Seriously, I never knew how much sugar and eating all the sweet stuff I loved could affect me. After eating it every day for over two weeks, even in moderation, I’ve been craving it like never before. Or at least I’ve been craving it like I used to and only now am I realizing the effect it has on the body.
Apparently the more sugar and flour and yummy things I eat the more my body wants to eat those things. My mind can’t stray far from thinking about them and it’s painful to tell myself no. I’m lucky enough to be in a location where nothing is readily available and I would have to go out and buy anything to fulfill that desire. But that doesn’t stop the cravings or the desire to eat sugar. Oh no. The only thing that is stopping it is willpower.
For once, I’m saying no to myself.
I’m saying goodbye to sugar this week. While I know I could still have things in moderation and lose weight, I’m choosing to give up the added sugar I’ve been eating. This morning I finished the jam I have for breakfast and for the rest of the week I will be avoiding anything with added sugar. Goodbye ice cream and cookies and delicious hot chocolate.
WHY GIVE UP ADDED SUGAR?
If you want to know why I’m giving up sugar – or why you should, check out these reasons:
Cravings suck. For me at least sugar causes me to want to eat more sugar. When I don’t the cravings are intense and I think about food way too much, even when I’m not hungry.
Blood sugar spikes that leave you feeling hyper or extremely tired after eating sugary or enriched grains.
Extra money spent on unnecessary sweet food items bought for sugar addiction induced consumption.
The American Heart Association recommends people reduce sugar consumption, which is about 22 teaspoons a day for an average person.
There are other reasons, but those are the main ones for me personally. Those are definitely enough to make me rethink all this sugar I’m putting in my body. I need at least a few days without added sugar to get my body back to a good place where it’s not craving the stuff anymore.
WAYS TO STOP SUGAR CRAVINGS
Get rid of anything sugary in your house: For most of us this is the best way to do it – eliminate all the sugary foods around. That way you won’t be able to eat what isn’t available when the cravings occur.
Look for Sugar Free & No Sugar Added Products: Many foods now have sugar free, diet, or no sugar added versions. Artificial sweeteners aren’t exactly the best thing for you but they can be helpful in weaning you off sugar. Example: chewing sugar free gum instead of eating candy bars.
Drink More Water: If you are a sugar addict, it’s possible you do not drink enough water. Drink at least 3 glasses of water each day with no sweeteners or flavorings. Just plain delicious water!
Eat More Vegetables: The more veggies you eat, the less likely you will be tempted to go to sugary foods. It will also occupy you long enough to hopefully get through the sugar craving.
Find replacement habits: Eating sugar can be as much about a habit as an actual desire to eat it. If you chew on candy to calm nerves, try chewing gum or something else. If you stir sugar into your coffee, try just stirring your coffee to keep the habit. If sugar is the point then try doing something completely unrelated to eating – go for a walk or do something active.
Get enough rest: Sugar affects your blood sugar levels, which affect your energy levels. If you aren’t sleeping enough then you might be tired and craving sugar that will give you a quick energy boost. Get enough sleep in order to stop cravings caused by lack of sleep.
Identify and avoid triggers: Figuring out what triggers sugar cravings can help you avoid them. When you find out whether lack of sleep, boredom, depression, habit, stress, etc. is causing your cravings you can then fix the triggers so that you can stop the cravings.
This is not going to be easy. Yesterday all I could think about was cookies. Instead we went for a walk and I bought some sugarfree gum to chew on. At least I can listen to my own advice. Now I just have to go a few more days with Operation SugarLess, which feels almost like a challenge.
Anyone done this before? Have any tips on giving up the extra sugar? Want to do it with me?
I must admit though, eating sugar every day has turned Kepa and I into sugar addicts. We’ve gotten a little bit too used to having sweet stuff every day. So used to it that we were both having sweet cravings. That just isn’t going to fly so last night instead of giving in we went for a walk and decided to give up the sugar this week. So, no more ice cream this week. I may cry myself to sleep at night over the loss of sugary goodness, but it is for the best.
WEEKLY VIDEO
WEIGH IN
The stats, just in case you wanna see them.
