Ever since my daughter was diagnosed with Type One Diabetes (T1D), I have been drawn to reading books about how food affects blood sugar, and have learned so much about the relationship between carbs and insulin and their affects on weight loss and health. In addition, when you see how carbs affect blood sugar five to six times a day, it becomes very clear that eating a low processed carb diet is the way to go. However, I just didn’t want to. I would measure out candy for my daughter and then proceed to eat about four times as much as I allowed her to eat. Although I felt badly that she could no longer indulge, I continued to get my candy fix whenever the craving arose. I had “given up” sugar a million times throughout my life. However, even with the best of intentions, within a couple of weeks, I would find another bag of candy in my cart. One reason is that when I gave up candy, I would eat more processed carbs like crackers and chips. While not pure sugar, they break down into sugar quickly, and I was really keeping the craving alive and well. Eating excessive sugar has been a habit of mine throughout my life, and the thought of giving it up for good seemed impossible for me.
Then I read Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin, which is all about habits. Since I believe that creating healthy habits is the
path to getting out of the diet cycle for good, losing weight and finally feeling happy in your own skin, I found this book fascinating. Then I read the chapter titled Lightening Bolt where Rubin describes reading Why We Get Fat by Gary Taubea. Rubin recalled that initially she chose the book because it explained the connection between insulin and weight gain which interested her because her sister is T1D. While reading this book, it became clear to her that she needed to give up carbs forever. Starting the next day she drastically reduced her carb intake with the mindset that in doing so her body could create less insulin and store less fat. It hit her like a lightening bolt that a Low Carb High Fat lifestyle made sense for her. Rubin then went on to explain that some people are moderators and others are abstainers. Moderators do fine having something every once in awhile while abstainers do better when they just never have something. I decided that abstaining from sugar would be easier for me, and I gave up sugar that day. However, I was still eating processed carbs. After about three weeks, although my cravings had reduced, I started eating sugar again. Once it was back in my system that was the end of my abstaining.
Fast forward three months, and I listened to Dr. Susan Pierce’s Bright Light Eating video series. During this video series, she talked about a lot of the science behind sugar cravings, which I was familiar with, but she said one thing that really struck me. I had read several articles about sugar being more addictive than cocaine and heroine; however, when Dr. Susan Pierce said, “You would never tell a cocaine addict that it was alright to have cocaine as a special treat every once in awhile,” it hit me like a lightening bolt that I needed to give up flour and sugar for good to really stop the cravings and create a habit that was sustainable. There are people who can eat sugar in moderation, but I had proved to myself time and time again that I was not one of those people. I needed to completely abstain from the habit of eating sugar and flour for good. Giving up just sugar was not going to cut it because it would keep the cravings alive. I decided that day to begin the new habit of abstaining from flour and sugar. This time my mindset was different. This was not temporary. This was a permanent lifestyle change. I had read enough books about taking sugar out of your diet to know that life without sugar can be just as sweet. It took the combination of Better Than Before and Bright Line Eating video series to finally make this decision for myself. I had been toying with it for about two years, and I finally had the right mindset to do it.