"Sugar Drug" Fast - Support Thread

jenni3626

I recently blogged about the drug-like affects of sugar on our body; sugar gives a physical boost or 'high', even causes temporary happy feelings, provides a kind of rush, then causes a crash of energy AND emotions. Sugar can affect not only our physical bodies but also our mood mood, causing irritability and moodiness.

This physical 'high' is SO appealing because it teases us into believing that we have more energy (which is why people eat or drink sugary substances when they are tired to pick them up). This is totally fake . . . it is pseudo-energy, not REAL energy (which is what we really want, right?).

The emotional effects are so desirable too (which is why people stuff themselves with sugar and carbs when they are 'emotionally eating' / 'stress eating'). We use food to make us happy! Sounds ridiculous now, but when we are discouraged about a bad relationship, stress at work, a recent failure or pretty much anything, a big piece of cheesecake is just one of the many ways we tend to our wounds. Here's the problem . . . that emotional high is also (like the physical high) just fake. And not only that, but sugar can bring down our emotional state, causing irritability and moodiness, even depression!

So, let's acknowledge reality . . . we use sugar to bring us up, but we've been had! All it is doing is bringing us down!

We have to acknowledge this truth because you can not heal or change what you do not acknowledge.

HERE'S THE OBJECTIVE: FAST SUGAR!

What is a "Fast"?

When a person fasts something they decide in advance what, exactly, they will fast, and then they remove that item from their life (go without) for a determined amount of time.

What kind of "sugar" are we fasting?

This is important to define because there is some kind of sugar in most items, even bread. The kind of sugar I implore you to fast are those items that are obviously high in sugar (all candy, pop, and dessert type items). Also, if I really want to have a treat and I am not sure how much sugar is in there I check the ingredients. If sugar is the 1st or 2nd ingredient, I pass. There are some items with sugar that are considered healthy (like fruit or whole fruit juice). I am not fasting these types of items but I encourage you to be aware of how much natural sugar you are consuming daily and eat/drink these in moderation.

What is the time frame for this fast?

YOU pick the duration and YOU decide if you want this to be a temporary goal, or a life change. My personal goal has been to decide in advance what date I will fast until. I try to set them out at LEAST a few weeks apart. I usually choose a holiday. For example; I had once piece of pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving Day and then fasted sugar again until Christmas Eve. After Christmas Day I decided to fast again until my birthday, which is January 15th and after that I will fast until Valentine's Day.

YOU choose the dates that work best for you. Pick an important day and set your mind to go till that day before you eat sugar (as defined above). There is a fun day or holiday in almost every month, so make your decision with some thought. Think of family and friends and consider birthdays.

Temporary or life change?

For me, fasting sugar has provided an enormous amount of success with my weight loss and emotional stability. I am starting to experience REAL energy and REAL emotional strength and it feels so great that I can't possibly go back now. This will be a life-change for me, not a temporary goal; but you need to decide what will work best for you and what will help you to have the most success. If committing to a life change scares you away from giving this a try, then just try it for a few months. Maybe you are not someone who struggles with self control when it comes to sugar and a life-change in this area may not be necessary for you. For my addictions, it is the best thing for me to make this change permanent.

Either way, because of the drug that sugar has been to all of us, it will require support for us to move forward together. It is almost like detoxing the body (no, not almost like . . . it IS detoxing the body) from the effects and poisons of sugar in our organs and blood stream. I strongly suggest that if you take this challenge you will set the first fast date at least 3 to 4 weeks away to help you get it out of your system.

* IMPORTANT - PLEASE NOTE: I am not familiar with diabetes or how it works inside the body. If you are diabetic, you should take time to read from other professional sources of information or ask your doctor if this would be healthy for you, and understand the best way you can approach this challenge.

So, let's do this! If you would like to join this support thread, post your goal date (remember to update them when one passes) and what you are willing to fast. Let us know when you are doing well and when you are really struggling (emotionally eating sweets) so we can encourage you together. I really think we can do this and I believe that looking at and approaching sugar differently with change our health entirely.

Here's the first entry -

Jennifer:
Next goal date - January 15th
What I will fast - Desserts: cookies, candy, pop, or items that contain sugar as the 1st or 2nd ingredient (all highly sugary items).

