Before I went on maternity leave I challenged you to think about whether you could go a day, a week, even a month without sugar. After the Christmas cookies had all been eaten and Grandma’s pie was put away, one brave Vitamin G reader in Canada decided to make a big commitment: no sugar for a month. Here’s her story…
Meet Anais, a 21-year-old reader from Ontario who says she’s always had a sweet tooth. “I liked having a dessert after dinner or at night as a snack,” she admits. And then there was the chocolate. “I’ve been going to Switzerland a lot to visit my parents, so it seems that I had an infinite supply of chocolate…”
So, she decided to make some changes. “On January 1st, I completely cut out all sugar, Splenda, etc., from my diet,” she says. That meant no jam on her toast, no sugary snacks, granola bars, or–yes–chocolate. She also scoured labels at the market and only brought home foods with no added sugar.
“I thought it would be near impossible to last a whole month,” she says. “I told myself I’d be happy if I lasted a week.” But, she persevered and changed her habits. “I’ve come to the conclusion that what made it doable was the fact that there was an end date, but also the fact that it was a challenge and I felt like I was entering into a contest against myself, and the better half of me had to win.”
There were challenges though: “Whenever I would watch the Food Network, and someone would be baking a pie, or a cake, or cookies…well THAT’s when it was really hard. It was also hard when I was at a restaurant with friends and everyone would order dessert, or when I would go to Starbucks and I noticed they started carrying cupcakes.”
But, Anais said she stopped fighting herself around day 17 of the challenge, which is when she says the sugar cravings started to die down. “It just became part of my routine to not have to think about what my next sugar fix could be,” she says. And when a craving cropped up, she turned to fruit. “There was one day when it was especially difficult, I think I probably had 10 clementines. I know it’s not ideal (that’s quite a bit), but in the end I think it helped.” Anais is happy to report that she has more energy since the challenge and has even lost some weight.
Congrats Anais–and thanks for inspiring us all! Want to start your own sugar detox? Here’s how.
Have you cut out sugar? Are you thinking about it?
Dr. Jack Michael Barbour Health Blog 