dear sugar, it's over

photo: Alan Valek

Hi my name is Bess and I am a sugar and carbohydrate addict.

It's true, there is such a thing and I'm it. Last summer, in an effort to deal with some health issues, I went on a super strict detox/diet eliminating every grain of sugar and sprinkle of white flour from my food. I was an absolute success (for 5 weeks) and felt amazing. At the time, I was working from home so it was easy to plan meals and have healthy snacks on hand for when I was hungry. Big Chuck was in Australia, so the food I was eating didn't have to taste great so long as it followed my strict guidelines. It was a big challenge to feel satisfied at the end of the meal and I would crave a giant slice of white bread smeared in Nutella almost 24 hours a day for the first couple weeks. During that time I also experienced sugar/white flour withdrawal (!), it exists - I googled it.

Needless to say, this diet wasn't meant to be permanent, but a way to recalibrate my system and find a healthier and sustainable way to eat everyday. The holidays as well as some delicious brownies have thrown me off track so, one of my new year's resolutions is to take back control of what I'm eating. I figure an 80/20 balance should be do-able. 80 percent of the time I follow the rules and 20 percent of the time I get to indulge. It becomes tricky when you go out to dinner, or a party or want to do anything that involves other people and food/alcohol (so those situations would fall into the 20%). I think that's fair, no?

Do you have any resolutions that you'd like to share? I'd love to hear them!

Happy Weekend everyone :)
Bess

Update: I don't mean to say that I don't eat any sugar or carbs - just not the bad stuff, ie, foods heavy in refined sugar/fructose etc... (I still eat fruit for example) and foods that are made from primarily white flour like, pastries, pasta, some breads. I'm not a crazy diet lady - I swear!