Now, how about you?

jenni3626

READ TOPIC "Sugar is not your friends January Challenge". It shares a lot of good thoughts about the battle we can have with sugar, even the shame we feel after we eat it and how a feeling of defeat can cause us to gorge on it. There are a lot of people working toward this sugar fast goal. It has always made sense to me that when a lot of people are taking about the same thing, it must be important.

fitinyoga14

I personally will never try sugar fasting. I know that it is important is comsume ALL things only in moderation. We are programmed to be attracted to sugar from the day we are born. So why take all pleasure out of eating? You can only limit your food choices so much. I only try to stay away from foods with a lot of added sugars.

jenni3626

You must be better with that than me and I am glad it is working well for you. I, on the other hand, struggle with addictive-like tendencies and fasting sugar has been the greatest success I have had of eating it in moderation. The life change for me is not to never eat sugar again, but to decide the days in advance when I will have it and then fast until those days. It's working and I've never had success over sugar like this before. I am impressed with your will power (can I have some)? ;-)

I have noticed though, that ever since I have decide to fast sugar I am enjoying new "pleasures" in food. I'm actually enjoying the taste of delicious healthy foods more than when I was hopped up on sugar. So, for me it doesn't feel like I am removing a pleasure, but rather, that I am getting rid of something that is getting in the way of more common and natural pleasures. Plus I don't deal with the shame of gorging afterwards, which is always a bonus!

Regardless, I totally agree that everyone has to find what works for them and there is NOTHING that works for EVERYONE. So, glad you have found what works for you. Good luck on your continued health journey.

jenni3626

MODIFICATION (to not ALWAYS avoiding items with sugar as the 2nd ingredient):

I realized today as I was sharing a Yoplait Fat Free Light Strawberry Banana Yogurt with my son that sugar was the 2nd ingredient in the yogurt. This surprised me. I ocasionally enjoy yogurt and have been encouraged to do so because of the healthy bacteria in it. It seems that to say that I avoid eating all foods that contain sugar as the 1st or second ingredient would be inaccurate. I guess this part of the challenge should be according to each persons discretion.

For example:

Dr. Pepper has sugar as the 2nd ingredient, but also has nothing healthy in it for you
Yoplait Fat Free Light Yogurt has sugar as the 2nd ingredient but has some nutritional value

So, if you see sugar as the 2nd ingredient in something that you feel comfortable keeping in your diet, then I say that is reasonable. I am going to look and see if I can find a healthier yogurt option. Maybe the sugar is high in this yogurt because of the real fruit pieces. Not sure, but I feel OK about eating it.

fitinyoga14

I'll be happy to share some will power tips. :laugh: Keeping my sugar intake down has been a high concentration of mine, even though my diet consists of it.

Speaking of Yoplait Fat Free Light yogurt, I have a ton of them in my fridge right now. I more closely looked at the nutrition facts and decided that they are worse than i expected. Do you think its okay to continue eating these things? They do help my digestive system.

TaraMaria

I'm back after a delightful getaway! I planned on allowing myself some treats over the eve and the first. I think my horrible list of sugars include but are not limited to: Ten pieces of caramel popcorn, about 3 bites of chocolate cake, the most AMAZING cookie dough brownie, french toast and more carbs in two days then what I've eaten in the past 6 weeks!

Definitely ready to jump back on the wagon! Jenni, I agree with you 100%. My husband sometimes doesn't understand why I want to stop so cold turkey. But for me, and though it may be sad, I don't have as much self control as I would like to have. If I have one chocolate kiss, I will have three. And honestly, it requires more of a thought process for me to go through what sugars I have already had in a day in order to have another sweet treat then to just say NO. lol! Doesn't meant I am right, its just what works for me!

jenni3626

My main goal with avoiding sugar is to stop loosing control on foods that are mainly sugar. I eat that stuff way too much when I am not fasting. About the yoplait, I just think it is to each persons descretion, but for me, I can't say I will stop eating them. I did read recently that someone did the South Beach Diet (which is really strick with sugar, I guess) and it encouraged them to cut out any food that had almost any concentration of sugar in it what-so-ever. She said it was hard but she did it and then she lost weight fast, but she was not able to stick with it or to keep the weight off. Maybe that particular diet is a little too extreme with avoiding sugar (like avoiding all breads all the time), at least for my life. I think something like Yoplait light fat free yogurt does have nutritional value, helping with digestion and healthy bacteria for the body, and for that reason it makes sense to keep something like that in our diets even if it has some sugar in it. If anyone knows of a yogurt that is just as delicious and just as healthy, let us know! I would say that this particular yogurt option is the best one I know of right now.