Confession Number 1: Today I had a candy bar, sugary cereal, skittles, a Little Debbie cake, dried mangoes, jelly beans (thanks Gym Buddy Mike!), and teddy grahams. Oh yeah, and a giant chewy SweeTart.
I may as well have main-lined the sugar and saved my teeth the dentistry. In my defense the teddy grahams were force-fed to me by my very persuasive toddler. Okay, so that was no defense.
Confession Number 2: Due to a very entertaining out-of-town friend, I got 4 hours hours of sleep last night.
Exhaustion + abundant simple carbs = Girlfriend in a Sugar Coma (I know, I know, it’s serious… Extra candy corn if you are old enough to appreciate The Smiths!).
Su-su-sugar
My earliest recollection of being a total sugar junkie was back in Kindergarten when I listed “popcorn and SweeTarts” as my favorite 
dinner. Yes, dinner. That progressed to a full-blown love affair with every sugared confection I came across. Willy Wonka was my dream date. Who knows the magic that could have happened if lickable wallpaper had ever come to fruition.
Many time we have broken up, Sugar and I. But I keep taking him back. I can’t resist his sweet talking. And sadly, now there are children involved. It isn’t pretty. Ex-Sugar makes Denise Richards look reasonable.
I feel so much better when I’m not on the bastard spawn of cane juice and bone char (yes, that’s how they make sugar). My mood is more stable, I have energy, clear(er) thinking and a slimmer waistline. So what is it that keeps this Pamela stuck to her Tommy Lee?
I’m a Dope for Dopamine
There’s a reason why we crave it when we’re down, why it is present at every party and why men bring boxes of it when they are trying to get back into our good graces – the simple science is that sugar is a short-term mood lifter. It operates on our dopamanine pathway, the same one worked on by SSRI anti-depressants. So it isn’t just your imagination that chocolate makes you feel better.
The only problem is that the feeling doesn’t last and then not only do you have to deal with the “lifetime on your hips” but you’ve got a mean sugar crash sucking all the fun out of your hip shaking.
How to deal? My fave magazine tip is things like “just have one really decadent bite of truffle. That will be enough to satisfy your craving.” Have these people ever met a really decadent truffle?? If one bite was enough to sate then Godiva wouldn’t be charging $30/lb and having people stealing whole sample trays. Now one bite of poo… yep, that would probably do it for me.
Moderation vs. Extremism
There are two schools of thought in how to deal with the white satan. Groups like Sugar Busters and followers of the Primal Diet, Jillian Michaels and many low-carb diets espouse the addiction theory: sugar is a drug that you become physiologically addicted to and unless you go all AA on it then you will remain forever in its grip. These folk avoid the s word in all its varieties. 
Eventually, so they say, you will stop craving sugar and won’t even miss it.
The second idea is the one touted by the Intuitive Eaters and Skinny Bitches (the book, not Lindsay Lohan): make your peace with sugar and it will lose its allure. Your body only craves it because it knows it isn’t supposed to have it. Give yourself permission to eat and eventually, so they say, you will start craving healthy food and stop obsessing about the jellies in your belly.
Same end, entirely different means.
My Experiment
You know I’ve tried both ways. (Not in the same day – that’s just called Bineging and Restricting followed up with guilt – otherwise known as The American Woman’s Diet.) First up was Intuitive Eating because, face it, that one just sounds like way more fun. I read the book and completely loved it. I started with eating an entire bag of jelly beans, seeing as they are the favorite of my forbidden foods. It didn’t end well. You can read the whole story here but my basic conclusion was that there are physiologic changes occurring in my body that the moderation group didn’t take into account. (Either that or I’ve just got an addictive personality. Which is probably true too. ) The chemistry combined with the endless variety in our modern eating society spelled death to sugar moderation, at least for me.
So then a couple of years ago, I finally decided that sugar and I were done. I was sick of the roller coaster and I figured if I could just white-knuckle it for a month or two (21 days makes a habit! Or a hobbit. Hard to remember when you’re that sugar starved.) then I’d be in the clear and never look at a Candy Apple Jelly Belly with a gleam in my eye again.
