Better than Before- giving up sugar!!

January, 2016
I recently read the book, Better Than Before, by Gretchen Rubin.   It's a very thought provoking book about how to change and improve our daily life habits.  I didn't start reading the book with the intention of changing any specific habits, but now I'm motivated and inspired to change all sorts of things (or at least two or three). :) Rubin writes a lot about food and how she changed her eating habits by giving up sugar.  I thought a lot about this when I was reading the book. Sure, I eat a lot of sugar, I thought, but who doesn't, right? It's available in excess in my workplace, in the store, at social and family gatherings, at home, etc. Sugar is everywhere in our society, right? But the more I read and the more I pondered, I realized that eating sugar, for me, is something that I do mindlessly, thoughtlessly, and for the wrong reasons. At work, I eat donuts "because I have to get a maple bar before someone else takes it", or I eat candy because "I need something to swish around in my mouth while I type reports". Rarely do to turn to sweets because I'm actually hungry for food. I'm craving an emotion or the feeling of satisfaction that I get from sugar. I have minimized my addiction to sugar for a long time, but after reading this book I realized that I have lost control over my consumption of sugar, and am now a full-blown "sugar-holic".

So, I decided to give it a try and actually give up sugar...........permanently.   This sounds crazy!! How can I give up sugar for life? ME!?  The girl who always offers to take home leftover birthday cake from the party? The girl who eats most of her child's Halloween candy before she gets a chance? The girl who can polish off a whole plate of brownies?   Yes. Me!!   I'm still working out the kinks, but it's been 12 days now and I can say I'm getting more resolute in my decision as the days go on (for the most part).
Now, I'm not a stickler for strict rules, I'm more of a "shades of gray" girl than a "black and white" gal. So when I say I'm giving up sugar, I am referring to foods that are specifically categorized as "sweets" (see Step Number 4 for details).   

This is going to be a tough journey, but I've decided that it's very important to me, my health, and for my own feelings of control and accomplishment.  I've taken some tips from Grethen Rubin to help my outline some steps for achieving my goal. I'll also be blogging about my weekly experience with this journey, so be on the lookout for other posts. :-)


Step Number 1: Clear It All Out!
It's not exactly as simple as "out of sight, out of mind", because I still think about sweets even when they're not around. But, if I had to guess, I would say at least 50% of my consumption of sweets is due to convenience and availability- meaning if the homemade brownies wouldn't have been sitting in front of the coffee pot at work, I wouldn't have left work and gone to the store just to get brownies.  So, if I'm going to avoid eating sugar, I have to get out! Out of my pantry, my desk, my purse, my nightstand drawers (what, you don't have Starbursts in your nightstand?), my car, and pretty much everywhere within my reach. I accumulated a lot of sweets over the holidays, so I took most of that to work. But some of the miscellaneous items, like stale Halloween candy, random suckers, honey roasted pecans, caramel popcorn- just went in the trash. At one point, I had my husband throw away a whole plate of homemade frosted sugar cookies while I turned my head, covered my eyes and squealed, "Quick! Do it before I change my mind!"

Step Number 2: Don't Let It Back In!
People know I love sweets, so they frequently offer them to me at parties, or bake treats especially for me, or buy sweets for me as gifts. Of course, I reinforce their behaviors by graciously accepting their sugary gifts as well as eagerly volunteering to take any unwanted sweets off their hands. Since I gave up sweets, I have to make a conscious effort to stop accumulating sweets.  Now if people ask me to take cake home with me from a party, I give more of a neutral or non-committal response, like "Oh, uh-huh", and then conveniently forget to take it with me. Also, I know I can't buy it at the store, I can't bake any sweets, and I can't let anybody else bring it in the house either. (This last piece isn't a problem for us, because my kids aren't old enough to shop, and my husband doesn't like sweets. Score!)

