Sugar, Splenda and my Addiction

Once upon a couple weeks ago, I decided to take a week and stop consuming sugar and Splenda. I thought a week couldn't hurt and my goal was to break my little habits of grabbing unhealthy snacks. Bad news: I realized a was physically addicted. Good news: I lasted a week and broke my addiction.

Day 1, my muscles ached and I found myself tightening them a lot, like I was cold. Also had a headache. Day 2, I was amazingly angry at the world and, well, my poor family.... It took until Day 3 of headaches to realize what was happening. Mentally, I was on a roller coaster and physically, I felt horrible all over. I slept a lot.

I was so surprised at my experience, so I went hunting for information. I first realized that, without really knowing it, I was consuming between 5-10 servings of Splenda. I stay away from aspertame because I found it was a direct link to my migraines. But Splenda was in most of my daily diet: yogurt, bread, english muffins, water mix-in stuff, light juices, etc. Not to mention a packet in every cup of coffee (to come: caffeine addictions - just kidding!).

Below is a link to a website I found with more information on Splenda and a blurb from the website that I found helpful. To be completely honest, I am not going to completely remove sugar from my diet, but I've decided to pretty much remove Splenda and just enjoy plain old sugar on occasion. I feel great!

Women to Women

Finding comfort in the right places

After taking a closer look at what you eat, it may also be useful for you to examine the role sweet food plays in your life. This often ties in to deep associations and emotions buried in childhood. Perhaps you always crave sugar in the mornings because you associate family, home, and security with the pancake breakfasts your mother used to make.

But just as a pancake breakfast won’t satisfy your emotional longings, fake sugar won’t feed your body’s needs — nor real sugar, for that matter. There simply are no shortcuts in that department. Facing what is really going on in our emotions, our bodies, and our lives can be challenging, and it’s tempting to take the easy out, buffeted by sugary treats and comfort food. In my experience, that path only leads back to the same place — more pain, and eventually, sickness.

So I encourage you to nourish yourself from the inside out, with healthy food, self-care, and healthy relationships. In life there is bound to be some bitterness — the secret is to restore enough balance to delight in the sweet.