A Month Without Sugar

Almost everyone in my life has been nagging me to cut down on my sugar intake for years now. Everyone who knows me knows that I have the world’s biggest sweet tooth. Nothing is too sweet for me. But recently, I’ve realized just how big of a problem it has become. And it’s definitely not doing any favors for my skin or body or just my general health as I’m getting older so I figured there was no better time like the present to try to limit my sugar intake. However, I knew that trying to just eat less dessert would never work. I don’t have that kind of self control. The first day would be fine but by the second day, I would probably give into the craving for a chocolate bar. Instead, I needed to quite cold turkey. Yep, that’s right. I needed to cut sugar out of my life for 30 days. And, to help motivate, I had the idea of blogging my experience. Thus, that would hold me accountable and I would have an end goal in mind. I am extremely goal driven so I knew that if I was doing this for a blog post, I would be a whole lot more successful.

Now, I need to clarify a couple of things before we jump into my experience with 30 days of no sugar. When I say no sugar, I am being a bit dramatic. I wasn’t going to be cutting out all sugar, just the dessert sugar that I usually can’t say no to. I could still have fruit and any non-dessert food with sugar because those aren’t the things I usually crave and have a tough time saying no to. Unhealthy food like chips definitely still have sugar in them but I actually rarely eat chips and when I do, it’s a small handful. It’s not a craving I get. Thus, I did not feel the need to cut food like this out of my diet for 30 days. Baby steps, okay. Food like chocolate, pastries, cake, cookies- those are my true weaknesses and that was what I had to focus on cutting out of my life.

Check out these articles for a bit more information on why too much sugar is bad:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2015/04/24/exercise-wont-save-us-sugar-and-carbs-are-our-bodily-downfall/

https://www.cnn.com/2017/06/09/health/sugar-detox-food-drayer/index.html

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And so, here was how I felt cutting out sugar for 30 days:

Day 1: I was studying at a coffee shop, minding my own business and trying to resist sugar. I had a breakfast wrap (tortilla, scrambled eggs, zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes, avocado) which is probably the healthiest thing you can get at a cafe. And then, a horrible thing happened. The barista brought a cinnamon bun over to my table for FREE. It smelled heavenly. My mouth watered. But I stayed strong and took it home with me and presented it to my very happy dad.

Day 2: Normally I would get a London Fog with an extra pump of syrup at Timmie’s in the morning but I resisted. Instead I made myself a mug of plain green tea. Mmm.

Day 3: My boss brought Cookies by George cookies into the office. Those are my weakness but I stayed strong.

Day 4: My coworker brought Subway Cookies into the office. Those are my other weakness (especially the new Raspberry Lemonade cookies) but once again, I stayed strong.

Day 5: My coworker brought in a Tim Hortons box of 50 Timbits. Those are my other weakness (surprise, surprise). I didn’t have a single Timbit. Now that is self control.

Day 6: Went out for dinner with friends. They all had S’mores and ice cream at this new Japanese BBQ place. I didn’t crack.

Day 7: I went to this new indoors Farmer’s market in Edmonton (Bountiful Farmer’s Market). There were so many samples. I resisted any of the sweet samples. There were COOKIES. And PIES. I said no to it all. We then went back to a cafe. I had a London Fog WITHOUT any sweetener (earl grey tea bag and oat milk).

Day 8: I’m honestly shocked that I’ve made it an entire week without cracking. I deserve a huge pat on the back.

Day 9: I made myself my own tea latte (Rooibos tea and oat milk) with an unsweetened apple sauce. It was surprisingly satisfying.

Day 10: It was Canada Day and this really put my self control to the test. S’mores, cookies, soda. I didn’t have any of it.

Day 11: My skin is starting to break out like crazy. I always thought it was because of an abundance of sugar in my diet but now i’m not so sure. I feel ripped off.

Day 12: I went to the dentist. He was very pleased to hear I was cutting out sugar,

Day 13: Everyone is asking me how it feels to cut out sugar? Do I have more energy? Am I cranky? That is to be decided.

Day 15: Halfway there and it’s actually starting to get easier. Now when I’m presented with sugar, I don’t find it as hard to say no.

Day 16: It was my mom’s birthday. We got cupcakes and I cheated a little. I had a sliver of her birthday cupcake. It felt rude not to. I didn’t eat the cupcake because I was craving sugar but it felt rude to not eat it on her birthday, y’know? Please don’t hate me that

Day 17-29: The rest of the days passed without any trouble. Now that I had crossed the halfway point, I found it less and less hard to resist sugar. It became almost second nature. When a coworker brought in a treat, I just said no and that was that. I think it also helped having all my coworkers and friends know that I was on a sugar ban. They all held me accountable and didn’t pressure me to try a dessert like they normally would.

Day 30: This was a tough day. We were having a going-away party for one of my Shoppers coworkers. My friend made this ginormous charcuterie board complete with chocolate truffles AND nanaimo bars. You know chocolate truffles and nanaimo bars are my two biggest weaknesses. So, I had nibbles of both. I thought I should be honest with you. I ain’t perfect.

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So truth be told, I was feeling pretty discouraged after finishing my 30 days of no sugar. I didn’t expect to lose a crazy amount of weight or anything but I was definitely hoping to see a couple of changes in my life. I wanted my skin to clear up, lose a couple of pounds and just have more energy overall. But as I finished up those 30 days, I felt almost exactly the same. My skin was still breaking out, I felt bloated and fat and I was sluggish and tired.

Update: I thought I was all done writing this post and I had documented everything I learned during this month of sugarless fun, it wasn’t until I started eating sugar again that I noticed more changes. The first day after my sugar ban, my coworker bought See’s Candies into the office (YUM). I had only three pieces and I felt sick to my stomach after. Then I had a cupcake the next day and the exact same thing happened. So, I started to resist eating desserts and it was like a switch flipped within me. Suddenly my skin looked great and I felt the skinniest that I have in a long, long time. So maybe, just maybe, my 30 days of no sugar did have a positive effect on me. Hurrah! Will I stop eating sugar forever? Definitely not. But will I learn to say no to the occasional sweet? I sure hope so.