Before I start a story about not eating sugar and if I feel as though anything improved in my life, training and the like, I just want to let anyone reading know that I I'm not trying to convince you to stop eating sugar and I love sugar so much that I decided to stop for a month with my SO who decided to stop his own thing.
I love sugar. Sugar is delicious and sweet and it makes everything in life so much sweeter, but I had a problem.
Following every meal I would want sugar. If anything sweet was in the house I couldn't stop eating it and if anyone baked anything I would have to restrain myself from eating more.
That being said, I also have ADHD and we know how that goes with dopamine chasing. Or maybe you don't and you should potentially do a little Google search on snacking, sweets, skin picking and the like. Super interesting.
Most adults consume 77g of sugar, per day, which is... a lot. 47% of all the sugar we consume comes from beverages.
I'll be completely honest before I start listing off the negative affects of added sugar, that I didn't completely eliminate sugar from my diet. I just drastically reduced it. Because, like I said, I like sugar.
I still put some sugar in my coffee, had creamer, had zero sugar/caffeine pops and Lucky Charms, but I wasn't consuming chocolates, cookies, cupcakes, and all the delicious treats that I would continuously allow my poor little brain to have.
Some signs that you might be eating too much sugar are:
1. Hunger and weight gain.
2. Irritability.
3. Low energy and fatigue
4. High blood pressure.
5. Constant cravings of sweets.
6. Acne and wrinkles.
7. Joint pain.
8. Poor sleep.
9. Brain fog.
So, you might ask, what improvements did I experience that is leading me to not eat added sugars forI another month?
My periods are less painful.
Don't get me wrong, there's still cramps there, but they don't last as long and sometimes they didn't come at all.
My sleep is better.
I get nightmares when I eat sugar. Weird right. Specifically delicious DQ ice cream Blizzards. When I stopped eating sugar, the nightmares stopped (mostly because sometimes cheese does the same thing). My sleep has also improved because I used to have a very bad habit of consuming sugar before bedtime and if you didn't know, sugar keeps you awake and starring at the ceiling.
My teeth stopped hurting.
I brush my teeth twice a day, so I can't say the pain was due to avoiding cleaning them, but I don't get weird gum pains and achy teeth anymore.
Also, side note, I love sugar but I am also over 30 and have never had a cavity.
I have more energy.
I don't wake up with a sugar hangover anymore and I don't get those highs and lows of eating massive amounts of candy, so I guess having a more stable energy line is better for you? Who knew.
My joints stopped hurting.
I do a lot with my wrists. I hold tiny little needles and grip bars to lift heavy things or swing around doing gymnastics. My wrists used to be in constant pain. Now, I only get some muscle soreness from overwork. Not the same debilitating feeling at all.
My skin doesn't get big red painful pimples.
I sweat and touch my face a lot so I have come to accept that this whole acne thing as a whole will never truly go away, but I've noticed my skin to be clearer from the large red inflammation zits.
All in all, I feel better without all the extra sugar, but you can and never will be able to fully eliminate it from your diet and that's ok.
Want to learn more about sugar?
Click the links I used below.