Step Number 3: Completely Change My Frame Of Mind.
This step is of the utmost importance for me. I have to make the decision every second of every day, and remind myself of that decision over and over again when I'm faced with temptations. I talk to myself (internally, of course) before going into social settings, and when I'm around sweets in general. I've developed my own little mantra. I say," Hello. My name is ____________, I don't eat sweets". This feels more powerful to me than saying "oh, I'm not allowed to have that right now", or "I can't eat that, I'm dieting". Instead, as Gretchen Rubin taught me, by phrasing it as a choice, I feel powerful: like I am free of my addiction to sugar! In the past, I go in to social settings with an open mind and I never put any limits on my consumption of sweets. Avoiding sugar in the workplace is extremely difficult for me. My office is like the common dumping grounds for everyone's unwanted birthday cakes, Halloween candy, homemade fudge, leftover cookies, fresh store bought donuts, etc. You name it, and it has shown up at my workplace and then been devoured, usually within hours!  And I don't work with that many people, either! I once brought in three quarters of a Costco sheet cake from a party, and it was gone before noon. My co-workers and I always get excited about sweets, too, and we tell each other about it, saying "did you see someone brought doughnuts? You better get an apple fritter before they're gone!" So the encouraging culture to eat sweets doesn't help the situation. But for me, it's more the visibility, the availability, the fact it's free, and the fact that I love sugar that has made it so easy for me to mindlessly consume far more sugar than I ever have before.   I'm positive that my 10 pound weight gain over the past 6 months is directly related to the way that I eat during the workday.

Step Number 4: Avoid Loopholes and Sugary Slippery Slopes.
As I mentioned earlier, I have a tendency to see choices and situations on a continuum of various shades of grey, rather than in black and white. This this strategy is excellent for me in my career and in my relationships, but not so good for giving up sugar. Sweets are sweets. I have to tell myself I can't have any of them, otherwise if I let myself slip once, I'll slide right back down that sugary slide into Candy-land. So I decided exactly what it is that I'm not eating and why I'm not eating it. I'm not eating: candy, cookies, any kind of muffins, donuts, cake, fudge, pie, cinnamon rolls, caramel corn, candy canes, starlight mints, or soda or syrup. I am still eating fruit, yogurt, sauces that have sugar in them like ketchup and salad dressings, and other foods that contain sugar but aren't themselves categorized as "a sweet".

Step Number 5: Expect Temptations and Know What to do When They Happen. 
There are certain times of day when I crave food, specifically sugar. I usually crave it in the morning with my coffee, around 2 or 3 in the afternoon while I'm working, and around 8 o'clock at night right after the kids go to bed. A trick that works for me is chewing sweet gum instead of eating candy, so I have a pack of Starburst gum in my purse, one in my desk drawer at work, and one in my pantry on my snacks shelf in place of my sweet snacks. Also, I  put flavored powder in my water to make it taste better to make me want to drink more water. This is also been helping really well so far. If I feel really hungry however, because besides giving up sugar I'm also eating less carbs so I do feel a little more hungry and I don't quite have the hang of it yet, I'll let myself have food but something healthy, like an apple, or small slices ham.

Step Number 6: Be Mindful and Remind Myself of Why I'm Doing This. 
If I'm going to form a new habit, it has to make sense to me and it has to match my values. Giving up sugar makes so much sense to me, even though it's been such a normal and daily part of my life. I want to live as long as possible and be around as long as possible for those who I care about, I want to lose weight, I want to fuel my body with essential nutrients instead of worthless calories, and I want to set a good example for my children. Sometimes I have to literally remind myself of these things when my hand goes reaching for the candy jar or when I  think about turning around to see if that really is fresh maple bar that I'm smelling in the break room. I also remind myself that I am NOT punishing myself by giving up sugar, but rather rewarding myself by being free from my addiction to sugar and choosing to eat in a way that's healthier for my body.

Those are the main strategies that I am using to avoid sugar, but I'm sure I'll develop other tricks as I go along.  I'm going to attempt to blog weekly about my experience with giving up sugar, so be on the look out for future posts! :-)