Quitter Chronicles: Installment #5 : Early Impressions

A few days ago at work, one of my coworkers offered me one of those Danish butter cookies that come in the blue tins.  When I turned it down, she said, “Too fattening?”  I replied, “No, I actually don’t eat sugar anymore.”  She laughed at me and kept saying she was sorry, as if I’d made a terrible choice to amputate all joy from life.  In my heart I retorted, “No, I’m sorry for you.”

With the exception of some small mishaps wherein I had to eat infinitesimal amounts of sugar in my mother’s mashed potatoes or accidentally ate a chocolate chip in an otherwise sugarless Lara Bar, I have been successfully avoiding refined sugars for four months now.  At home, the only sweeteners I use are dates, molasses, honey and maple syrup.  Away from home, I’m careful to avoid any sweets, and generally try to avoid eating any savory foods that might contain sugar. 

Here are some of my early impressions of this shift in my diet.

Weight loss.  I lost ten pounds in the first three months.  This was not my goal in cutting sugars out of my diet.  I never felt that I was overweight, and didn’t feel the need to get rid of any extra pounds.  But the weight loss was the natural result of reduction of sugar in my diet as well as increasing the quality of the foods I eat, and subsequently reducing the quantity.  I feel more nourished and satisfied with less volume, simply because I’m no longer feeding the insatiable appetite for sugar.

Mood improvement.  Before I cut out refined sugar, my life was a daily emotional roller coaster, and sugar was my anti-depressant.  I’d feel good after meals, but feel lethargic and moody a while later.  I’d eat some chocolate or a muffin to perk myself up.  These days that sugar roller coaster is much less pronounced.  I do still like to have snacks between meals, but I don’t experience the same extremes of lethargy and emotional lowness that I did before.

Energy.  Because I get more bang for my buck with food – meaning that I get better quality nourishment even with smaller quantities of food – I have noticed that I have more energy.  Not only do I no longer have that energy roller coaster of sugar highs and lows, but my body is being fueled by better fuel.  I have a steadier stream of energy throughout the day.

Change of taste.  Four months in to this refined-sugar free life, I shudder to think of the days when an open bag of marshmallows was a temptation.  The idea of eating a handful of candy corns makes me a little nauseous.  The other day I ate a very sweet banana and felt it was overwhelming.  My tolerance for sweetness has decreased, and things I would have considered inedible months ago are now wonderfully tasty – Ginger tea with only a little honey, for example.  If you combine this reduced tolerance for sugar, which leads to finding certain foods nauseatingly sweet, with the fact that I feel better and have more energy, maybe you can understand why I felt bad for my coworker who showed me pity when she learned that I don’t eat sugar.

My relationship with food.  I never thought of my eating habits as a relationship before.  But this experience has forced me to get to know my food in a way I never realized was possible or could be important.  Instead of just arbitrarily eating whatever is in front of me, I now carefully choose foods based on ingredients.  Sugar is so ubiquitous that I’m quite limited in what I can buy, but I’m finding more and more wonderfully decadent and delicious options that are easy to make at home from simple, whole ingredients. 

Pain.  Unfortunately, there has not been any perceptible change in my pain levels resulting from this change in diet.  I initially embarked on this adventure to see if it would help to mitigate my chronic pain problem.  It hasn’t.  But I can honestly say that it’s worth it anyway.  The other benefits (listed above) have improved my general outlook to the degree that even if the physical pain remains the same, my ability to live with that pain has improved.  Cooking healthy, nourishing foods has become a fun hobby that can distract me from pain.  Having more energy means I can bear up better under the stress of working and living with pain.  Being healthier means my body is stronger and more resilient, even in pain.  Having steadier and more positive mood means that pain doesn’t bowl me under as frequently as it used to. 

So for now, even if my original hopes remain unfulfilled, I’m going to stick with this crazy diet.