Thursday, April 03, 2008

Give me some sugah!

So I have a bit of a problem.

I'm a tiny bit of a sugar addict (my post below extolling Krispy Kremes should be evidence of that!)

Typically I exercise enough that my sweet tooth doesn't do me much harm.

And my dentist thinks I have lovely teeth (and I don't even floss!)

But... January to March were rough while I was trying to get my proposal and conference stuff done. Ironically I started working out regularly again too and I managed to gain ten pounds. I imagine some of that is muscle. But I am pretty sure not all of it.

Seriously.

Since the Siouxperman is a month away, after randomly stumbling on articles on the topic recently that inspired me, I have decided to try and give up sugar.

Today was my first day.

And I failed.

In the middle of the day, when all I wanted was a Diet Dr. Pepper (which is also excluded because apparently the sweeteners do the same thing to cause sugar cravings as regular sugar) I e-mailed Jeanne at Not Born to Run. Jeanne has talked about giving up sugar before so I wanted to know if it actually worked. I keep hearing these stories (which I seriously believe to be urban legends), that if you stop eating sugar, your body stops craving it and *gasp* doesn't even find it appealing. I personally don't believe this, because how could I never want sugary goodness? But Jeanne verified this myth for me and she says even after a week you start to crave it less.

Now Jeanne and I have a sugar pact (since she's fallen off the wagon a little and I... have never been on the wagon). My goal is to try this for one month. I'd like to get rid of 5 of these excess pounds before the race. I mean gees, there is spandex involved! She has her own motivations, which she said she'd post about tomorrow on her blog. We decided our pact needed to be public though, so I'm laying it all out there! So besides being blood sistahs on the sugar front, we are both also suffering from the PF (I don't know if she knew that!)

Of course, I am making an ahead of time exemption for the Doughnut Run. Maybe the trick will be to eat so many dougnuts that I will pass out in a sugar coma and wake up so disgusted that I will continue to not want sugar? Steve in a Speedo asked if I was going to eat six this year, continuing my upward trend. Six doughnuts in the span of a half hour seems so... well, I am pretty sure that will cause me to never eat another Krispy Kreme again! Steve is contemplating a trip across the border to partake - since he is so speedy and eats a lot, I totally bet he could get a negative time if he strategized it right!

Oh, related question - if you don't eat sugar, do you not eat Gu and drink Gatorade? What do you do for energy during training or races?

Oh yeah, my failure. When I was TAing lab today, I was essentially conked out in the front of the room at my desk. I thought this whole sugar avoidance thing was supposed to help that? Perhaps the fact that some demon has possessed me and I actually get up at 5am to go to the gym on Tuesdays and Thursdays (that demon would actually be named Kori) causes me to fall asleep in the afternoon. But either way, I got a pop. Er, soda. I figured I might never live it down it I started drooling on myself in my sleep in front of my students.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

You're already so sweet you don't need anymore sugah!! hehe :)

ps. my mom had the same suggestion as you-get a handicapped parking pass!

ButterPeanut said...

man, good luck with that! a good and noble undertaking.

I'm starting to believe the rumors that the Big Sugar industry has out high fructose corn syrup in everything (in America) to make us addicted to sugar. Anothr reason for you to move to Switzerland!

Danielle in Iowa in Ireland said...

Corn syrup really is in everything! Soy sauce! Cream cheese! Why?!

Nitmos said...

You know, vegetables are natures sugar...ha, barely could get through that without laughing. No, sugar rules. No way around it. I'll eat extra candy for you if that helps any. Good luck.

Laurie said...

Alternative post title: Pour some sugah on me

My countdown to the Bon Jovi concert (16 days!) is creating an 80s music overload in my head.

But umm back to you, you will feel better without sugar but it is insanely hard at first. I have faith that you can do it... as I eat another chocolate chip cookie ;)

Jenny Davidson said...

Well, be sensible and keep eating lots of carbs! It's one thing cutting out non-nutritious sweets for a while, that's sensible if you want to lose a few pounds--but in my opinion, given that we're all kind of doing a lot of exercise and stuff, eating things like grapes and oranges and bread is GOOD not BAD, and the gu-type stuff is v. useful too... There is a bit of an anti-carb mafia out there, don't go over to the dark side!

MissAllycat said...

WOW - you're hardcore! Sugar has a death grip on my soul...I don't think I'll be giving it up any time soon. Good luck!

Danielle in Iowa in Ireland said...

I like Laurie's post title better :-)

And Jenny, maybe this will cause me to fail miserably at this but I don't see how eating fruit can ever be bad for me - this is why low-carb is not for me :-) I am mostly trying to cut out things with added sugar (especially corn syrup) and extra sugar I add to things like tea.

MAC - I am trying to loosen the death grip on my soul. And my soul is rebelling all the way - it loves sugar!

Rainmaker said...

Good luck on that one! How does it work with stuff like gatorade?

A doughnut run sounds like it's right up my alley!

jeanne said...

ROCK ON SISTAH!!!

Today was day one of the rest of my life. and i made it thru!!!

I'll post tomorrow and i'm gonna PUT IT ALL OUT THERE, every detail!!

WE CAN DO THIS.

(I'm not counting anything consumed DURING a race. Let's be real. Although if I find gu without sugar...well, that probly doesn't make sense!)

jeanne said...

and p.s. i knew about the PF. I've been stretching with a strap around the ball of my foot.

I'm sure that will cure it.