Month: February 2019

This has certainly been an interesting trial in food. Forcing myself to pay attention to what’s actually in the food I eat was eye opening. With a few metrics this time around, I think there was a positive impact of this trial. That in mind, I want to keep up that progress, which makes a plan going forward more difficult. I have a few approaches in mind and I’ll likely be doing some smaller experiments to see what approach I like best.

Final Thoughts

Taking note of how much food has added sugar is a bit disappointing. I plan to continue avoiding most of these foods. I do want to continue the habit of giving ingredients a brief look to see if there’s anything that seems like it shouldn’t belong, and that goes beyond just sugar.

Restricting what I could use in the kitchen led to a lot of great dishes. Though some frustration was definitely caused by things like soy sauce having high fructose corn syrup added. Seeing sugar added to something that didn’t seem to need it is what frustrated me most. My solution became to make my own homemade version without sugar. Often, my homemade version tasted better than what I remembered the original being.

In the end, avoiding processed foods guarantees that I’ll know exactly what is in the food I eat.

Let’s See Some Results

Something I have not done in some time is to try and crunch some numbers that the trial may have influenced. For the past few weeks, I’ve been taking my weight daily and measuring the circumference around my belly – there’s probably a more professional term for that.

Compared to the start, I am down nearly 10 lbs and dropped about 1.5-2 inches around my stomach. It wasn’t until the third week did I really see a consistent drop. Prior to that, I saw some big fluctuations from day to day.

This sounds good and dandy, but the complicated part is pinning this to the trial itself. I wish I could say I had 28 days to adjust this one aspect of my life, but of course that is not the case. Last month, I started training for a marathon in the middle of January, and I don’t think that impact can be ignored.

In terms of diet though, I didn’t really change much. When it came to macro-nutrients, no particular amounts were established per meal/day/etc. My plan was to continue eating similarly to how I had been before, sans sugar.

I feel comfortable saying that I lost weight due to cutting sugar out of my diet, but I can’t confidently say to what extent.

Future Plans

Going forward, I want to treat sugar similarly to alcohol. A little bit every so often isn’t so bad, a lot rarely won’t kill me, but a lot frequently or even a little constantly leads to a bad place. Treats shouldn’t be part of the everyday, but saved for celebrations and special occasions. Just last night, another team was celebrating a birthday at trivia I attend. Our team was offered some cake, and with my trial rules, I declined. In the future, something like this would probably get a pass.

Other ideas I have for handling sugar are to establish a cheat day and only eat home made sweets. Cheat days are part of many diets for a reason, they help to allow for a single period of exceptions. It can be hard to say no over and over, but allowing oneself to enjoy treats on occasion makes sticking to a stricter diet every other day easier. Treating sugar in this way is just formalizing the occasional element I mentioned before.

Homemade is an element I like the idea of, but don’t know how well I can put it into practice. My thinking is that if I eat only what is homemade, I can control the exact ingredients and understand what I’m eating. As someone who’s managed to screw up sugar cookies – TWICE – I don’t know how easily I can pull this one off.

In Conclusion

This concludes my strict no added sugar diet. There were definitely times when I ate something I didn’t realized had sugar. I think the key is to move on and make the right choice with the new information next time. I saw some improvement in a couple of metrics I was looking at, and even have some plans to hopefully keep that improvement going forward.

Speaking of plans going forward! My next trial will be revisiting one from the past – keeping a daily journal.

I had originally drafted this post up discussing the science of sugar and the impact it has on the body. While doing so, I felt unqualified, and my head was spinning. Instead, I’m going to get some ideas that have been bouncing around my head regarding diet for a little while now.

What Works Best

There are a countless amount of diet plans out there today. Many boast opposite approaches, but promise the same results: better health, better appearance, and a better life.

If the entire concept of this blog hasn’t provided the impression that my philosophy is that self experimentation is often the best approach to answering any question, then I must be failing at my job here. Without trial and error, it is impossible to really know what works best for the individual.

What to Focus On

I’ve done a handful of diet trials, but all seem to boil down to “don’t eat this.” I think this is because of a limited view in how I see diets, that hasn’t really come to mind until writing this up.

Most diets, though not all, are centered around what SHOULD be eaten, but I now realize how easy it is to shift that focus to what SHOULD NOT be. It’s easy to get caught up in demonizing the elements we think should be avoided at all costs, while forgetting to give praise and focus to the parts that are good.

Stick To Your Guns, Or Should I Say Buns?

