Going Sugar Free

Starting this blog has encouraged me many ways to fully commit to my workout routine and healthy eating.  I can not encourage others to live lives with healthy eating and exercise if I do not make conscientious efforts to do the same at home. 

Overall, I eat pretty clean, (semi) organic, and unprocessed food, but I do love a little bit of sugar.  No matter how hard I've tried to stay away from soda, I never lose a taste for it.  Root beer is one of my favorite things!  But since starting this blog, I've decided to go sugar free for a time.  I like it better when I appreciate the natural sweetness of an apple rather than the refined sweetness of licorice.  I also am looking forward to the results.  I'm hoping through cleaning up my eating I'll lose the final 10-15 pounds I've been trying to rid my body of, and/or increase lean body mass and decrease fat percentage.  Also, by avoiding sugar I hope to eliminate the sugar highs, and the crash and burns I have from sugar.  It's hard to carry on a homeschool day if you're blood sugar is on a roller coaster.

There are many benefits to going sugar-free.  Here are some reasons provided by Mark Sisson.  You can read the entire article on his blog at Mark's Daily Apple.  It is a great resource for healthy eating!

Why Avoid Sugar?
How could I possibly talk sugar without the warning? If you’ve spent any time around MDA, you likely know the drill. Despite its beloved place (not to mention omnipresence) in our culinary culture, sugar offers the following gifts that keep on giving:

• Sugar stimulates a physiological stressor-reaction cascade that provokes adrenaline and cortisol release and thickens the blood.
• Sugar effectively disables your immune system by impairing white blood cells’ functioning.
• Sugar decreases your body’s production of leptin, a hormone critical for appetite regulation.
• Sugar induces significant oxidative stress in the body.
• Sugar appears to fuel cancer cells. (Check out Free the Animal for much more on the cancer connection.)
• Sugar promotes fat storage and weight gain.
• Sugar disrupts the effective transfer of amino acids to muscle tissue.
• Sugar intake over time spurs insulin resistance, subsequent Type II diabetes and the entire host of related health issues like nerve damage and cardiovascular disease.

Yes, sugar is one insanely powerful drug. Addictive, to boot.

Today, I'm on the fourth day sans sugar.  Days one and two were pretty tough.  I was spacey and tired.  My son even told me he didn't trust my driving.  That was after I was sitting at a red light and started to inch into the intersection.  If that's not a sign of the terrible effects of sugar, I don't know what is. Be reassured, we stayed put.  I came to my senses.

Days three and four have been great.  I've been energized, workouts have been awesome.  We've accomplised so much during our school days.  Here's to a step in the right direction.