Friday, November 23, 2007

You're Gonna have to Face it... You're Addicted to Sugar

Here are 10 simple questions to see if you are addicted to sugar:
      1. If you don’t get your regular dose of sugar, are you irritable and cranky?
          WHY ARE TO TALKING ABOUT SUGAR!!!
          I AM TRYING TO KICK THE HABIT!!!
          HAVE YOU NO SHAME!?!?!?
          (Yes, I get cranky without my “fix.”)

      2. Have you ever tried to limit yourself saying that you would only eat one a day, or one per meal, but that one always turns into two, three, four…?
          Yeah. I ate so much leftover Halloween candy... Seeing the pile of wrappers afterwards made me feel so much shame.

      3. Are you using more sweet foods than ever before?
          When you “NEED” something sweet with every meal, even breakfast, there is something wrong. I was eating sweets like a junkie, even “free-basing” straight sugar.

      4. Have you ever lied about how much sweet food you eat?
          The way I “lie” about sweets is I stop using my food journal. I figure I blew it, so I don’t record my mistakes, but this just makes me less accountable! I have started keeping my food journal again.

      5. Have you ever eaten sweets in secret, or hidden the evidence?
          I felt so much shame when a co-worker “caught” me eating the powder out of a hot chocolate packet (basically sugar, powdered milk, & cocoa powder) last Friday. It sucked. That was really a wake-up call for me. That is when the “I really have a problem” warning bells
          went off.

      6. Have you ever gone out of your way to get something sweet?
          Even on crutches, I still made it to the sweets.

      7. Have you ever gotten upset when someone ate your special food?
          I wasn't angry, but I was really depressed when I realized my husband had eaten the rest of ice cream.

      8. Have you ever felt that you had a sugar hangover?
          I’ve "crashed" after eating LOTS of sugar then just start jonesing for more sugar!

      9. Have you ever binged on sweet or white flour foods?
          This is a “no duh” question at this point, of course I have.

      10. Is it impossible to “just say no” to sweet foods?
          I. Just. Can’t. Say. NO!!!! I can resist for a while, but eventually I crumble like a cookie… Mmm cookies!

If you said yes to any of these questions, you might have a sugar addiction. If you answered yes to all of them, you have a sugar addiction.

So now I start down the road to recovery.

Last Friday I told Aaron how sweets were controlling me, and about the hot chocolate powder thing. We did some research and found sugar to be more damaging than and just as addictive as drugs! Sadly, sugar is in nearly everything we modern folk eat!!! It is so unfair!

Aaron (the Angel) was so concerned about my health that he had a nightmare that night! He dreamt I got diabetes because he failed to see the warning signs. He didn’t realize I had such a problem with sweets.

I have always had problems with sweets but things really started to get bad when I quit eating the cancer causing artificial sweeteners. After that I started eating more and more real sugar. Then I started NEEDING sugar. So now I am trying to kick the whole “sweets” habit altogether.

It's been said sugar addiction is hard to break than cigarettes or even heroine. I believe it. Sugar is much more pervasive and harder to avoid. This will take lots of vigilance, but I'll be alright. I have a very clear plan and I am doing fine.


Knee Update!!!

I am walking unsupported! (No crutches or a cane!!) My post operation appointment went well. I can start being mildly active again but I need to be very limited. He said I should only do about 20 minutes, twice a week because of my knees. He also told me a analogy of my knee is like a cake. (Mmmm Cake...)

The cake is the bone, and the frosting is cartilege. Well my cake was brought to the potluck by someone who did not put toothpicks in the cake, and the plastic wrap got stuck to the frosting so when it moves, the frosting peels away from the cake. Each step I take is like someone thinking, "Ooo I want some of that cake!" So she lifts up the plastic, only to see the frosting lift up too, exposing the cake, then willpower kicks in, and she decides not to have the cake, and sets the plastic & frosting back down. Step after step, that's what it was like.

So Dr. Docter basically removed all the loose frosting from my knee. ;)
Stairs are still a bit tricky but I am doing fine otherwise.

4 comments:

Jo said...

Wow - I got 10 out of 10!!! But I knew that sugar was a problem for me.... I gave it up cold turkey for 30 days and it nearly killed me - LOL. :-)

This approach seemed pretty sensible.. and I might try down that route again instead of giving sugar up completely...http://www.radiantrecovery.com/newsletter2/steporder.html

Anonymous said...

Hi Jessica,
So glad to hear your doing better and getting around more.
About sugar, it is sugar or high fructose corn syrup? Read the labels and make sure your NOT eating any High Fructose Corn Syrup in the ice cream, bread, cakes and cookies, even the canned tomato products. There are a few companies that don't use it. Try them for a while, you might find you can still have some of your treats and not be addicted.
Try not eating any corn or corn products. I did and feel great, no cravings either.
marjie Fructose

Anonymous said...

Jess, sorry about the bad link on my post.
I made a post on my blog abut High Fructose Corn syrup.
You can find it here.
Calories Restricted
Keep up the good work.
marjie

Anonymous said...

I try giving up soda constantly, but I keep going back to it! :(