Coming to Terms

I did not want to admit this as I was afraid of this outcome. OK, here goes.

Cutting out sugar works.

There, I've said it. You might remember a little experiment John and I undertook in the past couple weeks of a Sugar Detox. Two weeks, no added sugar. Nothing with more than 10 g of sugar already in it either. Our sugar consumption and, in John's case, addiction had gotten completely out of control. It was not easy

John lost 7 pounds in two weeks. Eye opening, right? I lost about 2 pounds but I wasn't eating nearly the amount that John was. It showed us that while a detox can re-set your thinking, if we want to continue on this path, it's going to more about less sugar as a lifestyle change. I'm not one for "diets". Diets don't work. We eat healthfully 99% of the time. We eat out only once a week and that is a meal where calories don't count (in our minds). We cannot go back to eating dessert every night though either. It's a slippery slope.

What the detox did do for us was teach us to really appreciate the small amount of sweets we have let back into our lives. Just one thin mint tastes amazing. You don't need three or four. John puts a whole lot less cream and sugar in his coffee now after not having it for those two weeks and he's cut back to one cup a day. Smaller amounts of sugar are more satisfying and that was a major goal.

Something that John said that really struck me was that because he wasn't having sugar in the morning with coffee, he didn't get hungry as quickly throughout the day. Ding ding ding!!! Sugar makes you hungrier, people! Then, you eat more calories than you normally would have because you're overcompensating.

If you eat more sugar than you'd care to admit, you might try cutting it out for a couple weeks. I'm no doctor, of course, and I can only share my experience. But, it seems to have worked for us. Of course, we're also still working out 6 days a week which is also important. Staying active is a key component to any healthy lifestyle.

Get after it out there!