Current Weight: 214 lbs Previous Weight: 216 lbs Weight loss: -2 lbs Weight loss in Feb: -2 lbs Starting Weight: 251 lbs Weight loss total: -37 lbs
Woohoo! I’m only three pounds away from losing 40, my next goal. Perhaps it will happen soon? I’m hoping so. I’m thinking so.
THOUGHTS
I honestly was super stoked about this week on the scale. I’m back on the slide down to being under 200 lbs – my original goal for starting. I have a lot of other goals too, of course. Like no longer being “obese.” Kepa hit that particular milestone yesterday and I’m super proud of him. I can’t wait til I hit it too. Or at the very least am not obese.
That being said, because of my height, I am finally no longer “morbidly obese” and am just “severely” obese. Go me! Hehe. Next, regular obesity and then on to just being overweight! The journey continues…
Remember how I said that now I’m in Auckland at Kepa’s house I would eat healthier? That has only partly happened. For most meals we’ve eaten really healthy, tasty food. Some days I’ve been way under what I normally would eat. This has leaved a little wiggle room … and I’ve filled part of it with ice cream.
Why? Doesn’t that put me further away from the goal? Well, maybe. Maybe not. We will see tomorrow when I weigh in. But it was fun. And I enjoyed it. And Kepa enjoyed it (see picture below of us before eating/drinking a Mega Choc Shake).
I’m under the impression that you can still lose weight while enjoying your favorite foods. That’s how I’ve lost the first 35 lbs and how I plan on continuing the process. Maybe not enjoying them EVERY DAY, like I have been this week, but there is definitely a time and place for the foods you like. Perhaps you won’t lose weight as fast, but that’s not my goal either. Quick weight loss? Nah. I’d rather have enjoyable weight loss. Wouldn’t you?
AUCKLAND IS COOL
If you’ve never been to Auckland, New Zealand, let me tell you – it’s a cool city. There is water everywhere and there is GREEN everywhere. Look at this awesome place in the middle of the city.
Those trees blew my mind. I love them. We walked through this and around the city during the day yesterday. It’s quite a walk, as there are some very hilly parts. But it’s always worth it because if you get high enough you have awesome views.
FIT BLOGGIN!!!
I’m starting to get really excited about going to FitBloggin in March. Seriously, really excited. I can’t wait to meet so many of you guys! I’m also currently making plans for BIG THINGS happening on the blog for around that time. It’s going to be an exciting week at the end of March, so I hope you are looking forward to it as much as I am! (That’s all I can say right now. Hehe.) By the way, who all is going to FitBloggin? Who am I going to see there?
My forearms are hurting like crazy! I had so much fun at the driving range hitting golf balls the other day, that we decided to go back again the next day. It was fun again but the swing is not something I usually do, so my arms are not used to it. I tried to stretch to keep the muscles from getting tight but it didn’t work. Ouchies!
Today we are eating Mexican food and I’m super excited about it. I love Mexican food! It’s my favorite kind of food ever. So I’m super excited to try eating it in New Zealand. It’s going to be a happy day today!
But while I am going on about all this… did you know that today is National Wear Red Day in honor speaking up about heart disease – the number one killer in our nation. Check out the Go Red For Women website that explains more. (This post is a little late in the day but does that really matter? We should care about these things every day, not just on one day.)
A few eye-opening facts you might not know about heart disease…
Worldwide, 8.6 million women die from heart disease each year, accounting for a third of all deaths in women. Three million women die from stroke each year. Stroke accounts for more deaths among women than men (11% vs 8.4%) with additional risk for CHD unique to women related to oral contraceptive use in combination with smoking.
Under age 50, women’s heart attacks are twice as likely as men’s to be fatal.
267,000 women die each year from heart attacks, which kill six times as many women as breast cancer. Another 31, 837 women die each year of congestive heart failure, representing 62.6% of all heart failure deaths.
At-risk facts…
71% of women experience early warning signs of heart attack with sudden onset of extreme weakness that feels like the flu – often with no chest pain at all. Medical professionals are challenged to respond to women’s milder symptoms, acting with insufficient guidelines.
Nearly two-thirds of the deaths from heart attacks in women occur among those who have no history of chest pain.
Smoking, diabetes and abnormal blood lipids erase a woman’s estrogen protection.
Women who smoke risk having a heart attack 19 years earlier than non-smoking women.
Because most of us are headed straight for a heart attack if we keep up our old lifestyles.
