Sunday, April 13, 2014

Day 3 - Sobering reality . . .

I don't have time for a diatribe tonight but I will leave you with this brief bit of information to ponder.  I have a friend who turned me on to a book about addiction - in particular sugar addiction.  The name of the book is Potatoes Instead of Prozac (I'm reading the 2nd Edition).  I read nearly half of the book today and I am stopping at step 1.  I am not going to read any further until I can honestly say that I have completed Step 1.  This book talks about the science behind addiction and gives a 7 step road to recovery.  I know this may sound funny and ridiculous to some and to that all I can say is I am so glad you have that response.  Because if you have that response, you do not have a physiological sugarsensitivity as I do.  Both of my children would have laughed out loud at some of the descriptions given in this book because they were describing ME!  Suffice it to say that my very first blog about "learning to live without sugar" is so addictive in nature that I am laughing at myself as I sit here typing.

Step 1 is simple.  Eat breakfast every morning; eat it within an hour of getting up; and eat the appropriate amount of protein for my weight.  Sounds simple huh?  The author asks you to do each step for 1 month before moving on to the next step.  So blogs might be a little boring and short some days but this is what I am going to do.  I had to figure out my protein amount and if you are not sure how to do this, I'll give you a very short simple explanation.  Take your weight (mine is 190 - yeah, yeah, yeah, I lost a couple of pounds already), divide this amount in half which gives me 95 now I divide that by 3 (for 3 meals a day) and that gives me 31.66.  So for breakfast each morning I've got to figure out how to get 31.66 g of protein in my diet.  I also have to have one serving of a complex carbohydrate.  Yeah, this is going to be fun.  After looking back at my week of breakfasts on MyFitnessPal I haven't eaten more than 15 g of protein at any breakfast.  I may be going to the store in the morning before work!   In Step 1 you don't count any other numbers you focus on eating every morning, within an hour of getting up and eating the appropriate amount of protein for your weight.

This book is all about learning to use food as a recovery to addiction and not eliminating or denying yourself sweets.  It is a scientific methodology to balancing your blood sugar levels, your seratonin levels and your beta-endorphin levels.  I comprehended what I read and I get what's going on but don't ask me to explain it.

Here's to another day of learning to live without addiction.


1 comment:

  1. 31.66g of protein is a lot. I'd have a hard time eating that much too. What made you put your faith in this book, in particular? I don't suffer from sugar addiction but I DO recognize how unhealthy sugar is for us. I admire your honesty in facing your addiction and your strength in trying to gain victory over it. Keep it up, girl! You can do this!

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