Not long ago, I had a chat with a trading psychologist. You may think a psychologist in trading is useful only to those who are in trouble, but the truth is, that's not the case. Everyone needs one, or the teaching of one to be precise, to be able to keep their emotions out of the game and handle gains and losses the right way.
However, this time it wasn't about trading, but about addictions, although trading can be highly addictive too. He asked me why I quit drinking coffee as it seemed really strange and incomprehensible to him as everyone drinks coffee these days. After enlightening him about the reasons behind my decision, he told me about his sugar challenge and his experience with it.
The truth is, the minute he mentioned his challenge, I knew I was going to do it myself as I've been abusing sugar lately and don't like where I am right now. We talked about the effects, which obviously is not a secret to anyone. Everyone with half a brain knows the damage you can do to your body with constant high sugar intake. So I decided to test my willpower and embark on a two week no sugar journey.
At the beginning of this year I had a post about what 2023 has taught me, in which I mentioned that previous experiences with positive results can help you in your next challenge and this is one of the cases where I could rely on previous experiences. I've managed to quit smoking and drinking coffee and those results are now fueling my willpower to do this one.
People usually choose Monday to start, or the 1st of the month. This is a psychological thing, to give themselves time to enjoy a little more, what they are about to quit. I'm not saying it's wrong (who am I to say that), but sometimes drastic decisions have better results. I also waited almost one week after the chat. Why? I guess I wasn't ready, mentally, for the challenge, but this morning I woke up and felt like it's the right time to start my challenge.
What Does Sugar Mean To Me?
This is the question I asked myself when I decided to quit drinking coffee. The first step towards your end goal is to be honest as otherwise you're just fooling yourself. So the answer was quite shocking, but it gave me a full picture of why I was doing what I was doing.
I did the same with sugar, to see where I stand. When someone says sugar, many think of sugar in a physical form, I mean the white, refined sugar you buy from the grocery store, but that's not the only sugar you can have. I don't consume much sugar in that form as I have my tea solely with lemon and the food I cook doesn't need sugar. However, I use sugar when I bake, but that is reduced to minimal.
The majority of my sugar intake is sweets I have. It's easy to look at sweets like a form of reward. It's a very dangerous path and that's why I am where I am now. I used to have something sweet after lunch and quite often after that as well.
How Do You Resist Temptation?
Some people need to isolate themselves from the products that can mean temptation to them, but I don't think that's an efficient way. In my opinion you need to learn to say no to things.
Right after I made my decision, I discovered a fruit yogurt in my fridge. My first reaction was like "I'm going to eat this and start after". But after 5 minutes of looking at the yogurt I decided against it and put it back in the fridge. The reason is my conscience. Trust me, I feel better knowing that I kept my promise to myself, did not give in with this fruit yogurt that is full of sugar.
This was only one of the many temptations I have at home. My pantry is full of jams and when I say full, I'm not saying 5 or 6 jams, more like 50 or 60, or even more. I make my own jams with home grown fruits, so I have plenty each year. There's also chocolate, pudding and so on. Am I going to throw them away? Nope! I have no intention to do that, but I'm not sure I'm going to eat them after my two week challenge ends either. Jams are not going to go out of warranty period and the chocolate still has 1 year. We'll see.
I'm pretty stubborn when it comes to challenges and I know I'm not going to break the pantry door down, or rush into the bakery, not even after my challenge ends.
At this point I think I need this exercise, to be able to adjust my sugar consumption in the future. Once I get used to living without sugar, it'll be easier to say no to those yummy temptations and have less.
For the sake of precision, I need to mention that I'm not going to look at labels with a magnifying glass as everything contains sugar these days, from mustard to pasta. I can't escape those unless I want to make my life really miserable. But I'm going to avoid sweets and products I know contain a lot of sugar. Fruits are also out of the question as those contain sugar as well.
Let's say how it goes. I'll be back after two weeks!
P.S. It's quite funny 😁. I opened my food photo folder to select a few photo with cakes I've baked and you can see eight yummy food photos in this post. How do I feel after looking at them? Perfectly fine, no temptation. So far so good I guess.