what I've learned over the past 18 days

The "No Sugar" challenge ends on Friday. What have I learned? Nothing. Everything.

The week before the challenge started, I warned my family and colleagues that I'd be a raving b*tch for the next 21 days. "Please don't take it personally", I told them. But I wasn't. I wasn't even missing sugar laden foods. I did discover that waffles without sugar are gross, but not non-eatable.

And that there's a reason peanut butter and jelly go together. But was I jonesing for a PB&J? No. Not at all. That was not the case two years ago when I was taming the soda-beast.

I cook a lot from scratch, and shop at the pop-up farmers markets, so hidden sugar is not as big of a problem as I thought it would be. But checking the sugar content takes two more seconds after checking the salt content. No biggie. Though I wonder what the safe percentage is. For sodium I try to keep it under 5%, but no higher than 10% on processed food. On the Livestrong website I read 300 grams of added sugar a day. That isn't much, I don't think. If I did the math right that's 1.5% daily in a 2000 calorie diet.

I have learned that I am not addicted to sugar. Hallelujah. Just food in general. Sh*t. I think I had that epiphany before. But I ignore it. I blame other things. There-in lies the problem. Classic addictive personality. Blame everything but the true cause. You.

Why am I surprised? Addictive personalities run in my family. We are a family of drunks—my dad, my brother, two sisters… Food is my drug of choice. I don't eat to sustain. I eat because I'm bored. Or stressed. Or happy. Or sad. or pissed. Clearly I'm an emotional eater. But even worse, I eat until there is nothing left. If you gave me 5 M&M's I'd eat them and be happy. But if you put an entire pound bag in front of me. I'd eat them all. Not at once. But over the course of the day. I don't eat till I'm full. I eat till it's gone.

I believe, intellectually anyway, of the "everything in moderation style of eating".  80% good food / 20% not so good. There is little I won't eat, and even less that I will try, at least once. (Malyasian food Saturday!) Growing up I was 40 pounds underweight. Now I'm 80 or so overweight. I have a basic knowledge of nutrition. I studied vegetarian and even vegan diets and can cook (poorly, mind you) for any food situation that crops up. I learned as a child to can and freeze and eat fresh. My mother made Hamburger Helper once. Boxed food was expensive and we didn't have money. But we did have lots of carbs. They filled you up. And veggies and a salad every night. Okay, it was slathered with dressing, but that's beside the point. Really not much different than the "My Plate" guide lines. But our protein was always meat.

Sorry, I tend to go off track. Never can figure out how to weave in the back story.

Back to the topic at hand. How did this no sugar-challenge effect me. Snacking. I pretty much had to stopped snacking. There was nothing in the vending machine I could eat. I drank huge amounts of water. Right now it has pomegranate seeds in it. Fruit, floating in your water makes it seem more special. I'm also drinking apple cider because it's in season. And even bought orange juice for the first time in forever.

I am eating much more fat. Which is worse, fat or sugar? I had pretty much given up eating bread with butter on it, instead subbing cinnamon sugar or jam. Now I'm back to butter. Whenever I try and overhaul my eating lifestyle, breakfast is always trouble. Reality check here. Cooking breakfast during the week, and leaving for work at 6:30 am is not happening.

The doctor said I gained weight. I was hoping to lose. I am clearly eating less. In an effort to avoid sugar, am I eating worse?

Was I 100% sugar free during the 21-Day challenge. Nope. But I was more than 90%. I ate fruit tart on Thanksgiving. I had ice cream one night out of habit, not hunger. There were other minor slips. But it is what it is. I did it.

The question is now, can I continue to restrict, not eliminate, sugar? Diabetes runs in this family also.