I did my five days and here are some things I learned in those five days:
1. My favorite Lara bar, the chocolate chip cookie dough one, has added sugar in it. (I should have seen that one coming.)
2. I ate waaaaaaay too much fruit… there was nothing moderate about it.
3. I’m an extremist, according to my mom, who also went sugarless, because I wouldn’t let her have her Cheerios since there was 1 gram of sugar in it. (Sugar was clearly written on the ingredients list… a rule is a rule mom!) She didn’t like that.
4. I don’t normally eat too many things with added sugar in it apparently.And there you have it. It was a pretty easy five days and since it was easy, there was of course no change in any of my measurements (hips, waist or bellybutton region). I would show you a photo of my belly again but what would be the point… it looks exactly the same. (Consider yourself lucky!)
I realize that my lack of a slimmer waistline could be due, in part, to the fact that while added sugar was not on the menu, these items were (all of which I ate too much of I think): Fruit (watermelon mostly), cheese (lots of fresh mozzarella), refined carbs (I found only italian bread not to have sugar in the ingredients list), and nuts. (And maybe some wine. I hate that I’m so honest.)
Clearly I need to revamp my eating a tad as I see added sugar isn’t really my issue. (Maybe if I took it easy on the fruit and cheese.. and wine… then I could get somewhere in lessening the mass of belly flesh but that seems too likely of an answer and not nearly as fun experimentally speaking.) Maybe going gluten-free would be a good experiment. I’m pretty sure I can forego pasta, crackers, bagels, bread, flour, pizza, cake, chicken cutlets, waffles, beer, bologna (do people still eat that stuff?), candy, cold cuts, gum, ice cream, soy sauce, root beer, pudding, blue cheese, couscous… I can’t believe this list… teriyaki sauce, cereal, graham crackers, melba toast, muffins, pretzels, dumplings, croissants… it keeps going… pancakes, fried veggies, pastries, tabbouleh, fruit fillings, custards and salad dressing for five days. Right? (Was it just me or did anyone else notice that fruit, cheese and wine weren’t on that list?! Maybe I already am gluten-free?)
One thing I can say for sure is that my added sugar experiment wasn’t a total bust. I did get my mom to eat less sugar (we had a peanut butter and pear sandwich the other day and while we didn’t love it, we decided it was juicy and guilt-free), and I no longer take sugar in my coffee so yeah!
One small change at a time. That’s the way to do things.
