Monthly Archives: January 2012

I had two bad days a earlier this month; not horrible, but bad for me. Started when I was on a trip, which is often a time when I feel more stress and also have less control over my food. Of course I paid for it by feeling awful physically, and mentally.

It was a bump in the road, not the end of the world. That’s what I keep reminding myself. Like lots of people, I have to work very hard, very diligently in order to keep my weight in check, and to avoid the FQ Principle when one bad carb food quickly can lead to another worse carb food.

We all have those days. The key is to stop as fast as possible and not let one eating event turn into days or weeks or more.

Never give up, keep on trying is my motto. So I’m back in high gear doing another round of very careful eating for a few weeks to get down a few pounds. There’s nothing like a project to get the motivation up. But diet fatigue, inadequate sleep, worries, various challenging life events can make anyone have a bad day. It’s what we do most of the time that matters.

Yours in never giving up…

Nan aka Sugarbaby

I was struck by a comment actor Michael Fassbinder made on a talk show about the role he plays of a sex addict in the movie “Shame”; he says of addiction:

Check out the posting from Dr. Briffa: http://www.drbriffa.com/2011/12/30/is-now-the-time-to-target-sweet-foodstuffs-in-your-diet/

This article is reminder for us here as the New Year begins to target the sweets that are problems for us,  especially that sneaky sugar known as fructose.  Since fruit has long had a good reputation it is hard for many people to realize that fruit is still plain old sweet in the body. Fruit these days has been so hybridized that it has probably ten times the amount of sugar as in paleo times. Further, we get fruit year around from all over the world, whereas primitive humans would have had very little fruit for a limited time of the year.

Fruit, then, can trigger major sweet cravings, and as Dr. Briffa, Gary Taubes, and many others point out, the body is actually damaged by fructose as well as all the other sugars.

Additionally, Briffa reminds us that artificial sweeteners create a problem in our brains since they are 200-600 times sweeter than table sugar, so in effect when we drink a diet soda we are promising the brain that kind of food value, and when no food appears, cravings are increased even more.

The diet sodas have been a major challenge for me, so I have found that if I only have them with food, then I don’t seem to get the craving trigger. I drink very few compared to the old days, and find they don’t seem to taste as good either.  As we all know, drinking pure water or seltzer is far better, but sometimes we want to mix it up a bit, but do so safely.

Yours for health in 2012,

Nan aka Sugarbaby

An article I read three years ago pointed out that 46% of people who make New Year’s resolutions succeed in keeping them for over six months.  I found that statistic very encouraging since we often think of the New Year’s resolution as a failure in the making.  In another psychological journal, it was found in one study that people are very likely to keep promises when stated as such. My thought was that a resolution can be stated as a promise to oneself or others, which should further increase the likelihood of success.

My spouse and I took a few minutes today to think about what we would like to achieve this year and wrote out our individual resolutions, things we promise ourselves we will work hard to achieve this year. I have six goals I want to accomplish, one dealing with keeping faithfully to my low sugar program, and another with exercise, the rest were of the more practical or family related.  I saved my resolutions document to my computer desk top where I will see it daily which should enhance keeping them in my thoughts.

While the New Year is an arbitrary date, it works for me as the starting point of the next year, and a good time to refocus my goals, hopes, dreams, and general intentions.

I hope we all have a good New Year and go a long way toward achieving our most deeply held desires.

Yours in 2012,

Nan aka Sugarbaby