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Hi (if anyone is here LOL)
I posted recently about a fructose/sugar free experiment I did to see if that would promote some weight loss (it did a little, but not enough to justify the blandness and boredom of a fructose free diet!).
Anyway, since I stopped that nonsense, I have been much more relaxed about sugar in the last week or so than I have been for years.
After coming off that fructose free experiment, I decided to just eat as much sugar as I wanted to see what would happen (still not eating a lot as I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, nothing a Peatarian would write home about!). I’ve been doing that for about a week, and have found a couple of interesting things:
1. Cane sugar seems to give me headaches, but honey, dates, dextrose, and molasses don’t, weirdly.
2. I didn’t regain the weight I lost from the 4 weeks of no sugar.
3. I seem to have actually lost some belly fat since adding sugar back in, that was unexpected.
4. I’m like a furnace at night thesedays, reminds me of when I was pregnant and had to sleep with windows open in February!
Today I’ve had lots of honey and a couple of handfuls of dates, feeling good and no headaches :) (not sure what it is about cane sugar that is headache inducing, but I can happily get sugar other ways).
Anyone else want to tell me good things about sugar? Help undo the anti sugar/fructose brainwashing! :D
I’m still here! :)
I gave up my fear of sugar back when I first read Eat4Heat… if I get cold, I have a pot of cocoa-honey-coconut oil that I can take a spoonful of. Works like a charm. :) …now, I’m also following Haylie Pomroy’s FMD plan… loosely….
On Haylie’s “confuse to lose” plan, Monday and Tuesday are (by my interpretation) all-you-can-eat fruit days. That doesn’t turn into a lot for me… but it does include a few dates and lots of berries or an apple in my oatmeal, and other fruits to snack on during the day (her favorite fruit snack recommendation is fresh/frozen mango. I love mango). Since eating by the FMD plan, I have ZERO cravings for processed sugar, and really look forward to my fruity oatmeal (which I only eat on Mon & Tue). Fruits (and natural sugars) have all sorts of awesome micronutrients…. very good stuff! Even better when you can eat them in season, or fresh off the farm or out of the garden.
I would guess the headaches you’re getting from the cane sugar are due to insulin spikes causing changes in brain chemistry. “Real / Natural” sugar (i.e. unprocessed, still in fruit or, in the case of molasses, sap form) has other ‘stuff’ in it which helps alter how the system processes the hydrocarbons, and thus buffers the brain chemistry issues.
Check out podcast #88 on headaches, here:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/kick-it-naturally/id784834163TC Hale has some additional interesting stuff… including the science side of things (which I love).
Another take on sugar… Evolution, Baby! If it wasn’t somehow, someway good for us, it wouldn’t taste so good! (but – IMO – you can only apply the evolution argument to whole/natural food groups… processed food items are of the brainwashing variety). :)
Hi Tina,
I had a look at Haylie Pomroy’s FMD plan, it seems like a kind of carb cycling. I guess that can work because you hopefully don’t do anything long enough to mess up your metabolism.
I notice her food lists ban bread and caffeine, why must these diet gurus always suck the joy out of life? :D
The Schwarzbein principle is a diet that worked well for me in the past, I followed it for a few months and lost 10lbs, then relaxed a bit about the carbs but didn’t regain any weight until I had appendix surgery and that messed up my metabolism somehow. The weird thing is, when I tried SP again more recently, it didn’t work second time around and I found it really hard to stick to. I think that is for 2 reasons, the first time I did it, I must have had a nice little catecholamine honeymoon! And, secondly my energy needs are probably much higher now, as since the first time I did SP I built up a lot of muscle with kettlebell workouts (I went from not being able to carry a multipack of 1 liter water bottles, to working on a house renovation and lifting 20kg bags of cement). Anyway, I digress! :)
Thanks for the podcast, I’ll take a look :)
I did say I follow FMD “loosely”, right? :)
I have not given up caffeine or alcohol… and I consider bread perfectly OK on Mon/Tue (the high carb days). Haylie is starting to give into the media attention and is pushing her own line of supplements and other food items now, which turns me off.
I so LOVE being warm (now on year three of no cold feet!!!) that if I feel my temperatures starting to drop because of lack of eating (which happens if I try to go too low-fat)… I eat!!
Matt’s books have definitely put me on track to only doing what I enjoy doing, and keep that joy in my life! :) I also refuse to let my temperatures drop back in the 87F category again. Being warm is much, much too nice.
I had my appendix out back in 1994 (emergency surgery… leaking appendix). I’m guessing you went on antibiotics after surgery like I did. Losing the gut bug balance can definitely screw up your metabolism. I didn’t know that then, but I do take probiotics occasionally now (when I have an “upset” due to eating too many processed foods, or …eh hem… something I didn’t cook properly, HA!)
I really need to get moving more… the poor dog has given up on me (she’s mastiff, so walks are great fun, but not a ‘necessity’ in her choice of lifestyle. LOL). Yoga is my go-to after walking the dog… weight training is on my to-do list. I enjoyed it in college, but that was quite a few years ago (20+).
Glad to hear you haven’t given up the things you like :) I thought her “no gluten” thing just seems like jumping on the anti gluten bandwagon that everyone is on these days.
My appendix surgery was emergency too with antibiotics, I had gluten intolerance for a year after that, and despite what diet gurus say, I didn’t lose weight on a gluten free diet, I gained, I generally had a stressful year then too which I think was another factor. Doing RRARF for a month or so followed by eating to appetite (and for heat) fixed my gluten intolerance very quickly :).
I have a couple of quick tricks if I start feeling cold (maybe from some days of under-eating, too much exercise etc.) I make a big batch of cookies and/or cake using coconut oil and eat as much of those as I want. I also snack on handfuls of dates with little pieces of dark chocolate and make sure to get a good solid meal with salty carbs. Rice with various curries is good, or a savory pie with mashed potato :)
I like weight training, but I find it quite stressful on the body so don’t do it as often as I used to. I had good results just doing a weights or kettlebell DVD once a week. I’m breastfeeding at the moment and have found that I don’t recover from exercise so easily right now. I go walking with my baby most days (we have a jogging stroller) and I find that is enough exercise for the moment :)
Oooo… dates and chocolate? YUM!!!
I also love curries… and most any food, especially salty and fatty stuff – that’s my downfall. I have started to shift how I think about food, though. I now eat to feed my body, instead of just my taste buds. I even took an online nutritional therapist course (groupon had one for $99) that was really fun, and I learned a LOT from it. I’m now supplementing my minerals more – especially zinc and magnesium – due to what I learned in the course and based on my own symptoms.Numerous studies have indicated that excess sugar, mostly due to the large amounts of fructose, can lead to fat building up around your abdomen and liver (6). Sugar is half glucose and half fructose. When you eat a lot of added sugar, the liver gets overloaded with fructose and is forced to turn it into fat ( 4, 5).
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