sugar freedom: day one

(click here for the first post in my sugar freedom story)

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April 30, Monday

[from my post on MOMYS]

Well, last night I had my first nightly potato (a half, actually, fried with onions).  Slept well, dreamy as usual, but woke up very sweaty on my chest and back! Is that related to the potato?!  Journaling my food for day two of Operation Sugar Elimination.

I'm also trying to think through what kind of sugar-free life I want to live, and how much label-checking I want to do.  At the beginning of the year, I went through The Lord's Table free online course and found it to be soooo good.  The course reminded me to turn to God for my emotional needs instead of turning to food, and to focus on God (worship, enjoying his presence, living in the Spirit) instead of focusing on food (reading labels, counting calories, demonizing certain food groups, etc.).  Now, I realize that in this thread we are talking about having a unique sensitivity to sugar, and it looks like I might have that, but I want to keep my focus on God's goodness in my life, learning to eat wisely so that I can live fully for God.

Off to start my day with a protein-y breakfast!

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So started the first week of sugar freedom!  My Farmer is joining me, much to my relief.  I can be pretty stubborn, but I don't know how long I could hold out for sugarfree living if he was eating chocolate-chip cookies in front of me.  Having him making changes alongside of me is an enormous encouragement!

We started on Sunday by having cottage cheese, whole wheat toast and almonds for breakfast instead of granola.  No sugar in the coffee.  We did opt, however, to keep our tradition of having a square (or two, or three) of chocolate with our after-breakfast coffee.  (Now you know - yes, we did eat chocolate for breakfast.)

The big change is going to be in the afternoons, when Sugar, Spice, Everything Nice, and Lil' Snip are all resting (or reading) upstairs, and I am ready for my traditional big sigh of relief accompanied by some good old chocolate.  Or cookies.  Or chips.  Or brownies.  (Now you know - yes, I was in the habit of snacking on mostly junk food many afternoons.)

The rest of the day looked pretty healthy:  almonds and lentil sprouts for a snack, ham and swiss on whole wheat for lunch, turkey frankfurter (I think "frankfurter" sounds healthier than "hot dog", don't you?), popcorn and apple for supper.

And then the potato for a bedtime snack.

According to my food journal, I didn't feel too extraordinary that first day, yet.  I felt heavy-eyed mid-morning (as usual) and needed Zyrtec to keep allergies at bay (I'm sure you don't want a list of my allergy symptoms, but I'm going to give it to you anyway, because it makes their disappearance look all the more spectacular:  sandy, gunky eyes; ferocious sneezing; itchy rash on face, neck, inner elbows & knees; congestion and a drippy nose).  

I did sleep well that night.  Is the potato helping??

[next post]

sugar freedom: the potato factor

April 29, Sunday

I got back on MOMYS to ask more questions about the potato part of Potatoes, Not Prozac.  It sounds like eliminating sugar provides the wellness benefits, but the potato is what really enables us sugar-junkies to stay away from sugar.  

The author, Kathleen DesMaisons, explains that sugar-sensitive people have a naturally low serotonin level (or possibly, people with a naturally low serotonin level are sensitive to sugar.  See her website and book for more of the science behind this).   What does serotonin have to do with sugar?  Here's an excerpt from the Radiant Recovery website:

Serotonin

When your serotonin is at an ideal level, you feel mellow and relaxed, hopeful and optimistic. You have a sense of being at peace with life. You are creative, thoughtful, and focused. You also have a lot of impulse control, which enables you to "just say no" more easily.

People who are sugar-sensitive have naturally low levels of serotonin. As a result, you do not have good impulse control. It is almost impossible for you to "just say no" because there is such a short time between your getting the urge to do something and then doing it. The insufficient serotonin level in your brain isn't giving you the time you need to make good decisions.

