The Universe Wants Me to Write

I know, I know you've been waiting with bated breath, waiting to find out how my week of adding fruits and veggies went. No, no, don't deny it. I saw you there, sitting on the edge of your seat. The answer? Good and bad.

Good: Eating these lovelies with every meal means you have less room for the unhealthy stuff and in general after a meal with fruits/veggies, I felt better. It also made me more conscious of my food choices and realize how many meals I just don't include something like this without even realizing it. If you'd asked me a week ago, I would have said I was getting my 3-5 servings a day no problem. Wrong! And I maintain my prediction from last week: it is definitely easier to add something to a meal than to subtract.

Bad: There wasn't really anything bad about eating the fruits and vegetables themselves, but something is still wrong. Because I'm a writer and enjoy being organized, I kept a food journal last week to track my progress. I've found writing about something helps me understand it better. Last Wednesday, for reasons I didn't understand at the time, I inexplicably became depressed. It was in the evening, right after playing racquetball, and suddenly it hit me. Crippling and overwhelming. I couldn't make simple decisions. Nothing felt right. I woke up the next morning feeling more of the same. I had no energy or motivation.

Because I know how much food affects me (I like to joke that I'm just naturally sensitive...to food, caffeine, alcohol, the sun...you name it, I seem to have stronger reactions than most people), I looked back through my food journal and saw it there. It could have been writing in glittering letters. It seemed so obvious. Wednesday afternoon, sugar binge.

Why is sugar eating so hard to control? I know most people reading this fall into two major camps, those that think, "It's not...you just stop eating sugar," and the others, like me, who think, "I have no idea, but it is, it really is." Eating bad food is like a compulsion. If I get really hungry, it's like someone has stripped away all reason. You just can't make rational decisions any more.

Life is funny sometimes. We seek out ways to understand the world around us. I was feeling frustrated by the pull sugar had over me and absentmindedly looking at my mom's many books on nutrition (because she, like me, likes to read about nutrition to find motivation) as I sorted my laundry. They just happened to be at my eye level and I noticed a book called The Sugar Addict's Total Recovery Program. Of course I pulled it right off the shelf. And I've been reading it. Mostly this weekend. Although my critical mind is wary of "programs" to follow, I also know that sugar detox is in my future.

When I was a vegan a few years ago, I learned that detox is a great way to get cravings out of your system. You don't have to give up sugar forever. That isn't the point. The point is to retrain your body to have better habits and in the process eliminate your cravings.

So I started viewing this book as a method to follow for my sugar detox. Because I can't quit cold turkey. I've tried, and I just can't seem to last more than a couple days. And I never could figure out why that was. Other people I know seemed to have much more success, where I would be left feeling like an addict, unable to give it up.

My favorite nugget that stood out in the book: people with low serotonin levels tend to feel depressed and helpless, and often sugar addicts have naturally low serotonin levels. Often these people are prescribed anti-depressants, but in many cases these levels can be fixed with food. Never having been a fan of taking medication, I liked the idea of changing my outlook with food. I don't want you to get the impression that I'm a depressed person. I'm generally very happy. But I'll have moments throughout my day where the food I eat changes my mood (ups and downs) so drastically, and I don't like the roller coaster.

So, my ultimate goal is to detox from sugar. I'm glad that what I've been reading recognizes how hard this is.

The First Step: eat protein with breakfast.
Sound's simple. Why? The ultimate goal is to eat protein with every meal, but to start the habit with breakfast. Many of us don't eat breakfast right away in the morning, and it helps to have the protein right away. It gives you energy and provides you with the amino acid tryptophan, which, once it crosses the blood-brain barrier, your brain uses to manufacture...serotonin.

There are more (simple) steps involved later in the process to help your brain with this manufacturing process, but it starts with getting the protein into your body in the first place. What encourages me about this plan is that it also wants you to eat complex carbohydrates and fruits and vegetables. It is NOT a high protein diet. When you get to the stage of eating protein with every meal, you're eating about half your body weight in grams of protein (aka if you weigh 150, you'd eat 75 grams of protein a day). This is about 20 grams more than the recommended amount. Because I've read so much about adverse affects of getting too much protein, I'm not going to go overboard. I want to listen to my body as I come to that threshold, which brings me to the best part about this plan, which is the next step...

The Second Step: Keeping a journal
That's right, I'm being encouraged to keep a food journal. This is my favorite part about this plan. She's actively encouraging you to think for yourself and pay attention to your body. And this is also a step I personally should have no problem with.

In these early stages, she doesn't have you cut out sugar. She recommends that if you were planning on having a candy bar, you can have it, but try having it with your meal instead of a snack later. As a sugar addict, I still want to give it up. But I don't want to set myself up to fail.

Goals this Week: keep eating 3-5 servings of fruits and veggies a day, eat breakfast (which will include protein) within an hour of getting up, and keep a food journal. Oh, and keep working out of course! This is such an energy and mood elevator.

Okay, feedback? Thoughts? Until next week :)