Monday, April 30, 2007

~Sugar, sugar, sugar~

I completed my challenge of no sugar for a month today! This was not so hard to accomplish!

I recently read that the average American consumes 23 teaspoons of sugar daily. That's a lot of sugar. I would say that my consumption was not even close to that amount.

I can't imagine eating that much in one day, let alone every day year in and year out! But if you think about it, sugar is in most every processed food. We are programmed to think that if something isn't sweet, it doesn't taste good.
Since I had already been trying to accomplish this goal, and since I had already cut out coffee (I don't like coffee without sugar!), I didn't have a hard time with this at all!

In fact, I'll continue along just fine without eating sugar. It isn't good for your body, you know! I did slip one time...we were at a bowling alley, and there were people all around us smoking. Smoke always makes me nauseated, so I got a Sprite to alleviate the nausea. That's the only soda I've had in over two months!

I did NOT replace sugar with sugar substitutes. I feel like there is enough evidence that those are just as bad or worse for you than sugar. Even animals know that sugar is better than sugar substitutes. ;-) On our honeymoon, we went to a restaurant that had tables outside, and birds kept swooping down and stealing sugar packets. The waitress told us that they only took the sugar - they left the Equal and Sweet 'n Low on the tables, only stealing them if they were the only thing left!

I did not try to cut out every single thing that has sugar in it either - like bread (regular bread), ketchup, salad dressings, etc. For cereal, I either ate a low or no sugar cereal (Cheerios or Grape Nuts). My brother gave me a bottle of maple syrup for Christmas, and I did sweeten a few things with that.

I wish I could say that I lost a whole bunch of weight...but I didn't! Hmmm. Well, anyhow, I feel healthier for this challenge, and that's what counts!

5 comments:

Cherish the Home said...

That's excellent! Good for you Tammy! (o:

theups said...

Wow, Tammy!! That's GREAT!!! VERY healthy for you!!!

Keep us updated on how you are doing with this!! :)

His,
Mrs. U

Anonymous said...

Wow! Great job!

I gave up sugar more than a year ago and lost... ahem... more weight than I want to admit! ;)

cherylharrell (Mrs Harrell) said...

Best wishes with doing this. My hubby & I are diabetics so we have to give up sugar unless our sugars are dropping & we are having a low sugar attack. It is not easy. The devil comes to church dinners in the form of desserts & I can't seem to avoid the temptation. The preacher oughta decree no desserts with sugar in them at church events lol. It's a struggle but God helps us thru. We use the sugar substitutes & drink diet drinks. Since hubby got the diabetes & I later got it, I've really learned how to cook. I ge recipies from diabetic magazines & the internet & have learned how to convert regular recipies to diabetic. Best wishes...

Jenn said...

I am sugar free as well. As long as we don't substitue with the fake stuff we will be well off. ;-)