My 3 Months without sugar .... Day 1 on the path to a cleaner healthier life.

My love hate relationship with sugar is about to brought to its knees as I'm
Starting my 3 months without sugar today.
I had an interesting childhood to say the least and as a part of that legacy I have a sugar attachment that needs to be brought under control.
I was apparently fed cream buns and jelly beans for most of my first two years on this earth, so much so that the lady that raised me from age two onwards had huge problems weaning me off it over the next few years as apparently it was the only thing that stopped me from crying or that I would eat.
I'm an emotional eater so when stressed or depressed I reach for my comfort food chocolate, ( ditched the lolly's for chocolate in my mid 20's).
Makes sense when I look back at it as I was seeking love in a troubled relationship at the time and they say it is a love substitute because eating chocolate makes you happy,it contains phenylephylamine - the same hormone the brain triggers when you fall in love.
No wonder we girls get addicted to the stuff.

Now don't get me wrong I don't smoke,I very rarely drink, ( a few times a year at most and even then I'm a cadburys girl, eg glass and a half and I'm giggly ), I'm quite healthy in my eating.. No chips or junk food other than the not quite occasional enough stress chocolates.
Ok there have been occasional KFC munchies but that's it. I'm just not a savory junk food /fast food girl.
I'm just very aware that the sugar I do consume is not good for me, a slow toxic poison that I really don't need in my life and that I don't think I really have under control.
So having watched a program on the longterm toxic nature and addictiveness of sugar on 60 mins here in Australia featuring renowned Australian TV and Magazine journalist Sarah Wilson and listening to her experience of quitting sugar and the subsequent book she wrote about it -
I QUIT SUGAR &
I QUIT SUGAR COOKBOOK both by Sarah Wilson.
I decided to try it myself that means no chocolates, no maple syrup on my cereal in the morning and no mochas in fact no coffee either ( herbal tea, water, milk and protein shakes from here on in ).
Most of all No packaged foods !
Just healthy fresh fruits, vegetables, poultry and fish with the odd steak for a treat.
There is so much hidden sugar in all our pre packaged foods that we don't even realize its there.
Here are just some of the names used for sugar added to processed and packaged foods:

Agave nectar
Barbados Sugar
Barley malt
Beet sugar
Blackstrap molasses
Brown sugar
Buttered syrup
Cane crystals
Cane juice crystals
Cane sugar
Caramel
Carob syrup
Castor sugar
Confectioner’s sugar
Corn syrup
Corn sweetener
Corn syrup solids
Crystalline fructose
Date sugar
Demerara Sugar
Dextrin
Dextran
Dextrose
Diastatic malt
Diatase
D-mannose
Evaporated cane juice
Ethyl maltol
Florida Chrystals
Free Flowing
Fructose
Fruit juice
Fruit juice concentrate
Galactose
Glucose Glucose solids
Golden sugar
Golden syrup
Granulated sugar
Grape sugar
Grape juice concentrate
HFCS
High-fructose corn Syrup
Honey
Icing sugar
Invert sugar
Lactose
Malt syrup
Maltodextrin
Maltose
Mannitol
Maple syrup
Molasses
Muscovado sugar
Organic raw sugar
Panocha
Powdered sugar
Raw sugar
Refiner’s syrup
Rice Syrup
Sorbitol
Sorghum syrup
Sucrose
Sugar
Syrup Syrup
Table sugar
Treacle
Turbinado sugar
Yellow sugar

Then there are the artificial substitutes:

Aspartame (NutraSweet, Equal)
Saccharin (Sweet'N Low, SugarTwin)
Acesulfame K (Sunett, Sweet One)
Sucralose (Splenda)

That's just an example of how we can unconsciously consume extra sugar in our diets without really knowing.

So what's my goal you may ask ?
Well first of all I'd like to see if I can and to see what if any effects I experience from cleaning up my nutrition and removing sugar from my life... A tricky breakup if ever there was one.. No comfort chocolate or Tim Tams Eeeeekkkk.
Being a very headstrong woman I know I will take up the challenge with gusto but what will I experience ?

Will there be weight loss ? (Few pesky last kilos we never seem to lose.)
Will I suffer withdrawals ?
Will my skin improve as suggested?
Will I feel more energetic and lighter in mood as has been another suggestion?
I think there can only be improvement by removing sugar from my diet even if temporarily (3 months).

I look forward to sharing my experiences as I progress through this sugarless journey and hmmm how will it effect my art ?
Can I sit at my favourite local coffee club and ignore all the tempting sweets , cakes and cookies oh my goodness I just remembered the cookies ... Noooooo hmm not to late to back out is it .. Ok no I'm strong I can have arty cafe time with herbal tea and and and well um ... Toast ? Eeeep this may be a bit of a struggle in the first few weeks as I adjust my habits but well worth it I'm sure.

If I start posting photos of ladies with lollipops in my paintings, sketches or photographs you'll know I'm struggling lol...
If anyone would like to join me on my sugarless journey please feel free to write to me and share your experiences I'd love company on this little test of wills. ;)

Wish me luck, much love and healthiness in life love and art
Gypsy Mel xo
















Also worth a look;
SWEET POISON,
WHY SUGAR MAKES US FAT &
THE SWEET POISON QUIT PLAN
All by David Gillespie