During my third week of my Sugar Detox Challenge I came to a few startling discoveries. I did successfully get through the week (Monday – Friday) without eating any sweets. I even resisted a pile of cookies (chocolate chip included) that were sitting in one of our departments. Later on I saw one of those cookies downstairs being eaten and I could tell they were of the soft kind (my favorite) but I passed it up. This was a major success for those of you who know me and know that I LOVE chocolate chip cookies. Since Cookie Monster went vegetarian, I could be the new cookie monster. It’s that bad.
When Saturday came I did have some sweet things, more than I would have liked, but definitely not like last weekend when I went on a binge. The interesting thing I noticed was that during the week I was thinking on what I might want to eat on Saturday. Did I want a donut, chocolate cake, peanut butter cups, or my favorite ice cream? I really didn’t have a major urge for any of them and I think I ate the sweet things Saturday because I could but not because I just HAD to have it.
I also noticed that when it came to eating regular meals I didn’t want to eat more than what I was hungry for and I didn’t feel hungry before snack time or meal times. Those extra sides that I’ve been programmed to eat because I need to clean my plate and not waste the money were put down without finishing them. This was kind of surprising to me. Why would my sugar detox also affect regular food consumption? So I decided to consult the all-knowing Google and found this website. http://www.bistromd.com/related-information/tips-and-advice/curb-your-appetite.aspx
It says that eating sugar can cause you to get hungry, sometimes spontaneously. At the bottom there are three columns listing foods that can make you hungry. I’m not a big starch eater so the category titled starches doesn’t affect me and I rarely eat the things in the other category. It’s the middle category titled sweets that I have a problem with and now without them I’m not getting hungry as much.
This was an unsuspected pleasant side effect as a result of my challenge. I’m sure that if I was a nutritionist I would have foreseen this but it’s interesting that I didn’t know it ahead of time. If I had, I may have inadvertently skewed the results. Let’s see how next week goes. I’m not over the hump yet. Thanksgiving is next week and then the month of December where everyone loses their minds and begins cooking sweet temptations nonstop.