I set the experiment from October 30th to December 30th, just to be safe. 60 days that encompassed Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hannukah AND Christmas. And I did it. For real. Not a bite of cookie or a nibble of candy bar or a sip of nog. I didn’t even lick the frosting off my fingers as I made star cakes for playgroup.
I’d tell you how I did it except I don’t really remember. Those were dark days. The cravings never went away. It was just as hard avoiding the dessert buffet at the company Christmas party as it was not snitching my kid’s Halloween candy 60 days earlier. Finally on New Year’s Eve I said “screw it” and had some pie.
Whoooooeeee! It was like the first hit off a crack pipe (okay, I have never tried crack – or any other illegal drug – but I imagine that this is what it would feel like). My whole body just relaxed and I felt good. Not just good. Awesome. And we vowed to never be parted again. My friends were much relieved as I’d been skeeving them out by staring at their plates and drooling for the previous two months.
This uneasy peace is where I am now. I eat sugar. Sometimes, especially when I’m tired, I binge on sugar. I’m not so great with moderation in anything and that certainly applies here. The above methods work for some people. Alyssa has turned her life around with Intuitive Eating while Mark Sisson manages to abstain quite happily. Lean & Hungry fitness is in the midst of his own sugar experiment right now and was just informed that it actually takes 18 months (!!!) of cold turkey – both literally and figuratively- to kick sugar.
And me? Well, at least I got a SweeTart today.
These are the best jelly beans known to mankind. Just in case anyone was wondering how to bribe me. Photo credit: Candy Blog
I thought it sounded familiar but I liked it both times and I think you should overdose on jelly bellies today just to make it a little more accurate 🙂
It may be old, but it’s still hilarious! You’ve got a real gift Charlotte.
This is good information. I’d read other brave souls who’d written that it took them a few weeks to get sugar out of their system. I think this is one of those scenarios where truth is relative. In other words, It Depends.
Good post!
Surprisingly enough, sugar is one of those things I can moderate. I can eat just one truffle (I’ll skip the poo, thanks). However, on an empty stomach, sugar (even fruit) has strange reactions, whether it’s crashing blood sugar or false hunger, etc. I had to learn my own way with intuitive eating, when I first read the book, I kept trying to legalize potato chips, which I thought meant I had to have them at hand and not eat them. I gained some weight with this approach, before I tossed it aside (for years). Now I interpret it to mean that I can eat a few chips if I run into them at a party, but don’t have to have them at home. I accept my weaknesses, of which there are many, so they don’t bite me in the butt.
Have you read Sugar Blues by William Dufty? My mom keeps recommending it. I think you’d find it interesting.
I think if you want to eliminate sugar it’s not enough to just cut it out– what you are eating in it’s place makes a big difference too. Getting enough protein is very important. If you eat any artificially sweetened stuff it makes you crave sugar as well. Not enough fiber/whole grains. Not enough of B-vitamins and some minerals. All of these play a role in the physiological aspect of sugar cravings– and that doesn’t even begin to address the emotional aspects.
YAY FOR THE GREATEST HITS.
YAY FOR TAKING CARE OF CHARLOTTE.
(yay for sugar. I try to limit how much I eat because a little entirely makes me want moremoremore but Im like you. If I cut it out entirely all Id think about would be CANDY CORN)
Great post, and definitely worth recycling.
I eat sugar because it brings me great pleasure! Yeah, it’s hard to be moderate, but mostly I manage. Life is too short for me to just say a blanket “no” to a simple pleasure like a chocolate chip cookie. However, I totally understand why others would find a rigid “no sugar” policy to be less hassle that the moderation approach.
On the other hand, intuitive eating would totally not work for me either, I’m sure of it. I don’t think the ONLY reason we crave excessive amounts of sugar is because it’s been forbidden. I do need to set limits or I’d eat it all the time.
I am a total sugar addict! Dark Chocolate is my big favorite, anyone who says” just eat one”…hah! I tried giving candy/chocolate up for lent this year. It did not go well.
I think I have found (through my own experimentation) that if I find a chocolate (or other) yummy that has a sugar content of below 10- 11g, I usually do not descend into a sugar crazy eat-everything- in-sight coma.
But it has to be REAL sugar. There is no safe level of high fructose corn syrup for me, it sets me off on a sugar binge regardless. That stuff is crack!
