Have you ever quit something you thought you could never live without? Something that you loved dearly and then had to say goodbye to? Yeah, well neither had I. Until two weeks ago.
I used to eat sugar like it was my job. On a good day I ate three chocolate chip cookies, four popsicles (I like the cherry-lime ones) and half a pint of Ben and Jerry’s Milk and Cookies ice cream. I’m not kidding. That’s when I realized I maybe had a slight bit of an addiction. Some might even say I was a sugarholic.
I have always loved sugar. Growing up I eternally had frosting on my face, apple pie on my plate, or a candy apple in my hand. But as my body grew into an adult’s, my obsession with sweets remained that of a child’s. Even now I beg my boyfriend to stop at Dairy Queen on the way home from dinner and howl for us to get the amazing $6 pumpkin pie at Costco when I should be in the vegetable section.
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With Halloween, and the promise of more sugar than my body could possibly handle coming up so soon, this sugarholic decided to have a sugar detox. I would ease myself into it; the first week I would cut all desserts out of my diet and the second week I would stop eating any added sugar. Now, I was never under the illusion that this would be easy. Actually, I was absolutely positive that this would be awful.
The first few days were hard. There’s nothing else I can say about it. The Sunday night before I started was my sorority’s bid night: Delta Phi Epsilon’s Candy Bar. I’m sure you can imagine the withdrawal I was going through on Monday afternoon. That night when I got stressed out about the 200 pages of The Corrections I had to read for class the next day, I couldn’t reach for my support network of Dove chocolates and Trolli gummy worms. And trust me, you need chocolate to get through The Corrections. Instead, I headed to the convenience store under my apartment building and bought popcorn and apple juice. Since I couldn’t have dessert, I needed something sweet to get me through the night.
On Tuesday, I resorted to comfort food to keep myself from going crazy. I ate a pesto grilled cheese with tomato soup for lunch, a giant Honeycrisp apple for a snack (might not be comfort food, but it was delicious), and that night when I went out to dinner with my parents I ordered a pumpkin risotto and sadly told the waitress that we would not be having dessert. I thought I was doing okay. By the end of the meal, I was feeling strong (and very full), but that was until my dad said he wanted to stop inside Cherry Republic, a Michigan staple with the motto, “Life, Liberty, Beaches, & Pie.” Not exactly the place for a girl going through sugar withdrawal.
Stepping inside, the smell of chocolate and cherry filled my nose, teasing me with what I couldn’t have. My dad crept to the back of the store, trying the dark, milk and white chocolate covered dried cherries. I was walking in circles, trying to stay close to the chips and salsa aisle, when my tongue started tingling. My craving for sweets had gotten so intense it was literally making my tongue vibrate. Is this what drug withdrawals are like? It took all of my willpower (and my mother steering me away from the candy counter) to resist shoving my hand into the bowl of sugar coated cherry gummies.
From that point it got easier, I had apple juice for dessert every night (I especially like the Martinelli’s kind shaped like an apple, because as we learned before, I am basically a child) and ate an abundance of fruit, which helped keep my sugar cravings at bay. As the days went on and I ate out with my friends, I realized they didn’t like or eat dessert nearly as much as I had thought. I realized no one really wanted a big dessert after a giant meal of sushi or steak. And better yet, I realized I didn’t need it either. As the days ticked down to seven, my obsession with sugar dissipated until it was almost nonexistent.
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Sunday night, I decided to give myself a treat before starting my week of no added sugar. My boyfriend’s sister had brought him a box of Baked by Melissa cupcakes when she came to visit that weekend and I had always wanted to try them. I was so excited, thinking about how incredible this cupcake would taste after seven days of no sweets (for probably the first time in my life). I expected fireworks in my mouth, but as I bit into the mini chocolate chip cupcake, nothing happened. Sure, it was a good cupcake. Not the best I’ve ever had, but definitely better than the kind you get from the grocery store with the grainy pink frosting on top. I had a few more bites, half-heartedly savoring my last few minutes of artificial sugar. I just didn’t need sweets the way I had before.
The next morning I woke up, nervous and excited to start my official sugar “cleanse”. But because I had been so busy the week before (and obsessive about getting through my week of no sweets), I had barely researched anything to do with living a healthy, no added sugar lifestyle. That Monday I ate a banana and five salads (no dressing): half of one at 11a.m., a second at 2p.m., one at 4p.m., another at 8p.m., and the rest of my first one at midnight. I was completely clueless (and completely full of lettuce and chicken breast).
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The next day my boyfriend hopped on the bandwagon, being an amazing human, and cooked my dysfunctional and barely-able-to-boil-water self a breakfast of eggs and bacon. The rest of the week, I basically lived on Chipotle. Almost nothing on Chipotle’s menu has added sugar, plus it’s one of my absolute favorite meals so it was a win-win. During meals where Chipotle is deemed unacceptable, like breakfast (although I wish it wasn’t), I ate bananas, and for the times when I needed a little more variety in my life, I experimented with sauce-free stir-fry, fish and lots of fruit and vegetables. Also, lucky for me that my favorite fall drink was free of all added sugar: my hometown cider mill makes the absolute best cider with nothing but Michigan apples so don’t feel too bad for me, I still had something sweet in my life.
Now I have to admit, while I did make it a week on this added sugar cleanse, you would have to call it a business week. By the time Saturday rolled around, the day of the University of Michigan vs. Michigan State University football game, avoiding bread was a lost cause (and yes, most bread has at least a gram or so of added sugar).
So while I lost three pounds and had way less meltdowns by cutting added sugar out of my diet, it’s not something I could realistically do on a regular basis. I love pasta far too much (yes, most pastas have added sugar too) and the occasional piece of chocolate cake, to cut sweets and added sugar out of my life for good. But this experiment helped me learn that while everything in life is good in moderation, sometimes you need to quit cold turkey to realize how much you don’t need something. Once I stopped inhaling five sweets a day, I noticed a huge positive change in my body. So while you won’t be seeing me avoiding the dessert menu 24/7, I will definitely be toning it down. And for when sugar gets the best of me, I’m excited to try out sugar detox days, not weeks, in the future.