Day 3, sleep

Are you one of those people that can never get enough sleep? Or do you get by with minimal sleep? I am one of the former. I get roughly 8 hours a night typically and it never really seems like enough. I was on vacation last week and had the wonderful luxury of not having to set an alarm all week. I went to bed between 9 and 9:30 and didn't wake up until after 6 most days, a couple of days I was asleep until 7! For the most part, I could nap when I wanted to and had minimal stress. Unfortunately, in the "real-world" I need to set an alarm and can only seem to find time for 8 hours a night. So I'm tired a lot, but most especially tired these first few days of sugar detox. I definitely use sugar for the energy it provides. Mid-afternoon, when what I really want is a nap, I have to sit at my desk and work, so sugar is often a quick energy boost. Of course the boost doesn't last long and I subsequently crash, but it seems like it works, so I do it repeatedly.

But it's not just mid-afternoon that sugar affects me. Waking up in the morning I don't have the full energy I need for the day because I have habitually over-taxed my adrenals, leading to what is known as adrenal fatigue. Chronic stress and poor diet (as is common among those who abuse sugar), leads to high baseline levels of stress hormones produced by the adrenal glands. Over time, the adrenals can't keep up with demand and you are left feeling fatigued. A healthy diet and regular meditation practice will go a long way toward restoring adrenal health. But, as with any biological process, it takes time. And in the meantime, I don't want to use coffee or other artificial stimulants for energy, so I am just tired for a while. I give myself extra rest and sleep where I can, and just hold on tight, knowing it will get better.

Cravings-wise, yesterday was harder than day 1. I was feeling sorry for myself and had several urges to give up. Those darn Kit-Kats finally went away by the late afternoon so hopefully today won't be as hard.

Glutamine, sugar cravings, and gut health

As I put a scoop of glutamine into my morning tea, I thought I might take a minute to write a short post about the wonderful attributes of glutamine during the sugar elimination process. Not only is glutamine preferentially utilized by the brain as a source of fuel (and so is a good stand-in for sugar when you need energy), but it also helps to heal a leaky gut. "Leaky gut" (or permeable intestine) sounds awful because it is awful. Basically, when you have a poor diet (eg, one heavy in processed foods and sugar), your intestines start to allow proteins and toxins into the bloodstream that would normally pass through the digestive system and be eliminated. This can instigate a host of inflammatory and auto-immune responses by the body that can result in overall poor physical (and mental!) health.

The gut plays a huge role in our health, and scientists are just beginning to discover all of the intricate ways in which our internal bacterial colonies contribute to our mental and physical health. Michael Pollan is doing some groundbreaking work in this area. Check out the American Gut project to see how you can contribute to his research.

Day 2 (plus day 1 review)

One day under my belt and feeling (mostly) good. It's 6:22 AM and I have a bit of a headache, but other than that I seem to be holding my own. Day 1 wasn't so bad, certainly not my worst day 1 ever (I've done this a lot). I actually found some humor in the fact that the candy dish at work today magically materialized one of my favorites (bite-sized Kit-Kats), which are almost never there. So that was about the hardest part of my day, and really it just made me laugh and helped me see how my mind tries to bargain with me, "Oh, you love those. You can have just one (or you can have the whole bowl and restart again tomorrow)." Haha, nice try!

I think that having healthy food prepared and ready for me helped a lot. I also had a lot of little things to look forward to all day that didn't involve junk food (I was strangely excited about my sassy water and even shared the recipe and tastings with my colleagues).

So I'm on to day 2. I think my reward today will be something that involves rest. I am very tired (oh yeah, I was tired yesterday too), so I will look forward to relaxing on the couch and guiltlessly watching an episode of Last Week Tonight. I'm already looking forward to it!

Day 1

So, here it is. Day 1. I'm nervous, scared, anxious, relieved, tired, and overall optimistic. I've done this before so I should be an old pro by now, right? Well, sort of. Yes, I have done this before, and yes some days were glorious and easy, but some days were really hard and I just wanted to give up. It was only by some miracle that I stayed the course. I will need even more miracles to last longer this time. Or maybe not? Maybe it will get easier and stay easier. Like I said, I'm open to the experiment.

I have a few tools up my sleeve, which include:
1. Mindfulness techniques that I already know
2. A mindfulness app to learn new ways to cope with cravings
3. Avoidance of usual triggers
4. High-quality whole foods nutrition
5. Supplements
6. Rewards and incentives

My reward for making it through today will be the purchase of 'Chandelier' by Sia on iTunes. Also, I bought myself some dried unsweetened mango from the bulk section at Whole Foods yesterday for when cravings get strong. Some who quit sugar would argue that dried fruits are also forbidden. For me, I know I can eat them without triggering cravings for junk food and they actually help take the edge off and make me feel less deprived. So, they're on my day 1 menu.

Also I plan to make a breakfast smoothie, I have a Mexican rice and bean bowl planned for lunch, and some homemade turkey burgers for dinner. In between I will snack on a cheese stick, cottage cheese, and some grapes. I also regularly drink a ton of water, green tea, a bottle of home-brewed kombucha, and a can of seltzer each day. My friend recently turned me on to sassy water so I will take a bottle of that (which I made on Sunday) to work today also as something to look forward to.

In terms of supplements, I keep powdered glutamine at my desk, which helps with sugar cravings. I just add some to my tea and don't even notice the taste. Yesterday, I ordered some chromium and magnesium to help keep blood sugar stable; I should have that in the next day or so.

For the first week or so my main focus is avoiding processed junk. I will employ any and all tried-and-true and new techniques that I can think of to keep cravings at bay.

Anyway, here's to a wonderful day 1!

Starting tomorrow

I was going to quit eating sugar today, the Monday after my ice-cream-every-day vacation, but yesterday I couldn't even deal with quitting "tomorrow," which is when most of my other attempts to quit sugar had started. It was always "tomorrow" when I would be a better eater and eventually quit sugar. But yesterday, I couldn't even handle the thought of quitting "tomorrow."

So, today it will be tomorrow, which really means I am quitting sugar tomorrow. I have debated how long I'll give up sugar. Last year I did No Sugar August, which went really well and I felt great. But at my sister's Labor Day picnic (September 1st) I was already back to over-indulging. Clearly, then, 1 month isn't long enough. So then I decided to do 100 days. That will put me squarely at the beginning of holiday season, which seems like the perfect holiday overeating storm (3 months of abstinence followed immediately by the holidays? Good luck with that...). So now I'm thinking that what I really need to do is to abstain pretty much forever. I'm toying with the idea of adding 1 or 2 treats per year, but really I don't know what that would accomplish. So as of right now, I'm thinking this will be a more or less (see my hesitance to commit?) permanent change.

But why do such a thing?!? Why quit something that I love so very much? I have a list of about 100 reasons, which starts off a little something like this:
1. Regular over-indulgence
2. Persistent weight gain (obviously because of #1)
3. Desire to be healthier
4. Desire to be thinner
5. Desire to be a better runner
6. Desire to be more comfortable in my clothes
7. Because I know I can't moderate sugar, and I can see where this will inevitably lead...and it's not pretty

I have honestly tortured myself for a decade now with my over-consumption of sugar. This was all prompted by an overly restrictive (a la anorexic) diet that forbade fat consumption. I was down to an unhealthily low weight, horribly depressed for dropping out of graduate school, and suddenly discovered the tranquilizing effect of sweets. That was a formula for disaster and a decade-long physical and emotional roller coaster. But honestly, I'm just sick and tired of it now. I want it to be over.

So tomorrow, I quit sugar indefinitely. As a scientist, I'm always open to a good experiment, so let's try this and see how it goes...