After finding a process that works for you, stick to it. “The good program followed is better than the perfect program you quit,” is a quote from guy I can’t shut up about, Tim Ferriss, and I really do believe in it.

As with many beliefs, dieting has camps of people who believe their approach is the best and everyone should obey. If you find something that works, to hell with what someone else is feeding you – hopefully not literally.

When it comes to sticking to what works, this of course doesn’t mean to hunker down and never budge, but to only make adjustments on your own terms. Continuing to experiment will help to make things even better over time. Experimenting can provide insights into new ideas, as well as prove old methods are still ideal.

In the end dieting can be as complicated as desired. My approach is to experiment over a short time and see how the diet affects me, for better and for worse, and adjust accordingly.

Another week down of avoiding added sugar. While difficult, I believe it has gotten easier as time passes. The biggest challenge is finding what to eat when grabbing a bite out. While restaurants have a number of nutrition facts available, “added sugar” isn’t explicity in that list.

Easier With Time

I was drafting up my thoughts for this trial last night and was ready to write a lengthy post on how diet related trials have been the most difficult. Today, however, I’ve overcome the thought that this is a burden. Admittedly, if not for the current challenge, I would probably grab a treat without thinking about it, but restraint is not a taxing effort.

Some of the initial information that inspired this trial discussed the addictive properties of sugar. Addiction made the first two weeks of this particularly difficult for me. As I’ve taken in less and less, my body has begun to physically stop relying on or expect sugar.

I’ve thought a lot about whether this would be a practice I continue or not beyond the trial, and it’s difficult to say. As of now, I’m not seeing any particularly clear health benefits. The metrics I am using may be flawed, or the benefits may only be observed over a much long period. Even with resistance being easier, I still think of enjoying the occasional treat. I’ll definitely need to think about the long term more as the trial continues.

Researching Restaurants

One element in avoiding added sugar I’ve found difficult still is handling situations at restaurants. As of now, my strategy has been to simply research the menu online. Most major companies have a pretty expansive list of nutrition facts. Unfortunately, added sugar can be a difficult one to discern.

Nutrition facts will often list the sugars present, but not if they are natural, i.e. from fruits and vegetables, or added. This usually leads to avoiding things that seem to have a much higher than expected sugar content, assuming natural sugars should be present. One simple solution of course is to stick to foods with zero sugar at all.

In general, I’m appreciative of the habits this trial is instilling in me to get a closer look at what is going into my food. I’m surprised at how much easier things have gotten in a short amount of time. It definitely sucks missing out on some of my previously favorite foods, at restaurants especially, but so far this has been an eye-opening challenge.

For the past week, I have avoided consuming any products with added sugar, though based on how much food has some form of added sugar in some form, I doubt I was 100% successful. This has definitely been a challenge, but an interesting one at that.

Sugar’s Many Names

It can be easy to spot “sugar” in an ingredients list, but I wanted to go all in and avoid any forms of sugar that are added. I started looking for all kinds of added syrups, i.e. corn syrup, rice syrup, etc, and molasses to name a few. I was shocked to see just how many items have added some sort of sweetener added.

After the initial shock wore off, it did make sense though. I mean, sugar does taste really good, and adding even just a little bit to anything is a simple way to increase it’s flavor.

Eating Whole Foods

No, not the store, but in order to avoid sugar, nearly all processed foods are off the table, literally. One of the only ways to make sure I don’t have any is to make sure I know everything that goes in a meal. The easiest way to do that is to simply make everything from the raw ingredients.

I’ve long enjoyed cooking, but this has really forced me to step my game up. A lot of sauces and condiments have added sugar, so I need to make sure the food itself is flavorful enough to not require them.

Even with some well cooked meals, I wish I can say this was easy. Normally cutting out a particular habit has been the easiest trial for me to do, but this one has been rough. I found myself in a candy aisle looking at dozens of candies to find something sweet without sugar. You can probably imagine the futility in that effort. In the end, having a strict policy has made compliance easier to follow. A solid no means there is no room for exceptions or thinking about if something passes or not.

Is It Any Healthier?

In order to add some objective matters to this trial, I have been weighing myself and taking measurements daily to see if I can see any positive effects. After a week in, I haven’t seen much improvements yet, so the jury is still out.

This past weekend has a role to play in that. I was quite the glutton with a friend visiting town and a Superbowl party to indulge at, even without sugar. This definitely bumped the scale up a bit, but now that this week is moving along, things are stabilizing out.

We’ll see how this week shakes out as I press on in my campaign against added sugar.