This was my first time reading this! 🙂 I’d read it again and again though, because I’ve been through all of this. I’ve tried kicking the habit in so many ways, but it makes me happy!! (well it’s temporary Instant gratification anyway…)
Very interesting!!
I don’t eat much sugar, but it slips in here and there, as it’s in so many food products. Have you ever tried Chromium Picolinate? I take it every day. It may stabilize blood sugar.
Even if its a rerun, its a good topic. 🙂
I am a sugar-holic! I’ve generally made my peace with it, and try to fit my sugar into my generally healthy diet.
Breakfast is greek yogurt with fruit, honey, and Kashi. Sweet, but also somewhat well balanced- there’s sugar (and other carbs), fiber, vitamins, fat, and protein. I find if I can avoid eating sugar by itself, I don’t crash like I would if I ate a toaster strudel (divine junk food that it is). My afternoon snack is also always a sweet. I am not the kind of person who can dip veggies in hummus and call it a snack. I usually do an energy bar, a peanut butter banana, or apples and cheese.
And if I’m craving it, I will let myself have a small dessert after dinner- lately that’s been a couple dark chocolate dove eggs, but I’m also likely to forgo the dessert in favor of a glass of wine. I try not to let myself have both on the same night.
Becky – Actually I’ve been doing pretty good with the sugar lately; I don’t want to jinx it!
aboyn3girls – thanks:)
Merry – And yet people are constantly trying to prescribe the one “right” diet for everyone. It boggles.
justjuliebean – Yeah, if it’s not sugar, it’s something! It seems like everyone has a food achilles heel of some sort. Good for you for figuring out how to manage yourS!
Maggie- Haven't even heard of it! But it's on my list now. Tks!
Sabrina – So true about the emotional aspects! And during my experiment, I didn't use artificial sweeteners either & I did make sure to eat lots of whole grains & protein!
Miz – THanks, girl!
Crabby – So true. Given the choice between moderation and abstinence I think I'll keep trying for moderation!
bjbella – I agree – if you’re going to eat it, eat the real deal! Dark chocolate is divine! (And better for me than jelly beans anyhow…)
shivers – Glad I’m not the only one on the roller coaster! Where you been girl?
Dr. J – as always, you are a model for the rest of us!
Gentlewoman – I love your either/or approach. Very sensible!
Recycling is cool!!!!
I also tried (not very hard) to give up sugar. Once. Yeah, didn’t work. And I agree with justjuliebean that sometimes, with IE, you just gotta let some things go and not have them around all the time. (Especially since the kids kept breaking into potato chip stash!)
I too have a “sweet tooth” but if I ma eating regular meals (4-5 a day) of fresh, whole foods there is no thoughts about getting all sugared up. Not hungry enough for a snack (don’t do snacks too often, make them meals instead) so—-that works well. Someone made a great point. Cutting simple, processed, refined sugars out is one thing BUT what are you replacing them with?
My 2 cents and experience? Wwell—-that said I DO enjoy cookies,(but it helps me to remember the consequences of my actions too. All the exercise in the world will not reverse the internal effects of a diet high in simple, processed, refined sugars. Especially when you consider the make up of the food that it is delivered with. That kind of stuff wreaks havoc on your GI tract too. Long term it is not pretty. Good luck to everyone and there personal struggles/triumphs!
If I never read it, it’s new to me. Great idea!
(turning around slowly to see if I have blogger butt)
Hey, I just read this! 🙂 Of course I’ve been perusing the archives since finding your site a few weeks ago, so that may be why!
I have had to give up sugar completely… and am about 98% successful. Why? Well… intestinal Candida. Candida crusei if my lab tests are to be believed. Basically the candida in your gut (which everyone has) overtakes the good bacteria. Candida lives off of sugar… and carbs (which turn to sugar). And let me tell you when it gets off balance it STINKS! Throws off the whole digestive system– and bloating like I’m 9 months pregnant… and that is not sexy. Srsly.
I have almost no willpower though. At home I’m fine because I don’t have it in the house. Even going out to dinner I can usually hang, but at work when I’m trapped in the office with a tray of danishes nearby… all day… every time I walk by. ACK! A girl can only take so much.
I wish I could go with moderation. And someday I most likely will. But for now until the sytem is back in order… not so much.
