What happens when you quit eating sugar for 30 days
This is not the scientific study you're expecting.
But it is what to expect when you quit eating sugar.
Stage 1: Loopholes
When you stop eating sugar you start looking for ways to eat sugar. You start making "rules" about what is "good" or "bad" to eat... honey to stevia to "only a scoop in my morning shake." Benefits outweigh the risks, yadda yadda. There is an inner teacher watching your every move and you are justifying them all. Honey is natural. Sugar cane is natural. Where do you draw the line? They are both sugar.
Stage 2: Sadness
Sugary foods are called treats for a reason. Pops of happiness that bring you the dopamine which brings you the good feels. When you can't get your hits of dopamine through sugar, you start looking elsewhere and dive deeper into side addictions. You watch if the stock went up or down, the sales went up or down, the scale went up or down.
(By the way, you might actually lose weight, but I wouldn't know as I don't weigh myself as a self-care rule. I don't wear pants that will hurt my feelings either.)
Stage 3: Adulting
You will shift from the student facing the teacher (but it's just honey) to becoming the teacher yourself. You will, in essence, decide to put on your big girl pants and just accept that sugar isn't an option for now.
Stage 4: Anger
You will start defending your rights to eat sugar... to yourself. (I'm an adult so quit bossing me around!) You should get to do what you want. FREEDOM!!!!
Stage 5: Eating iCandy
You will start watching cooking shows and pay special attention to the cake decorating segment... while eating carrots and apple slices, and seething... having established the sugar from fruit and vegetables as permissible during the loopholes in Stage 1.
Stage 6: Wait
For 30 days to end. You will wait 100 days for that 30 days to be done.
Stage 7: Curiousity
You wonder if it's working... this self-imposed no sugar situation. Is it doing what it promised? Whatever that means to you. For me, I think a lot about war... citizens and soldiers who don't have chocolate treats to actively avoid. Oh my sweet, silly, luxurious little problems... not getting sugar in my tea when so many don't have sugar or hot water OR CLEAN WATER.
So I suppose, as a Lenten project, the No Sugar is working.
It sure feels like I'm wasting away. My spirit is sagging.
A priest once said "Lent is not Weight Watchers," but I find there is rich material to be unearthed in this project. All kinds of room to think, to appreciate, to wait forever.
Gosh... you think you don't have time on your hands. Try giving up sugar. There is PLENTY OF TIME all laid out right in front of you where you get to practice restraint and discipline while you observe the snags in your soul. Good times.
One of the biggies is when I go shopping as part of a tiresome household maintenance task.
I don't want to go to the pharmacy. I don't want to do the big grocery trip. I DON'T WANNA!
So when I am there, I get me some peanut buttercups and cheer myself up in the car.
But no cheerful peanut buttercups for me, and that makes me Stage 2 through 6. Again.Ugh!
Will I keep at it? This No Sugar thing. Yeah, probably.
Even though I'm in the middle of the sucky part, I can tell it's a good thing to not be on the rollercoaster ride that comes with sugar hits throughout the day. Right now is not fun, but it is... better.
She admits grumpily.
