Thursday, January 1, 2009

2009: No Sugar For Me!

No sugar for me this year, either!!!

I chose to not rent out that donut shop after all...

Last night I celebrated the incoming new year on the roof of my cousin's apartment building, in the rain, overlooking the city of Portland. There were fireworks all evening long.

My cousin made her special homemade pizza...we each had our own pizza with a dozen different topping choices. She is a natural cook and the pizzas were incredible. To top it all off, she had made brown rice flour molasses cookies for me, that are to die for. I ate three this morning for breakfast.

Sometime yesterday I decided that there were not enough convincing reasons to eat sugar again. Why be its slave? I realized that I may have control over sugar ONLY because I am not eating it; therefore I would not tempt the limits of my willpower by trying to eat just one sugary item. By now you are tired of hearing this, but I have to reiterate once more, THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS JUST ONE OREO!!

Because of quitting sugar last year, I am facing 2009 with a new perspective on nutrition, my willpower, others' willpower, and the overall power that sugar has on people. Around the time I quit eating sugar last year, I thought about sugar on a much lighter note. Now that I have experienced going without it and the struggles it involves (can you say CRAVINGS and that IT IS IN EVERYTHING!?!) I do not take sugar lightly. It is a tiny, empty granule capable of so much.

If someone wanted to, a movie could be made about a tiny program inserted into each sugar granule that is used to control people......however, I did watch Tron this morning....

8 comments:

Nicole said...

WAY TO GO GIRL!!!! I can already *hear* that you're owning your decision! :) Wooooohooooo!

rose said...

Yay, I'm excited for you! I am going to try and not eat white sugar too =) So far so good, hehe. And I really enjoyed the article in the Seattle Pi. Cheers to a (naturally) sweet New Year!

Dana said...

Great job! I went for 1 year without sugar and felt GREAT! Keep it up cause once you start again you triple the emotional trauma of quitting.
When I quit my hubby (A cop) said I looked like the guys going off cocaine for 2 weeks. I physically shook and felt like throwing up.
But now, since I've been though it, I can't get myself to do it again because of the fear.
If you just keep it up you'll be fine.

Malhechecito said...

I'm not gonna drink alcohol ha ha ha, well I'll try.
happy 2009

suziam said...

Way to go! I'm with you 100% and finding that it's not so hard!!! BTW, you don't list evaporated palm nectar/sugar as a natural alternative to refined sugar. What do you know about this?

imagesbyemily said...

congrats! i just started reading, and can say that i went through a lot of what you did last year as well.

i started a low GI diet last jan 1 and was a little more lax than you were (because i knew if i had to do it 100% of the time i'd fail once and then quit forever). but i know i feel 100000000 times better when i'm not eating refined sugar. my body just doesn't process it - and i get migraines when i do eat it.

so i'm with you this year - i have to go off the sugar totally again.

keep up the awesome work!!!

My Year Without said...

Thanks for the encouragement, everybody! I can't emphasize enough how your words of inspiration and encouragement have led me to go at least another year without sugar. I couldn't ignore those of you who told me that you went without sugar and then thought that you could reintroduce it back into your diet slowly and with moderation--and then blew it..I will gladly learn from others' mistakes rather than make my own when it comes to sugar.

Suziam-
I have not heard of palm nectar...I am curious...

Emily-
Do you have any insights or tricks to going without sugar? Ways of making it easier?

I am also very interested in GI. I just learned about it last year. I think it is a very significant index for nutrition.

Barb said...

Read your article in Philly Inquirer (1/8) and am so happy so see others have given up the processed sugar. I have been processed sugar/flour free since August and can truly tell you that it has change my life. I did it through FA (google Food Addicts Anonymous) and have lost 16 pds without one day of exercise. I am going to start exercising for 2009 and continue to stay sugar free especially knowing that others out there like you are also doing it. Thanks so much and Happy New Year.