Sugar & Fake Sweeteners

My biggest challenge are the c-words - candy, cookies, and cake. I am not part of the "I'll just have one" or the "I can take it or leave it" clubs. I so wish I was, but I'm not. I'm a card carrying member of the "one can lead to many and many can lead to continuous days of crap" club....Maybe you are also a member?

Helpful people will say oh come on one won't hurt you or just have a little or you can control yourself or look at you, you can "afford" to have some, or fill in the blank. I agree in concept, but that is not my reality and I thankfully moved out of denial into acceptance some time ago.

Ironically, I have never put sugar in my coffee or tea or been a fan of sugar soda. But I have excessively used fake sweeteners. I've been reading more about artificial sweeteners in the past few months which has made me rethink my use of these products as well. When I'm honest with myself, I was getting my sugar "fix" in the morning by adding many of these packets to my morning beverage.

The past couple months have been interesting. I've eliminated artificial sweeteners from my iced tea by switching to green tea which I prefer unsweetened (and green tea has a bunch of other health benefits as well) and I use one packet of a stevia product in my morning coffee.

I am also paying attention to added sugar in things I buy at the store. While labels don't break out naturally occurring sugar (such as from fruit) vs. added sugar, I use the ingredient list in conjunction with the sugar gram listing to make a best guess. The higher sugar or high fructose corn syrup is listed on the ingredient list means more of those listed sugar grams are added sugar. If it's high, I then decide if it's something that me (or my husband) need to be consuming. This has led to me making more things from scratch that I used to buy as a mix, meals from scratch, and moving away from "lowfat" products that tend to have more sugar with the removal of the fat.

Side Bar: Naturally occurring sugar for me is sugar in fruits. This can be debated forever and I appreciate all the perspectives, but mine is come on - it's fruit and I'm eating it! If it is no sugar added frozen or fresh, then I don't sweat it. And, fruit doesn't cause me any desire to over consume.

All of this doesn't mean that I don't have c-words now and then or that I don't also slip at times (even some big slips), I'm human and far from perfect. But I try to indulge only in a controlled fashion - out of the house at dinner or a run to the frozen yogurt store. I am just not someone that can have these things in my house. Period.

Things I do to stop the madness:

• Keep c-words out of the house.
• Pay attention to labels for added sugar.
• Eat regular meals - avoid getting too hungry.
• Exercise.
• Consciously make choices. Am I really wanting this c-word or am I trying to mask a feeling?
• Stay hydrated...with water or other unsweetened beverages.

Other Items:

• Puppy has been growing like a weed. Sometimes I'm hanging with her and I look at her or she does something and I just crack up. She was a great addition to our family...well, unless you ask the cat.

• I went on a short vacation to a resort that was totally relaxing. Everything was great, except the food. But we decided to go with the positive and tell ourselves that there was no way we were going home having gained weight!

• I'm considering an end-of-summer half to see if that can somehow motivate me to suck it up with some long hot runs. I'll see how it goes.