War on sugar in all it’s tempting forms

Did you notice MyfitnessPal says 0 pounds lost! That’s because I reset. It won’t show negative progress, thank goodness. But I know what really happened. I stressed out and gained 10 pounds over the Holidays. Not a pretty sight.  Cookies, eggnog, candy, cakes, pies, rolls, biscuits, crackers, french fries, stuffing, mash potatoes, gravy and ice cream, just about anything that tastes good I ate. Oh and Pizza, can’t for get that!

I know everybody vows to be good in the new year. It’s a tradition that has kept health clubs going for as long as I can remember.  But I am not going the health club route. I am going to start eating right. Not going to starve myself, just eat healthy combinations (no not combination pizza’s although that sounds wonderful!). The latest concept is that it is not how many calories you eat but the quality of those calories.  Doesn’t that make sense? Even a kid knows that 200 calories of ice cream is not the same as 200 calories of broccoli, they just might not know why. The real problem is sugar. We eat too much of it.  And it doesn’t have to be in it’s purest form to be bad.  In fact, adding 2 teaspoons of sugar to your coffee is far better then ordering some whipped up drink at Starbucks.

So the answer is not to cut sweets but to eat raw fresh sweets, like fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.  And don’t believe the box. It they are saying it is low in fat be careful.  That fat might be replaced by sugars. If they say low sugar watch out for other sources of carbohydrates. Come on people the taste comes for somewhere.

I think the first couple of weeks will be the hardest. My taste buds need to get back to normal. All this sugar has desensitized me to the true flavors in food. I can learn to taste the sweetness of a carrot or a yam without adding brown sugar. I can enjoy a russet potato without deep frying it first. It will not be easy.  But I learned to eat all this processed crap so I can unlearn it too.

It is not will power that will ultimately do this but a change of habit. I will still fill up and not go hungry. I might still crave that jelly doughnut but I won’t have it. There is actually a book called “Win the Sugar War”.  I have no idea what it is about, but I don’t need another diet book collecting dust on my shelf either.

We know what is healthy. We know what is not. We know that moderation is the key. We also know that we lose the war if we give in to just one. Remember the Lay’s commercial. “Nobody can eat just one.” It is true. I am a compulsive eater and one is never enough.

As I fumble down this path to a healthy new me, I will attempt to write about my successes and reluctantly my failures. But I will succeed.  My life depends on it.