It really is that simple. Most of us are/were heart attacks and heart disease cases waiting to happen. But we’ve decided we don’t want that. We’ve decided to get healthy and change our lives and prevent this tragedy from happening to us too soon. In fact, our plans are the first three steps the American Heart Association recommends in their simple 7 action plan to prevent heart disease:
Get active, eat better, lose weight, stop smoking, control cholesterol, manage blood pressure, and reduce blood sugar.
Our plans to get healthy are plans to prevent heart disease. We are making a difference in our own lives. So now you need to turn outward and help others. Talk to your friends and loved ones and tell them the facts about heart disease and help them live a healthy life too.
You never know if you will like things until you try them.
You never know if you will be good at things until you try them.
You never know anything until you try things.
You can read about other people’s experiences. You can check out stories and pictures and even video showing you what something is like, but you will NEVER understand it until you do it.
And yesterday was another one: golf. Well, sort of. We went to the driving range so Kepa could hit some golf balls for practice. I was just planning on watching, but ended up taking a go at a few balls. I sucked. (Seriously.) It took me about eight swings just to hit the ball; I kept missing it every time I swung the club because I had no idea what I was doing.
After getting a few pointers and watching other people swing the club, I finally got the hang of it. I started hitting balls farther and more consistently. I’m not going to be a pro golfer any time soon, but I can say that for my first time, I wasn’t bad. Surprisingly, I did a pretty good job. And I enjoyed it… even though I never thought that would happen. I never would have known that if I hadn’t tried. I’ve watched people play golf on television and seen them on golf courses, but I never thought I could be good or at the very least enjoy it.
Until you try things for the first time, you don’t know if you like them or will be good at them. They are just an unknown. And unknown that for some reason we’ve set aside as something we don’t do or “can’t” do, despite the fact that it may be something we come to enjoy.
I’m learning that a lot of the restrictions and things I don’t do are self imposed limitations. I don’t do this or that because it’s something that somewhere along the line I told myself I wouldn’t like it – without even trying it first. I’m sure a lot of you are the same way. You “could never do that” or “wouldn’t like that” without even trying it first. I know that’s what I’ve done for most of my life.
I set off activities that I wouldn’t enjoy because I thought I couldn’t do them. I set aside foods I wouldn’t like, just because I thought I wouldn’t. Years ago I decided I hated most vegetables and fruits because… well, just because. Not once had any of them passed my lips, thanks to a steady junk food diet, but I deemed them something I would not like and something not worth trying. I wasn’t wise enough then to realize I should never condemn a food until I’ve at least tried it, and the mental block of those self imposed limits still hinders my eating today with foods I can’t try. But I’ve managed to get over the rest of those limits and try vegetables – many of which I now love.
I’m not very wise now, but I know not to limit myself any more. I’ve got enough limitations on what I can and can’t do without creating new ones on my own. Instead of shunning something I haven’t had or done before – like I would have in the past – instead I know say, “I haven’t tried that yet.” And then if the opportunity presents itself – I try it. Whether it’s a good or bad experience I can then decide with certainty, instead of creating made up limitations for myself.
So what can you take away from this? Don’t be as silly as I was. Don’t limit yourself without trying things first. Don’t say you hate foods or activities or places if you’ve never eaten, tried, or been there before. Don’t set more limitations on yourself than you have to, because there are already enough limits in life. Don’t set any more – just try new things and see how it goes.
I said I wanted to accomplish just a minimum of 20 minutes exercise a day. Well… done and done.
Yesterday we took a ferry ride over to Waiheke Island. The ride itself was quite nice, as there is plenty to look at leaving Auckland and heading toward the island.
Once we got to the island we had to decide what to do and our choices were between sea kayaking, riding a scooter, or riding bikes around the island. We chose the bikes because it would be fun and exercise.
It was a lot of exercise as the island is pretty hilly, so we were going up a pretty steep hill ever five minutes or so. I guess I made it harder on myself by keeping it in a higher gear sometimes, but that’s how it went. My legs didn’t really appreciate all the work they had to do after getting to be so lazy lately, so they weren’t happy after like half an hour.
We biked over to this beach and took a little water break underneath a tree.
