Not going to lie – I am truly appreciative and surprised by the number of people who read this fledgling of a blog. The only thing that surprises me more are the number of people contacting me asking questions, sharing stories and offering support.  The Internet can be a big festering bowl of “NOPE” sometime. However, not only have I met some pretty cool individuals through this online journey but been introduced to some excellent blogs. Thank you for opening my mind a little bit more .

There is one thing I do want to address before going any further. I am a firm believer in that:

‘Health’, however defined, should never be a measurement to determine whether or not someone deserves respect, civil rights, and fair treatment. The philosophy of vaunting the modern notion of ‘health’ to some kind of societal/moral imperative is called healthism and it is as ugly as any other “-ism” out there.

Health is not an obligation or a barometer of worthiness. Nobody owes anybody else health regardless of size. Health is never guaranteed and never entirely within your control. 

This blog is specifically my journey in giving up refined sugar. Observing changes in body and spirit. I am not part of any medical establishment or have any medical training beyond first -aid. Any opinion that I may opine on is based on my own experiences and conclusions that I, as a layman, understand through personal research (so take everything I say with a pinch or four of salt).  What is happening to me is completely unscientific, anecdotal, and would never hold up in any reputable medical journal.

But, things are happening to me both in body and spirit. Not only have I noticed these changes but friends and family as well. I want to share this experience so those who are thinking of or are following a refined sugar-less life can know either what could happen to them or that they are not alone.

Now, yes, one of the most noticeable changes that have been commented on is the weight loss. I completely, totally, understand this. We have all been told and showed all our lives that, despite everything else, your worth is based on your waist size. It doesn’t matter what you accomplish and/or how well you treat others, if your body size does not fit within a determined parameter – it is all negated until you achieve that “body ideal”.

We have internalized this, we have let our self worth be demolished if/when we don’t achieve this “ideal” and this has sent us into a frenzied state to literally try and do anything to get there. It is this delirium that led me to believe for decades that if I spend thousands of dollars on diet supplements/programs, seriously consider having a perfectly healthy organ amputated, deny myself nourishment, and physically push my body until I hurt myself that maybe I won’t be thought of as an “other” or “worth-less”.

It just chaps my hide that I spent so much time, energy, and resources letting other people decide how I should live my life instead of following what I thought was right for me. Just because someone throws you something doesn’t mean you have to catch it.

There will be talk of weight loss in this blog because if that is something I am experiencing, I will share. But that will not be the only part. For example, one of the things that I can’t get out of my head is how much better whole, unprocessed foods taste. When you are brought up on a diet of low fat, high sugar processed food, you build a high taste tolerance to sweet which means you need more sugar to meet that sweet threshold we all crave. This can make unprocessed food like fruits and veggies seem blah and tasteless in comparison. Once you redefine your tastebuds by taking refined sugar out of your diet, you actually taste the true sweet tones in food to the point where you think “Why did I need sugar in the first place?”.

The other week, my sister and I went to our favorite market, Ikeda’s in Auburn, CA and, besides purchasing a lot of other things, bought the most delicious looking basket of strawberries. It was like they were from an ad – bright red, plump and as big as a baby’s fist.  If I hadn’t had pulled the berry straight from the container, I would have accused my sister of placing sugar on them when I took my first bite. Strawberries have always been a favorite of mine but usually I would put brown sugar on them to “spruce” them up (low fat, right?). Never again! The taste was so sweet and refreshing without any syrupy heaviness. It was divine.

This does not mean I am going to say you should do the same thing as me. Everyone has their own journey. You get to decide what experiences to create, analyze and choose what works best for you. If you are here to find out what I am doing specifically that is causing weight loss – here it is:

Day 0-30: Zero grams of added refined sugar

Day 30 and beyond: 6 or less grams of added refined sugar a day  – give or take. If there is a special  occasion coming up, I may go to zero grams for a couple of days before or after.

I don’t count calories, carbs, fat, protein and/or weigh myself. I do not do any extraneous physical activity unless it is something I personally enjoy (swimming, dancing, long walks down the Vegas Strip).

I do eat til I’m satisfied. I eat anytime I feel I am hungry. I skip meals if I am not hungry. Sometimes breakfast is my biggest meal of the day, sometimes lunch, sometimes dinner – it just depends on how I feel.

I try my damnedest to get as much uninterrupted sleep as possible and cut stress where I can.

That’s it.