The First Two Weeks of Trying to Kick My Sugar Addiction

The first week of my attempt to kick my sugar addiction started out with very strong intentions. I had a couple of really good days.  However as you will soon find out even with the strongest intentions, without a written plan and goals in place, my plan to get off sugar turned out to be unsuccessful.

Kicking Sugar Day 1

Let’s start with May 1st the first day of my sugar rehab.  It started out really well.   After doing some work my first meal was mid morning with a Papaya, Wild Blueberry, Collagen Smoothie.  It was so delicious!  The recipe will be coming to the blog shortly so be on a look out.  Even though there was no sugar in the smoothie it might not have been the best way to start my day off.  I’ll go into more detail later on.

My second meal of the day was plant based nachos.  Which consisted of grain free Whole Foods tortillas cut into triangle size chips and a mushroom and spinach Tex Mex topping.  The natural fat in the avocado on top of the nachos satiated me which helped in my sugar cravings.  Although I still wanted something sweet at the end of the meal I was somewhat satisfied.

Then for my third and final meal I had a big salad with tuna fish on top followed by some elderberry lemon tea.  Shortly after this meal the sugar cravings started so I reached for a couple of slices of grapefruit and it helped!

At the end of the first day, I did notice a few things.  Even though the smoothie I made didn’t have any refined sugar, there was still sugar in the fruits giving me a sugar rush and a crash shortly after.  The crash was not as bad as if it was refined sugar but there was still a crash nonetheless and later I felt fatigue and had to drink some green tea for energy.

Kicking Sugar Day 2

The second day of my sugar addiction rehab started off better because this time my first meal of the day was more protein rich.  There was no sugar crash which by the end of the day made me feel much better!  The meal consisted of cauliflower fried rice which had farm fresh eggs mixed in.  It was also accompanied by a half of avocado.  My second and last meal of the day was another big salad with tuna, followed by tea.  Afterwards again I had a craving for something sweet to finish the meal so I ate some papaya.

Kicking Sugar Day 3

Waking up on the third day I had a headache and little to no energy.  Also my attitude was somewhat low.  Again I started off with a protein rich meal this time followed by a papaya smoothie and matcha tea which helped with my headache and energy level.   My second meal was a piece of salmon with broccoli and quinoa.  Again I was craving something sweet after my meal so I ate some grapefruit slices.  It helped with my craving even though I was dying for something more sweet and decadent.

Day 4

It all fell apart on May 4th, Saturday morning.  This morning I went to the local farmers market to get my eggs and veggies.  One of my favorite hand crafted bakeries was at the market.   Before I go any further let me say this bakery is outstanding!  First of all the owner and her husband lives on a farm where the majority of her ingredients are raised.  This makes  her baked goods super fresh and of high quality.  Even her flour is freshly milled from a local North Carolina flour mill.  But even with all that being said she still uses regular refined sugar which is a no no for a sugar addict like me.

I had to pass her stall before going to the farmer’s stall where I get my eggs and vegetables but I kept straight ahead and didn’t even glance over to look at what she had.  In my mind I said, “I have willpower and determination” or so I thought.  On the way back to my car I decided to just look to see what new baked goods were created.  The baker reminds me of my baking style and is very creative.  She likes to play with different flavors so I was curious as to what she baked for the day.  My thinking was it’s not going to hurt just to take a look.   Well that look turned into purchasing two scones, one goat cheese strawberry scone and one wild ramp, gruyere scone.  My rationalization was that at least I didn’t get any cookies, pies and cakes.  But the scones are still carbs and can turn into sugar in the body.

Meal for Day 4

So after the farmers market my first meal of the day was scrambled eggs with avocado followed by half of my wild ramp, gruyere cheese scone and half of the goat cheese strawberry scone with a matcha latte.   The protein of the eggs and fat of the avocado really helped to balance the intake of the carbs from the scones.  There was no sugar rush or crash after this meal.  I think it’s because of the amount of butter fat inside of the scones/

The second meal was a couple of bowls of my navy bean and spinach soup (another recipe soon to come) with the other half of my wild ramp, gruyere scone.  The meal was followed by my “dessert” the other half of goat cheese strawberry scone and some tea.

The bake good purchase at the farmer’s market set me on a downward spiral and back on the road to my sugar addiction.  So the following days I went back to eating sweet baked items after my meals.  I wasn’t satisfied with eating low glycemic fruit at the end of my meals anymore.    So the days that followed were not pretty.

Day 5 to Day 13

My sugar cravings grew even more intense since eating those scones on day 4.  So during these days I tried to combat the cravings but I was eating more carb heavy items, like oatmeal topped with fruit.  I also baked some items using oat flour instead of wheat based flour to alleviate the gluten and used maple syrup as a sweetener.  But once ingested it still all turned into glucose in the body causing me to have sugar rushes and crashes.    One day I even walked to this amazing local Venezuelan bakery to pick up two items, saying to myself the walking justify the sweets being bought.

Starting Over

Realizing not only do I have a bad addiction to sugar but I also have an addiction to carb heavy items.  It makes a lot of sense because carbs and sugar are one and the same.  I also realize that my sugar/carb addiction is very emotional as well as physical.

Combating  sugar addiction can not be taken lightly.  I went into this without any written plan or even goals to keep me going when temptation strikes.  I was suppose to post on a daily basis concerning my sugar rehab progress and that did not happen.   So my dear friends we’re starting the sugar/high carb rehab all over again this time the right way.  And we are not jumping in without a clear plan and achievable goals.

Soon To Come Blog Post

Before starting my sugar addiction journey again I feel it’s important to learn about the history of sugar.  Sugar has played a major role in the majority of our lives going all the way back to infancy.  This blog was started predominately on the platform of health and wellness research.  So it’s important to go back to research and a break down of one of the most addictive substances in the world…sugar.