Sugar Detox

I’m a January baby, and while many people choose the start of the new year to refocus on goals – often the same one’s year after year! – for the last few years, I’ve made Birthday Resolutions.

I never particularly liked having my birthday so soon after Christmas when I was younger, although it often made for some decent deals on gifts.  As a teenager, it often meant studying for or writing exams.  As a twenty-something, my friends were often still recovering from the holiday season to celebrate in a big way.  Now, I appreciate that I have a couple of extra weeks to truly think about what my goals are going to be as I celebrate my birth milestone.

At the end of last year, I started to take stock of some habits that had started to creep back into my daily routine.  A few years back, I realized how much sugar I was consuming. I didn’t add it to my tea or coffee.  I didn’t have large bowls of sugary cereals. But, as the holiday season approached, I became aware of my overconsumption. It would start early in October with the start of the Halloween frenzy of sugar. We would get boxes of candy to hand out, but the box would always get opened ahead of time, and I would start indulging

Then Halloween would arrive, and my kids would come home from trick or treating,  excited to ​assess their massive haul. Of course, as a “good parent”, I would sift through and then give them an appropriate amount…and then take my favourites! OK, perhaps I sifted through, took my favourites and then let them have a reasonable amount!​

Then the Christmas baking season would start. As a personal chef, I thoroughly enjoyed treating my clients to gift baskets of homemade cookies, cakes, marmalade, chocolates, toffee, candies and truffles to thank them for their continued support of my business. Inevitably, I would need to taste test. I could and would eat whatever I wanted, rationalizing that it was homemade, as if that made it “good” for me.   Inevitably, there was an unconscious gluttony of hundreds of sugar calories.

By the time the new year arrived, I had experienced 3 months of a sugar high, and realized that I wasn’t feeling so good AND my clothes were no longer fitting so well. After realizing the extent of my habit, I made a commitment the following year to NOT EAT ONE Halloween candy. I knew that if I indulged in just one, it would take away the power I felt at staying committed to my goal. I won’t lie, it was incredibly hard at first, but the empowerment I felt for staying true to myself and not eating any kept me motivated. I just celebrated my 8th year of this commitment.  My focus and determination wavered a little with the Christmas treats this year, but now I’m preparing for this year’s Birthday resolution.
 
This year I want to extend my commitment and focus and not indulge in refined sugar for 30 days. I have discovered some alternative sweeteners that I’ve tried, and they don’t react with blood sugar levels the way that refined sugar tends to.  I will be conscientiously choosing those if I need something sweet or if I need to sweeten a dish I’m preparing. The whole family will benefit (or suffer, depending on how they look at it) to this to some degree. I will avoid the simple carbohydrates that don't offer dense nutrition.  Who knows, the improved mental clarity that I have enjoyed when staying true to this commitment will spur me to go beyond 30 days.  I’ll happily share some of my recipes and what I learn through the process.