Why a No-Sugar Month?

A few days before Christmas, I posted something on Instagram about how Adam and I had decided to take a break from sugar for a month.  I got a lot of comments about how brave I was, and how I was crazy for doing it during the holidays.  These are potentially both true, because it is the most sweet saturated time of the year, and yet, it really just felt like the thing that needed to happen.

We have talked about doing no sugar before, and were planning on doing a month of no sugar right before Fox was born, but sadly it only lasted for 4 days, until he was born, and then I promptly decided that hospital chocolate milk would be the perfect fix for a post-delivery mamma and out the window it went.

But this time, I was pretty serious about it.  In the weeks leading up to Christmas, I did a ton of posts about desserts (and ate the delicious desserts after photographing them), attended parties, and generally ate a ton of junk (specifically sweet junk).

Also, Adam was out of town a few times before Christmas, and I tend to eat more junk when he isn't home, so I ended up eating tons of sweets.  Seriously, it was sick (although, somehow, I managed to not get sick).

I was pretty headachy most days, hadn't been sleeping well, and just generally felt lousy.  I figured it was because of the sugar, but it seemed like such an awful plunge to take right before Christmas.

Then, Merrick posted on Instagram that she was doing a no-sugar holiday (although I think her challenge ended before Christmas), and my brother-in-law sent this article to the family about how sugar is killing us, and I felt like the universe was speaking directly to me, telling me that it had to go.

So, a few days before Christmas, Adam and I stopped eating sugar.

What does that mean for us?

We discussed this in detail, and decided that we would be avoiding all purposefully sugary things.  That means no desserts, no muffins, no sweet breads, no jams, honeys or other sweeteners on bread, bagels and other foods, and no sugary drinks (which we basically never consume anyway).

We are about a week in, and I am loving it.  I did have one small dessert on Christmas night (Adam and I both had a small treat), but other than that, I have been very good and skipped all things sugary.

Some of the immediate benefits include no sugar highs and crashes, sleeping a bit better (I am also trying to cut back on my screen time in the evening, which will hopefully help as well), and a lack of snacking.  I have been amazed at how often I was grazing in the kitchen looking for a sweet snack.  Now that I am skipping them, I am snacking a lot less often.  I also have felt a lot of mental clarity, and less fuzziness/headaches.  Basically it is awesome!

I am actually considering doing an entire year of almost no-sugar in 2017.  I do love the occasional dessert, so I think doing a dessert one time per month would be a nice break, but other than that, skipping all refined sugar, and using natural sweeteners sparingly.

Here are a few interesting articles about sugar, if you are thinking you might need a similar break:

CNN article about how bad sugar is for us

Sugar Killing Us Sweetly

NYT Sugar Really bad for you?

And a little video about sugar:

Sugar is Killing us

Let me know if you have questions about our no-sugar challenge or whatever else!  I would be happy to answer them!  Happy Wednesday!