I have been off all refined sugar
On May 1st of 2012, I decided to take an "endurance challenge" to go off all refined sugars. No sweets, no cake, no candy, no chocolate. In addition, there would be no honey. The only sugars I have ingested since that day are:
- The ones provided in fruit juices, but sparingly, as they are high in sugar
- Natural fruit (oranges, bananas, apples, pears, etc.)
- Where sugar occurs as a *minor* ingredient (like wheat/whole grain breads), except anything with HFCS is completely banned.
Have I lost weight? Yes. First I went from 335 to 341, stopped, and then lost weight gradually until about 2 months ago where I plateaued at 315. I am sure if I exercised, which I had planned to do, I'd be about 310 or so. Sadly, I got this new job where I went from walking 2-5 miles a day to about less than a mile a day. I have tried to take advantage of the gym here, but my work is literally I get here at 8, work straight through until 4:30 to 5:30, occasionally stopping for lunch a few times a week. I am hoping to balance this better as time goes on, but this company is meeting-crazy, where I have 1-2 meetings of 90 minutes each A DAY on average. Most of them are completely unnecessary.
Do I feel different? Well, for the first 3 months, I had a severe lack of energy with a feeling of about 30% less energy for daily tasks than I used to have. Then that settled down as my body got used to the new energy levels. I have noticed a severe reduction in craving for carbs (pasta, bread, and the like). In fact, I have no feeling at all whatsoever about them.
But the most surprising thing about this is I have had almost no cravings for sweets. It was like May 1st, it just shut off. I have been through multiple conventions, various parties, had free sweets offered to me, and while this Halloween would have been the most stressful, it's only been the usual chocolate cravings I used to get for migraines and SAD that have been the hardest to deal with. And even so, it's been manageable.
I wish I could pass along some kind of worldly wise experience, but that's about all I have. Part of this has been mysterious to me, and the rest hasn't been very impressive.
- The ones provided in fruit juices, but sparingly, as they are high in sugar
- Natural fruit (oranges, bananas, apples, pears, etc.)
- Where sugar occurs as a *minor* ingredient (like wheat/whole grain breads), except anything with HFCS is completely banned.
Have I lost weight? Yes. First I went from 335 to 341, stopped, and then lost weight gradually until about 2 months ago where I plateaued at 315. I am sure if I exercised, which I had planned to do, I'd be about 310 or so. Sadly, I got this new job where I went from walking 2-5 miles a day to about less than a mile a day. I have tried to take advantage of the gym here, but my work is literally I get here at 8, work straight through until 4:30 to 5:30, occasionally stopping for lunch a few times a week. I am hoping to balance this better as time goes on, but this company is meeting-crazy, where I have 1-2 meetings of 90 minutes each A DAY on average. Most of them are completely unnecessary.
Do I feel different? Well, for the first 3 months, I had a severe lack of energy with a feeling of about 30% less energy for daily tasks than I used to have. Then that settled down as my body got used to the new energy levels. I have noticed a severe reduction in craving for carbs (pasta, bread, and the like). In fact, I have no feeling at all whatsoever about them.
But the most surprising thing about this is I have had almost no cravings for sweets. It was like May 1st, it just shut off. I have been through multiple conventions, various parties, had free sweets offered to me, and while this Halloween would have been the most stressful, it's only been the usual chocolate cravings I used to get for migraines and SAD that have been the hardest to deal with. And even so, it's been manageable.
I wish I could pass along some kind of worldly wise experience, but that's about all I have. Part of this has been mysterious to me, and the rest hasn't been very impressive.