Good News on Day Four

Over the holidays my eating habits got even more out of control. The abundant amount of baked goods, chocolate and candy took my sugar high over the edge. I just could not get enough. I can never have just one piece of chocolate or just one cookie. Its always another and another, the binge will only stop when the box is empty.

Since I had my last baby I have been gradually taking off the baby weight. I am almost back to my pre-pregnancy weight, yeah for me. However, over the holidays I seemed to have gained some of those back, maybe three or four pounds. Which is not a ton, but depressing non the less if you are trying to lose weight. Guess I was not trying hard enough. So this morning when I woke up, I stepped on the scale just out of curiosity and found myself to be down two pounds. That is great news for me, what a wonderful way to start the day. If I can really be faithful to my commitment, I may actually be able to get healthier, get my yeast problem under control, and lose some weight as well.

Third Day

Thursday morning comes and I once again wake up with more energy then usual and get a good start to the day. I also woke up with a ferocious appetite. It feels very much the same as the first week of starting a new diet. However, I'm not restricting my calories in anyway, so if I'm hungry I can eat. Part of the problem is I'm not totally sure what to eat. I have spent so many years filling up on junk, I really need to explore new options. I look around the kitchen and decide I need to go to the grocery store. Friday is payday so, I start making a list for then.

After reading online about the benefits of healthy bacteria clearing yeast from the body, I decided my one exception to the rule will be to eat yogurt. I'm eating the Activia Light kind because I know that has the right active cultures, even though this brand does have some sugar in it. It seems almost near impossible to find yogurt brands without sugar.

In the afternoon I broke down and had a diet soda. I know that I was planning to try and avoid all artificial sweeteners but I just couldn't take it anymore. I have never been that big of a soda pop drinker, so at least that is one thing I don't have to give up. I will try to do better tomorrow and avoid the pop, even if it is sugar free. I will opt for sugar free gum if I really get the need for a sweet fix.

I find that I am generally less grumpy then the day before, however, I have to eat frequently to stay feeling satisfied. I have a basketball game in the evening and it is a tough workout. I'm really out of shape and have not played sports in years. It turned out to be a lot of fun and I have plenty of energy for the game. I end the day feeling great and no headache at all.

Day Two of Detox

I woke up on Wednesday morning with surprisingly more energy. I felt like having no sugar would make me more tired and sluggish, but the opposite was true. I typically hate mornings and will not agree to any appointments before 9:00 AM. Every morning it takes me hours just to get going and get out of my jamas, unless I absolutely have to. This morning was different. I got ready for the day, I gave all three girls a bath, dressed them cute and did all of their hair, and all before 10:30. I thought to myself, this is not like me at all. I did not expect to notice any changes in the way I was feeling so soon. This really got me wondering. Is it possible that all these years I have not been a morning person because of the way I eat?

Throughout the day I found myself to be noticeably irritable, I kept snapping at the kids and when Jared got home from work he told me I was grumpy. Still had major sugar cravings all day and ended the day with a massive headache. I rarely get headaches so I'm pretty sure this is related to the detoxing. Who knew getting off sugar would be similar to getting off any addictive drug. I feel like if I can get past the first week the worst part will be behind me.

The First Day!

On Monday Jan 10th I made the decision that I needed to cut out the sugar from my life and that I was going to start the very next day. As an old friend to dieting I'm very familiar with the "I'm going to start tomorrow" statement. But this time I was serious, and it wasn't exactly a diet I was starting either. I have no plans to count calories or restrict how much I eat, simply change what I am eating. Well maybe that is not so simple, but nevertheless I'm going to do it.

I realize I may not be able to cut my sugar intake 100%, because sugar is in almost everything we eat nowadays, but I'm going to cut out absolutely as much as I can. Natural sugar found in milk, fruit, honey etc will be ok in moderation. Also I want to try and avoid artificial sweeteners, I read these only make sugar cravings worse.

Come Tuesday morning I did start. Looking through my cupboard at boxes of cereal I found only one that had low enough sugar content to be acceptable, plain Cheerios. This is generally a cereal I give to the kids and baby to munch on, but never myself. I tend to try and feed my kids healthier then I take care of myself. So I poured the bowl of cereal with milk and started munching away. Wow, this stuff taste like wood I thought, and I managed to make it through the whole bowl. The rest of the day I struggle to find things in the house that have low enough sugar content or none at all to be acceptable for my plan. And somehow I did it, I made it through the whole day sticking to my commitment. The whole day I had massive cravings for something sweet and it was harder then I thought it would be. It did not help that my pantry is a virtual smorgasbord of sweets and goodies. By the end of the day I had a horrible headache and went to bed feeling slightly hungry.

Trying to change my life.

I am a self proclaimed sugar addict, my husband will attest to it, my parents will attest to it, well pretty much anyone who really knows me can attest to it. I have been living on a high sugar diet for years now and I think its time to make some big changes. My regular diet has consisted of high-sugar processed foods such as sugary cold cereals, white bread, pastas, candy, fast food, desserts, all dairy products, and the occasional homemade healthy meal (something with a vegetable in it). What can I say, I live on carbs. I have never been a big meat eater, and vegetables and fresh fruit are something I partake of sparingly. To say I have my food pyramid upside down is an understatement.

How did I get this way, well its probably a long story but I will try to keep it within reason. I have always been a very picky eater. As a child my parents struggled to try and get me to eat my vegetable but nothing could make me budge. I'm pretty sure a combination of two major factors lead to this behavior. I have a very poor, close to non-existent sense of smell, which messes with my ability to taste food flavors. Sweet is a flavor that has always come through loud and clear for me. Also I have texture sensitivities with regards to food, and other things like fabrics. Certain foods will simply make me gag, and give me the most unpleasant shivers as if someone had just run their fingers down the chalk board. As a child I did not understand this about myself and ate what felt good for me, rather then what was good for me. Hence the beginning of some very bad eating habits.

This brings us to today, I'm 29 years old, the mother of three girls and I eat a diet that consists well over 50% sugar and white flour in some form or another. Why change my habits? I'm generally in good health, only slightly overweight, and I love to eat what I want. Why would I want to even consider cutting out sugar? This epiphany came to me as a result of the last few months struggle I have been having with yeast infections. I'm still breast-feeding my youngest who just turned 12 months and have been struggling with yeast infections in my breasts, and also in the other area where most women get yeast infections. It has been most unpleasant to continue breast-feeding my baby. When I'm having a flare up it can be very painful. My baby refused to take a bottle so I pretty much had no other choice but to continue. And each time I get a infection in my breast, I simultaneously get one down below. Is there a connection? Of course. My body is having a serious yeast outbreak and its making me miserable.

I have been to my doctor's office a few times over the past few months and never really got to the bottom of it. I got ointments, antibiotics, and prescriptions for diflucan and these things did help momentarily. But it kept coming back and it felt worse each time. This lead me to reading and researching online for any information that might help me with my problem. The information I found clearly pointed to one thing, my high sugar diet. I've always known that the way I was eating wasn't good for me, but its never really been a big deal health wise. I suppose being on the verge of my 30th birthday, my choices are finally starting to catch up with me. What I'm planning to do is try and cut sugar from my diet. This includes all processed sugar and refined white flour, which I discovered in my reading basically turns to sugar in your body as soon as you ingest it. I want to go hardcore-cold turkey on this, at least until I can get the yeast outbreak under control. I really have no idea how I'm going to do this, but I'm very determined. Like Yoda said, "Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try." I know I can do this.