One of my New Year's Resolutions was to officially break up with sugar. Any time in my life that I've been nice and lean was during a time when I was eating 100% clean and skipping on sugar. But I always get off the bandwagon and find myself sneaking treats between meals. Having a husband with a huge sweet tooth doesn't help either! There are always cakes or cookies or ice cream in our house. It is SO HARD! Over the last month I have bloated up and I cannot deny that it is because I stopped paying attention to clean eating and my sugar intake.
Sugar is a very addictive and poisonous substance and it hides in places you don't think about. Maybe you think you aren't addicted to sugar because you don't like cakes or cookies, but what about...oatmeal? Do you eat from the plain ol' box of quick oats or do you eat one of those yummy apple-cinnamon or maple flavored packets? What about soda? Do you drink a soda every day? A bagel in the morning from Panera? Fruit yogurt or plain? Fruit yogurts are high in sugar. Granola bars, almost any cereal, and many common sauces, like BBQ are all loaded with sugar. See, you don't have to eat a cookie a day to have too much sugar in your diet. Go to your pantry and pick up a few of your regular go-to items and see how many grams of sugar there are. Pay extra close attention to that pesky high fructose corn syrup, which is NOT okay, regardless of the commercials trying to convince you it is. Pay attention and you will find that poison in almost every processed food item in your pantry. In general, you should try and stick to foods that have less than 5 grams of sugar in a serving (excluding real fruit- not fruit products like yogurt or fruit snacks, but real fruit.)
Do you know the dangers of sugar? The obvious is weight gain. The body cannot metabolize sugar properly, which causes it to be stored as fat. Sugar also blocks the hormone that makes you feel full and satisfied, which is why you can eat and eat sugar and not feel satisfied and crave more. Eating more equals more calories you are not burning which equals weight gain.
Did you know sugar aids in cancer growth? Cancer cells require a lot of energy to grow and they use sugar as their source of energy. Some of the cancers that you are at higher risk for if you overeat sugar: breast, pancreatic, colon, stomach and endometrial. I already have a very high risk of breast cancer (I have an 80-90% chance of getting breast cancer someday) due to a genetic mutation I have. I really don't want to feed any mutating cells!! Do you?
We all know that specific diets do not work. When you deprive yourself you only will cave and overeat or overindulge in what you are being deprived of. You have to make your diet a lifestyle and eat everything in moderation. My plan is to avoid sugar 6 days of the week (and eat clean) and on the 7th day, I can have a cheat meal. A cheat meal is an appetizer, entrée, and dessert. This way I will not be totally deprived of my favorite BAD foods and can still eat them after I've had a good week (and killed all my workouts :-) ) I'm going to keep on track and NOT derail this time. My health and body are too important!
Are you with me on giving up sugar for good?
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