Sugar...

So, I've been researching diets. Again.  Screw anything that tells me to do anything unbalanced, or tells me that I can never eat carbs, or that I can't eat fruit.  Screw something that tells me I need to eat every 3 hours because I've tried and I just can't.

Anyway, I cam across this: The Perfect 10 Diet. http://www.perfect10diet.com/ Honestly, I only stumbled onto it because it was free on my Kindle.  But it makes sense.  I've always thought that processed food is crap for you, and that it makes sense that we should only eat things that were available 100 years ago. This diet is more about balancing your hormones which I've long thought were out of whack with me.  

One thing I find interesting is that it first tells you to quit sugar, which is a no brainer.  Our bodies aren't designed to process sugar so it makes sense that it messes up your hormones.  Then it tells you to quit low-fat, or fat-free products.  Huh? This goes against everything I've been told in the past, but it makes sense since after looking at all the "fat-free" stuff in my pantry and fridge, the second or third ingredient is always a sugar product, or some chemical I can't pronounce.  Hmm...it suddenly makes sense. 100 years ago food wasn't filled with fat-free ingredients, chemicals and high fructose corn syrup.  So I'm starting to think the natural fat (yes, butter) makes sense as long as you don't overdo it, or if you don't exercise.  I have no issues exercising.  So I'll stick to butter, eggs and olive oil instead of margarine, egg beaters and vegetable oil.  

He also talks about enriched flour, so I'll switch full time to brown rice, whole grain bread (which I usually do anyhow, but I took a closer look and the stuff I've been using has more added sugars that I would want.  So I just need to switch brands.  No biggie), and whole grain pasta. So really it's not a big change, but cutting out sugar will be tough.

Since I'm heading out of town this weekend and I fully plan on indulging on a few drinks I'll start phase one when I get home next week, but I've already started the sugar fast...and I'm not going to lie - it's been half a day and I can fully feel the withdrawal.  It really is an addiction! Phase one is no sugar (natural sugars from fruit is fine), and no grains like rice, pasta, bread and potatoes for now.  It lasts three weeks.  Then in phase two you slowly reintegrate the carbs by maybe having one serving of a healthy grain a day.  As I say, the sugar will be hard, and not having a grain with dinner will be super hard, but really the modifications aren't too hard and I can't wait to see how I'll feel.

So today I had scrambled eggs with peppers, tomatoes and cucumber, and fresh strawberries and blueberries on the side.  And for lunch I had my morning smoothie with fresh squeezed orange juice instead of the honey.  I'm craving sugar, so I just go and brush my teeth instead.