I’ve read all your archives and I didn’t even remember this one. Great post!
I can only remember 2 periods of my life where I really craved sugar – when I was little and right now. Oddly enough, when I’m super active, it seems that I crave sugar. I have to have a little desert in the form of a hershey kiss, a pinch of chocolate chips, a few jelly beans, etc. A year ago, I’d be reaching for the salty snacks.
I’m going to chalk it up to the fact that my body is processing things differently now that I’m doing a ridiculous amount of running. That’s it. Yep!
Let me start by saying I now really want to try the “flying feet of fury” as gummy candies are my favorite way to curb my sugar cravings. I haven’t ever spotted those around here though. The gummy Mario’s expensive, but the novelty if you’re in a group is totally worth it, but I digress…
My name is Chelsea and I am a sugar addict. I don’t even like chocolate, but if its available when I’m fiending for a Sour JuJube it’ll be consumed before I have time to decide if it’s worth it. I know running can give me increased dophamine levels, but it doesn’t have the same siren song.
I’m trying to curb this and stop reaching for the candy drawer (Yes, I have a whole drawer dedicated to my “treats”) when I am a tired or feel like celebrating. I’ve started planning out my meals and appealing to my OCD side in order not to budge from that list. *fingers crossed*
Since I am fairly new to your site, this was a new posy to me. I know people may look at my pics & think that I never eat anything bad for me & I cut out all sugar & stuff but that is not to be. I do eat very healthy most of the time but I just don't fret over the cookie here & there, the love of candy corn like MizFit ( Halloween is a tough time for me & then they started making it for other holidays!!), the flavor in a coffee when I am out & about, or just anything else I decide to eat. I work out very hard so I just think I deserve it when I decide to eat something. I am one that can portion & stop.. it takes a lot of willpower but I can do it even with candy corn. Same with HFCS. I avoid it in all possible situations but if it happens to be in something I eat, so be it because it is very far & few between. It is just too stressful to be perfect all the time! Life is too short too!
Oh my gosh! This was my first time to read and you are so funny. But this is also so true, and right along the lines of what I was thinking about AFTER I wrote my blog this morning. This will help me with my follow-up entry!
um, bone char?
“Enjoy one decadent truffle” hahahahahahahha! (slurping chocolate ice cream from the carton as I type.)
If I may be so evil – my favorite perfume shop online has a scent that is heavily inspired by jellybeans. =]
http://www.possets.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=8&products_id=284&zenid=c91a8a0ab4caa91c5ea9f9567d7799b3
*enable, enable*
Dieting doesn’t mean that you have to starve yourself inorder for you to lose fat.
Still making my way through the archives. 🙂 You and I are very much alike in the sugar dept….at least the you from 2 years ago. I have tried staying away from it. My waist was nice and trim, but it was a FIGHT to stay away from the sugar. There are times when I say skip it and give in. That is how it’s been since August. I tell myself that I will eat only a little, then half a bag of candy corn later and I feel the guilt that you talk about. Heavy sigh.
I wish I could say I’ve got it all figured out 2 years later but… I’m pretty much still locked into my love/hate relationship with sugar. (um, eating caramel corn right now actually). I feel better without it. I wish I could ditch it forever. But that mentality leads me to binge so now I try to just go with what I’m craving and try not to eat 20 servings;) I wish there was a magic bullet for this!
ME TOO! A sugar flavored magic bullet. 😉
FWIW, last night I took disordered eating self tests..keeping in mind that they probably aren’t very accurate..but the three I took put me in a high risk category. Yikes! What do you think of those tests?
I’ve taken most all those tests and while I don’t think they’re a diagnostic tool, I do think they’re useful for identifying unhealthy thought patterns. I’m not sure how much you know about my history but I’ve had quite a few problems with eating disorders (to say the least) and being on this side (i.e. recovering) I gotta say that it’s better to be safe. What I’m trying to say – gently – is that I think this is something you should talk to a professional about. At the very least, he/she could help make sure that ED thoughts don’t go any farther:)
I started reading your archives as far back as I could go..so I do know about your history. I will discuss this issue with my husband. Thanks!
orthomol Vitamin overdose symptoms it agree, rather useful phrase