In the end we cut across the traditional loop they had for bike riders. I did this around the point where I realized I didn’t want to make it the whole way because my legs hurt, I had a weird pressure that was majorly uncomfortable in my knee at some points, and I was getting sunburned (despite wearing lots of sunblock). I had to hop off my bike and push it up hills a couple times. It felt a lot like giving up by not doing the whole loop and I felt bad about it but at the same time I knew I would have just been miserable forcing myself to do the whole thing… and the day was supposed to be about having fun, not killing myself.
Since we cut it short it turned out to be a fun time. I did end up with a decent sunburn and super tired muscles, but all in all the next day I feel fine. I’m glad we did it! And next time? Next time we will do more and I won’t be so tired/unprepared.
And if you would like to see the food I ate that day, check out my new food blog. I’m not sure exactly what or how long this project will last. I’ve tweeted pictures of my food before and I’ve even taken pics of everything while I was at Green Mountain. I enjoy the process and it’s a lot easier for me than journaling/tracking what I eat. I know that is something that tends to make people more successful with weight loss. Awareness of what you are eating is huge, so this is my best way to do it. I like taking pictures, and I like blogging… all other attempts at writing down my food have failed. Just the simple act of logging food makes me feel like I’m on a diet and deprived, even if I’m eating anything I want. So, instead I have to do something more creative like photos, that makes me feel like it’s something I want to do instead of a chore.
Since I enjoy taking pictures of my food and know that in the end will make me more accountable for what I’m eating, but don’t want to post them here every day as I felt bad for “making people hungry,” instead, I’m keeping them on the site, just in a different place. If you want to see them, then check out the link. I’ll put a permanent link up in the sidebar soon.
There was a brief period of time yesterday where this blog ceased to exist. Sort of.
I accidentally deleted EVERYTHING I’ve ever done on the internet because I’m a silly girl who wasn’t paying attention to what I was doing. The funny thing is, despite all the other blogs and sites I’ve created, this is the only one I cared about. (It is also the only one I regularly backup, so it wasn’t really lost.) When I thought I lost a month of posts, my entire time in New Zealand, I was heartbroken. But as you can tell, all is well and the blog is back up. (THANK GOODNESS! This is why I reccommendHostmonster for hosting your blog – They saved me!)
Beyond that little scary event, yesterday was great.
We went to Kelly Tarlton’s Antartic Encounter & Underwater World where we saw some penguins, sting rays, sharks, squid, and fish. It was pretty entertaining, we got to watch sharks and fish and sting rays eat, and I love penguins!
Fun stuff!
I ate okay… there was a brief encounter of with a bag of chips that I split with Kepa (yay sharing!). Dinner had less potatoes and more green beans, since Andrew was correct in this advice via this comment. Yay more greens! Boo less potatoes! But unfortunately my body doesn’t react as nicely to potatoes and such. And I’ve already eaten enough potatoe wedges and french fries in my first two weeks here to last me a while.
Also, I finally did some exercise. Barely. I got on the stationary bike for a couple minutes. It’s hard to force myself to do as it’s incredibly boring. While we were watching a recording of the Grammys, I got on for 5 minutes, then another 5, then 10. Not great but it adds up to 20 minutes of “exercise” on top of all the walking we did naturally during the day.
I know it’s not a lot, but I’m going to aim for just 20 minutes of proper exercise every day while I’m still here. When I get home to America (sad face) I’ll kick up the workouts because I won’t have anything else I want to do, and my friend Candace is jumping at the bit wanting to workout together. That will be fun. But for now? Just 20 minutes. Back to the beginning basically. It’s funny how at different times in life I can devote 3 hours to exercise and other times can barely squeeze 20 minutes in. No matter what you just do what you can, when you can. As long as I’m moving toward the goal, it’s all good.
I also go by Merry Mary and I'm 23. This blog is my journey to lose at least 75 pounds and create a happier, healthier life for myself while inspiring and encouraging others to do the same.
Apparently the more sugar and flour and yummy things I eat the more my body wants to eat those things. My mind can’t stray far from thinking about them and it’s painful to tell myself no. I’m lucky enough to be in a location where nothing is readily available and I would have to go out and buy anything to fulfill that desire. But that doesn’t stop the cravings or the desire to eat sugar. Oh no. The only thing that is stopping it is willpower.
