What this is all about...



Friday, July 2, 2010

Let the crying commence!

So, the reality of this whole no-sugar thing is starting to sink in as I prepare for Tuesday.  Earlier this week I was like, "Yeah, this will be great, go me!"  However, I think I've been underestimating how much I LOVE sugar.  It's so sweet and yummy and the way is dissolves on your tongue....(Incidentally, yesterday I read the phrase, "sugar wouldn't melt on her tongue," meant to imply sweetness of personality--but what dissolves sugar?  Not sourness--liquid.  So all the book did was imply that this person is incredibly dehydrated.)

Anyway, back to the subject at hand.  Sugar.  Delicious sugar.  Case in point: yesterday I thought, "Hey, I'll try this Honest Tea that was on sale at my local grocery store.  It has way less sugar in it than other tea."  So, I tried it--BLECH!  It was horrible.  I ended up dumping about 4 packets of (raw turbinado) sugar into it to even make it drinkable.  (And honestly, Honest Tea, your name is hokey.)  There are just some things that should not be unsweetened.  Tea, coffee, soymilk....People are born with a natural sweet tooth.  It helped keep us from being poisoned in the wild.  But modern food science has exploited this natural consequence of evolution and has turned me into a freaking crack addict.

Okay, it's not fair to blame the makers of the Pop-Tart for wanting to make money and therefore ruining America's health.  And I don't eat Pop-Tarts anyway because of the high fructose corn syrup and food dye.  Funny story, and true: when I graduated from college I worked at a law firm downtown.  At the time I was a vegetarian and wasn't eating gelatin, but I was still eating Pop-Tarts--just the unfrosted kind.  One day I was walking to my office and a guy came up to me, claiming he was hungry and homeless and needed money.  I don't give money to people on the street as a rule, but I felt bad for the guy.  So I rummaged around in my bag and said, "I don't have money, but here's some Pop-Tarts!"  And the poor guy probably felt shafted because he managed to talk to the one vegetarian on the street and got an unfrosted Pop-Tart.  Hey, I could've given him my fake turkey sandwich.

I know that from my experience of kicking high fructose corn syrup that this is going to be incredibly difficult.  I was a Canada Dry addict for the longest time after my son was born, and last October, after re-reading The Healthiest Kid in the Neighborhood by William Sears, I decided to cut it out of both Ben's and my diets, along with food dye.  Ben was easy, because he's not permitted to have soda (or, as we call it in my family, pop), and I just switched his crackers to the Whole foods 365 brand and his regular jam to all-fruit jam (which he loves and calls "little jam" because it's in a little jar).  For me, not drinking pop, which I had been doing regularly most of my life, was torture.  I was irritable and moody and it didn't help that the first week coincided with PMS week.  I fell off the wagon when I started back to work in January.  It was easier to get back on the wagon.  Now whenever I have pop I feel horrible, so it's easy not to drink it.

I'm hoping that's what this will be like....I don't know.  I'm also a bit afraid of the detoxing symptoms that Alicia describes in her book, as well as other symptoms other people experienced.  I can deal with headaches, but tummy problems are rough for me, and insomnia will make me even more crazy. 

I'm gonna do it, though.  *cue Rocky music*
"You're gonna eat thunder and crap lightning!"

2 comments:

  1. I'm proud to say I've been Pepsi free for 5 months now! I have been drinking the Sprite and Ginger Ale but less of it since I find it much more bubbly! I started off having none and I dealt with head aches but my tummy problems went away! So I don't think from what I have read about IBS that cutting sugar out will give you tummy issues. In reading some IBS books they talk about cutting that out to make things better! The sleeping you think you would sleep better with less sugar but I'm most likey wrong.

    And yes tummy issues SUCK aren't you glad you are not your little sister! I think you wanta win a war give them IBS! LOL

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  2. Awesome job on being Pepsi free! :) I know that cutting out sugar in the long run will be good, but I'm just worried about the initial detox symptoms.

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