Besides being impulsive, you may feel depressed and find yourself craving foods such as bread, pasta or candy. This craving is the work of your brain, not your ego, because your brain knows that getting you to eat such foods will temporarily raise your serotonin level. Unfortunately, it will also have a devastating boomerang effect and cause all sorts of negative feelings. Having low serotonin can cause these feelings:

• Feeling depressed
• Acting impulsively
• Feeling blocked and scattered
• Having a short attention span
• Feeling suicidal
• Craving sweets and simple carbohydrates

To increase serotonin, Kathleen (affectionately referred to as "the potato lady") recommends eating a potato every night before bed, or about three hours after supper.

How can a potato help?!

According to the author (and again, please excuse my laywoman's language, and check out her website and book for the full scientific explanation), we need tryptophan to trigger serotonin production in the brain.  Tryptophan is one of the amino acids resulting from the breakdown of the proteins that we eat.  Because it is a smaller amino acid, it cannot so easily cross the blood-brain barrier, and gets left behind.  No serotonin.  

If, however, we eat plenty of protein during the day, and then have a potato before bed, the complex carbohydrate in the potato triggers insulin production, re-routes the larger amino acids to the muscles instead of to the brain, and clears the way for tiny tryptophan to enter the brain, produce serotonin, and release all of serotonin's calm, hopeful, creative, impulse-controlling benefits.  And you thought potatoes were bad for you!  (caveat:  Kathleen insists that the potato must be consumed with the skin.)

Hmmm ... it had been a few decades since I'd sat in any biology classes.  I'd have a lot to think about......

[next post]

sugar freedom: the set-up

I'm not sure that my previous posts entirely captured the emotional angst that I've been dealing with.  There have been tired teary days, full of self-pity and hopelessness, echoingly empty of healthy human connection.

I pounded on heaven's door.  No response.

I read the Bible.  Dry as toast.

I took Zyrtec and oil of oregano, and sneezed anyway.

I talked with friends in endless angst-y circles.

I read blogs and only saw glib perfection, victory, or at worst, decorating problems.

And then, my daughter left the freezer door open.  It's a little hard to see a connection, at first; I'll grant you that.  But when God sets about freeing one of His children, He uses whatever material is available to him, and what was available was a forgetful child and a mama just looking for a reason to be furious.

I went online to find out if we had to pitch the entire freezer's worth of food, or if something could be salvaged.  I didn't trust the general population - too cavalier.  I didn't trust the government - too litigation-minded.  Who could I turn to?  [or, "to whom could I turn" for my fellow English majors crippled by years of grammar study, still unable to end a sentence with a preposition.]

I turned to MOMYS, an online forum by and for mothers of little ones, who have answered many a question for me in the last few years, regarding sleep, nutrition, housework, discipline, or pretty much anything.  The MOMYS would know which foods to discard and which could safely be used.

Thus begins my journey out of a pit, to freedom .....

[He makes me lie down in green pastures . . . he leads me beside quiet waters . . . he guides me in paths of righteousness for his Name's sake . . .]

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April 28, Saturday

[from my post on MOMYS]

Wow.  I haven't been on MOMYS for months, and just popped in today to ask about the safety of refreezing partially-thawed frozen foods ... and saw this thread on the benefits* of giving up sugar.  I'm kind of thinking it was God-ordained.

I have had terrible seasonal allergies since I was little, and recently read that eliminating sugar can help.  Frankly, I didn't want to do it.  I've tried everything else and yup, really like my sugar.  But this thread ... I reserved the Potatoes,Not Prozacbook from my library, and am considering trying this.  Also attractive is the mental clarity issue - I've really been struggling with depression, anxiety, fear, muddy thinking, etc.  Would LOVE for that to be cleared up, and who couldn't use more energy.  Any effect on libido? (maybe that could get my husband on the bandwagon with me!)

