Giving up on Sugar

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I recently lost 20 lbs. It was a lot of work. But totally worth it. There are no before and after pictures in a bitty black bikini (not that kind of website), and this isn’t about the how I did it (not that kind of blog post).

I will tell you, though, that for the first couple of months I was very limited in was I was allowed to eat. No sugars, no starches, and absolutely nothing processed. I was born in the 60’s (I barely squeaked in during that decade), and although I don’t know if my parents were hippies in the literal sense, they were from Southern California, and into the whole avocado, beansprouts and homemade granola thing. In other words, I grew up in a household that ate brown rice, used honey instead of sugar, grew and canned everything, and saw a homeopath long before most people knew what that was.

So you’d think that it would be easy to cut out sugars and processed foods. My family eats pretty healthy and balanced. I love to cook and make most things from scratch. Simple meals with non-starchy, low-carb veggies, and meats should have been a snap. So, off I went to the grocery store to find seasonings and marinades and other things without sugar.

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Have you read labels lately, or like me, just grabbed the things you’ve always used? I was shocked to discover how much sugar (here’s 50 names for sugar) there is in everything. Things I didn’t expect like salad dressing, tomato sauce and soups, (and though I don’t eat them, canned veggies) and yes, many of the marinades and seasonings.

But there are some there without sugar. You just have to read labels. And so out all the sugar things went. And about 2 weeks later, I noticed how GOOD everything tasted. And how different. Weirdly enough, when I first cut out sugar, everything tasted really salty, (even though I wasn’t salting much), but slowly something happened to my taste buds, and everything starting having lots of flavor I never noticed before.

It was hard to cut out sugars, but I’m glad I did. Ever googled how much space even 5 pounds of fat takes up? Quite a motivator.

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I will say that I now will occasionally have things with sugar in them, but they just don’t taste great anymore. I’ve lost those carb cravings. And I’ve switched back to full fat sour cream and yogurt. Are you gasping? Before you do that, take a look at the ingredients on a “light” sour cream. Like 47 unreadable things. Including MORE carbs than the full fat version. And the full fat version? Milk and enzymes. That’s it.

I decided I’d rather put whole, clean ingredients into my body than chemicals. And I feel (and look) much better for it. For sweetener? Real maple syrup. And honey, because it’s unprocessed. Well, unprocessed by people. Chewed up and spit out by the bees. I’ve also switched to stevia for my tea. Admittedly, it took a few weeks to get used to the taste. I’d mix raw sugar and stevia until I slowly subbed more and more stevia for the sugar.

Now, I’m not going to get on any bandwagon and wag my finger at you. This is my revelation. I love that I crave fresh blueberries with a little stevia sweetened whipped cream; it now tastes better to me than even my beloved dark chocolate. I feel rather aghast at myself as I type that. Who is this former gotta have chocolate at least once a day person?

Anyway, just my musings. Inspired by other people’s stories I’m going to post over the next few days.

-posted by Miss Analiisa, who has recently discovered coconut flour pancakes. Yummy!