My Experiment in Eating

A couple weeks ago after hearing so much from people I respect about the benefits of healthy eating, I decided to make a concentrated effort to modify my eating habits a bit.  Being someone who consumed enough sugar to supply the South with sweet tea for a generation, I thought this could be interesting.

When I told a few people, I think a couple were genuinely shocked I was going to attempt this.  I mean, I LOVE sweets.

I decided to try it for one weekend -no refined sugar, as little processed food as possible, incorporate a "green" shake once per day.  My shake usually consisted of Greek yogurt, kale, blueberries, spinach, coconut water and orange juice.  I made the mental commitment to eat every three hours when humanly possible, keeping all the meals about the same size.

Although the shake took a bit of getting used to, I was surprised at how easily I walked away from the refined sugar.  I had a few cravings, but nothing insurmountable, especially in the interests of science!

Monday morning came and since the weekend had gone so well, I decided to keep going until I left for my trip to San Francisco that Thursday.

Then, while I was in San Francisco, I thought, hey, I'm on a roll with this, why not keep going?

So, this experiment has been going on two weeks now.  I was baking cookies for our volunteers at our public radio station, and ate one cookie.  One.  Just a couple weeks before I'd had a dozen home-made cookies as dinner one night.

One thing that became readily apparent as I eliminated refined sugar from my food plan -the cravings seemed to have a very specific time when they hit.  When I was tired, suddenly, I would be jonesing for a soda -and I didn't drink soda even before the experiment started!  So, I learned I had to put a few more calories into my meals so I wasn't tired from not having enough fuel for all my activity.  When you eat a healthy, plant-emphasis plan, it can be tricky to get enough calories.

My energy level has certainly been boosted.  I'm sleeping a bit better.  I snuck onto a scale a few days in and had a several-pound weight loss, probably from the natural reduction in salt that occurs when you are avoiding processed food.

What I notice most though, is that my general moodiness has gotten much more stable.  Eating healthy food regularly has evened out my blood sugar levels so it isn't spiking with all those sweets, and dropping an hour later.  Which helps with the tiredness, which helps with the cravings... its all a circle!

So, I am continuing the experiment and thinking about how I want to incorporate sweets back in.  I don't like the thought of never eating them again, but I don't want to become semi-addicted again.  I think I may start to try to look at sweets as a special treat for special occasions, instead of just another food choice in a plethora of food choices.

I'll let you know how it goes!  But right now, I'm digging the healthy green stuff.