Struggling with fatigue, weight gain, and a horrible addiction to pop, I decided to give up sugar just to see.  I figured I had nothing to lose except maybe the nice large pop belly I’d been carrying around.  I had successfully stopped drinking Coca-Cola three years before, but ultimately just replaced it with coffee smothered in creamer and other sugary drinks and eventually I started to drink a different pop every day.  Completely frustrated, I decided I needed to go cold turkey and cut out sugar and sugary treats out of my diet all together.

Let me start by telling you I didn’t completely cut out all sugar.  And I was okay with that for now.  I was drinking 40 ounces of pop per day.  That is the equivalent of nearly 600 calories per day or 4,200 calories per week.  With a pound equivalent to 3,500 calories, I was consuming the equivalent of over 1 lb. per week in pop.  Eliminating pop would make a huge difference.  But as I already explained, I tended to replace it with other sugary drinks so I decided to give up all sugary drinks and sugary snacks.   I didn’t want to sneak in the sugar.

I started with replacing my morning coffee and creamer (I’d use about 4 tbsp. = 20 g sugar) with chai tea and milk – and sometimes I sprinkled it with cinnamon.  For me, this was a very close replacement and had this 1-2 x’s per day.  I replaced my pop with ice cold water with a splash of lemon juice.

I made sure I had snacks to help me through the day.  I had a granola bar (this had 7g of sugar),yogurt (this had 24 g of sugar! I will be cutting this out soon) apples with peanut butter, chips with artichoke dip, and cashews for snacks throughout the week.   Yes, some of the snacks had sugar, but I already had them and wanted to start out slow.

With a lot of determination, I made it through the first week.  I lost 3 lbs. and do feel a lot better.  I have to admit there were a few days of fatigue as my body adjusted to this new diet.  I also noticed if I started to crave a pop or sugary snack and I ate something healthy, it did take care of the craving.  I also noticed I wasn’t hungry as often.  Before, I was snacking nearly non-stop, but now that I wasn’t eating sugar I started to notice true hunger.

Today, I decided to try Vitamin Water Zero as my doctor indicated Stevia was the only sweetener she would recommend as it was natural.  Oddly, it tastes okay, but I’m not liking the sweetness after only a week of reducing my sugar.  I look forward to another week!

Days reducing sugar – 7

Pounds lost – 3

 

Have you cut sugar out of your diet?  Please share your story with us and email to contact@bodyworkatlernativesblog.com We’d love to share your story on our blog.