“Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose” – The more things change, the more they stay the same.
It’s New Year’s weekend, and, having eaten too many Christmas goodies, I am resolving to get my eating habits back on track – again. Specifically, I am striving to reduce the amount of processed sugar I eat.
I have been using sugar as an energy crutch for the last several months of 2020. A lot has been going on, and I have been pushing my body beyond its limits and using sugar to push through the fatigue. Also, sugar has effects on mood, and I’ve been eating more sugar during 2020 to boost my mood.
It hasn’t been egregious – I’ve gained five pounds in 2020. But I’m wearing my larger, looser clothes again. My weight has redistributed – my waist has gotten a lot larger. And I’ve crossed over into the “obese” category again. Weight is a loaded concept, but I know that losing some weight would take some stress off my joints – especially my knees and sacroiliac (SI) joints. [Important, since I have connective tissue issues with attendant osteoarthritis.]
Previously, I had posted about losing 40 pounds and keeping it off for over a year. But it slowly crept back on, and now I’ve gained it all back – plus two more pounds. I had good intentions to lose weight about a year-and-a-half ago, but it is ridiculously hard to do so when your chronic illnesses are not controlled/treated and properly medicated. I am embarrassed to say I didn’t follow through on the plan set out in that previous post.
So here we are: nascent 2021 and I am once again attempting to eat fewer empty calories and to lose weight. Specifically, I want to eat less processed sugar and to lose 5-10% of my body weight.
Crew Dog, onesickvet.com
Although it isn’t easy to overcome a sugar addiction, apart from my snacking we eat pretty much all homemade, from-scratch meals due to my allergies. So there isn’t much sugar in our meals – just in the sugary snacks I’ve been relying on for energy and mood boosts. Since I am an abstainer, it’s easier for me to go cold-turkey than to gradually reduce sugary snacks. I have abandoned my King-sized candy bar a day habit, and there are no more Christmas cookies left in the house. I am dealing with my sugar cravings by drinking hot tea with honey, and unsweetened flavored water.
An important thing to mention is that I have been trialing a supplement (quercetin), and it is giving me a lot more energy and cognitive ability (by stabilizing my mast cells). Otherwise I don’t know if I’d have the motivation and energy to try to change my behaviors while also dealing with chronic illness/disability.
Crew Dog, onesickvet.com
As far as losing weight, we know that “even a modest weight loss of 5 to 10 percent of your total body weight is likely to produce health benefits, such as improvements in blood pressure, blood cholesterol, and blood sugars.” If I lose 5% of my body weight, I will no longer be obese – I will only be “overweight.” I’d like to say I’m ambitious enough to lose more weight, so that I can once again fall within my “normal weight” category (according to BMI calculators), but chronic illness life is so unpredictable, with so many aspects beyond our control, that I am reluctant to overcommit. My goal is to lose 5% of my body weight in 2021. My stretch goal would be to lose 10% of my body weight in 2021.
I think modest goals are more realistic this year, so that’s my target: 1) lose 5-10% of my body weight; 2) stop using sugar as an energy crutch.
Tangentially, I am interested to see whether the reduction in sugar intake has any effect on my systemic inflammation, although the pandemic makes it much more difficult to get blood labs done.
Have you reduced or eliminated processed sugar? What worked for you and what didn’t? Please share in the comments.
Want to learn more about your eating habits? Check out previous posts in the Healthy Diet & Lifestyle series, such as this one.
