I was recently going through my old files on books that I have read and my commitment to living sugar free. Two books that I recommend reading are Potatoes Not Prozac and The Sugar Addict's Total Recovery Program by Kathleen DesMaisons (ISBN-13: 9780345441331). I actually found my notes from when I first read these books back in 2003.
The Road to Recovery - 7 Steps:
1. Eat 3 meals a day with protein - smaller portions and no more than 5-6 hours between meals.
2. Journal what you eat and how you feel (I journal on google documents)
3. Vitamins, Potato before bed, Water, and Exercise
4. Shift from White foods to Brown Foods
5. Reduce / Eliminate Sugars - Try not to switch to sugar free products as a way to ease into sugar free life. This stage may evoke sadness & abandonment, however, sugar is not love or safety.
6. Create a new life
7. Decrease revolving life around food.
I made up a one page sheet to remind myself to stick to my goal of not eating sugar and the 7 steps listed above that I learned from those books. I was committed to making a new life for myself. I had a hard time at first. I was in a corporate office environment where so many people seem to drink coffee and eat a muffin or bagel for breakfast and operate just fine 2 hours later. Why wasn't that me?
If I eat sugar for breakfast - I end up stressed and unable to concentrate. Eventually I will mentally crash or possibly eat more sugar so I can sustain the sugar level in my system until I get home from work. (and then I would have to do it day after day after day....) I knew that I was different than other people, but it was hard to comprehend that it was sugar that I had to give up so I could operate.
Giving up sugar was a turning point in my energy level, my attitude, my ability to handle change and challenges. Sugar was holding me back and I could see it clearly in my life, but it was incredibly hard to say no to sugar. I wrote up a contract (see picture above from 2003) and goal for myself to commit to a new way of eating and living so that I could live life to the fullest. I had to get over the feeling that by not eating sugar I was missing out on things, when in reality the symptoms that sugar gave me - irritability, fatigue, edginess, and stress - are what was causing me to miss out on life.
I wanted and still want to live life fully and recover from desiring sugar more than I want the short term illusion of comfort that sugar could give me.
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