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* benefits some of the MOMYS noticed when they cut sugar from their diets (excerpts from about a dozen different mothers on the sugar thread):

physical:

- no more headaches

- no headache after running errands and dropping off/picking up kids

- greatly reduced joint pain and arthritis

- no more joint pain

- can sleep through the night without tossing and turning, no longer have numbing in my hips

- blood sugar levels stay below 100 (with sugar I am a Type II diabetic)

- chronic yeast problems went away (yeast growth in my inner ear area causes swelling and dizziness when I have sugar)

- no more fatigue 

- more steady energy

- increased energy levels

- generally feeling better and less sluggish

- tons of energy

- no more weight gain
- acne clears up

- no sickness all winter

- my skin is so much nicer (less dark circles under my eyes)

- no more achiness

- less bloating, less gas, less need for nap

- fewer CRAVINGS

- lost 22 lbs since February (cut out most refined carbs)

- When I was a kid I had brain cancer. It was caught early and we used a naturopath who had us taking apricot kernel tincture, alfalfa tablets, and cutting out sugar and white flour. We used honey and occasionally fructose. My sister had leukemia and my mom had colon cancer too. My mom also had ulcerative colitis and had had that since she was 19 years old. We were all 100% healed. 

PMS

- fewer PMS symptoms (irritability, anxiety, sleeplessness, acne, spotting)

- stopped PMS chocolate cravings after about six months (I don't think about chocolate much at all now)

emotional:

- no mood swings

- no more depression or anxiety

- steady moods

mental:

- no more brain fog

- more calm 

- clearer thinking

- able to think clearly while shopping at Wal-Mart (usually feel weak, almost dizzy, after a while, and have to really focus on just getting the things on my list and getting out of there. All the blip noises, the commotion, the stuff everywhere, just seems to overwhelm me)

- less addicted to the internet (There appears to be a relationship between breaking other addictions and quitting sugar. Many testify that they never really kicked their alcohol and nicotine addiction until they also cut sugar and healed that part of their brain that feeds the addictions.)

pregnancy:

- no heartburn while pregnant

- no morning sickness while pregnant

- pregnant, I nap 2-3 hours every afternoon with sugar. Without sugar I can be up at 6:00 AM and to bed at 9:00 PM without a nap.

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If that doesn't whet your appetite (so to speak), well ... it sure did mine.  "No more brain fog"?!  "No more depression or anxiety"?!  No more headaches or fatigue, and "tons of energy"?!!  

Sign me UP!!

Meanwhile, the Farmer and I watched this video from 2011 on YouTube, only to see the local paper quote him a week later.  "Quantum consciousness", as my friend says.  Stay tuned for more on the Sugarfree Frontier!

[next post]

teaser

No time to write a long post, but I am feeling so different from the teary navel-gazer I was last time I posted that I just want to move that one on down the page.


Did I solve the mysteries of mid-life?

Did I learn the secret of connecting to others in a meaningful way?

Did I break the code on how to truly live trusting God?


Well ... yes, and ... no.  What I did do was give up sugar.  More on that, soon ... !

glimmers of hope

Sometimes, when you're too weak to stand, when you're too weak even to ask for help, friends will come and put your arms around their shoulders and lift you up.


Those are God's shoulders.


Sometimes, when you're too tired to keep back the tears, and they fall to your shame, friends will see, and wipe them for you, with their own hands.


Those are God's hands.


Sometimes, when your own heart is too weary to know the way, friends will beg God on your behalf, pouring their hearts into their prayers.


That is God's heart.

"For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them.  As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness.  

"I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy.  I will shepherd the flock with justice.  I will make a covenant of peace with them and rid the land of savage beasts so that they may live in the wilderness and sleep in the forests in safety.  

"I will make them and the places surrounding my hill a blessing.  I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing."  (from Ezekiel 34)

The quality of mercy is not strain'd,

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven

Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:

It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.

(Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice)

For [God] says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,  and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”  It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.               (Romans 9:15-16)

[words from an old hymn I remember my mother singing in church]

There shall be showers of blessing:  

This is the promise of love.

There shall be seasons refreshing,

Sent from the Savior above.

There shall be showers of blessing;

Send them upon us, O Lord.

Grant to us now a refreshing;

Come and now honor Your Word.

There shall be showers of blessing; 

O that today they might fall,

Now as to God we're confessing,

Now as on Jesus we call!

Showers of blessing,

Showers of blessing we need.

Mercydrops round us are falling,

But for the showers we plead.

(Daniel W. Whittle)

"Mercydrops 'round us are falling, but for the showers we plead ..."