For the past few weeks I’ve been silent and haven’t posted anything. This is mostly because I failed miserably with the sugar detox challenge and was feeling really guilty. I’m accountable for my actions, especially by posting this in my blog, and I didn’t want to face the music. All I had to do was not eat sugar. I imagine so many healthy eaters out there throwing up their hands at me screaming. “Just don’t do it! How hard can it be?” Indeed. It’s harder to control when you are surrounded by people not living a healthy lifestyle. Not by fault of their own but by circumstance. Like me, they weren’t raised in a home that included eating right and exercise. But it’s not an excuse. When the cookies start going around the room it’s up to me to pass.
I always try to give some positive spin things at the end of the posts but I’m struggling to come up with anything. This experiment provided the opposite effects of its purpose. My urges for sugar increased a thousand times more than before I started. Perhaps focusing on not eating sugar made me think about it more than I normally would have, keeping it ever present on my mind.
I did learn some things. Just as I had expected, our bodies treat sugar like it’s a drug and it can even be unsafe to quit cold turkey. I also realized how strong a role sugar plays in becoming diabetic and the strain sugar buts on our bodies. Exercise naturally urges our bodies to want to be healthy. Without exercise I dealt with my stress with food and wine. But recently I decided to test my ankle by going to the gym and I’ve been going for about a month. It’s amazing what working out can do to your outlook and how well it can help with stress.
I suppose my positive spin is that it all goes back to the basics; everything in moderation and the tried and true adage, eating right and exercise. If I can only wrap my mind around the concept that yes, it really is that simple.