Get Beyond Sugar Shock

It looks like the “help for sugar addiction” movement
is building a bigger head of steam – finally. Famed
author and researcher and fellow recovering sugar
addict herself, Connie Bennett is coming out with
a new book and a new six week plan to help people
get off sugar: “Beyond Sugar Shock.”

With one best seller under her belt – Sugar Shock – Connie is
poised to become a leading active voice in the quest to help
people with their sugar addictions.

The new book  Beyond Sugar Shock: The 6-Week Plan to Break
Free of Your Sugar Addiction & Get Slimmer, Sexier & Sweeter is
what is needed the most out there. A resource that gives you a
concrete plan to follow to start (or continue) your journey.

There are lots of academics and even authors that are getting us
lots of research on sugar and sugar addiction now but scant few actual
educators, coaches and mentors worth their salt (and who have actually
travel the road) that are taking us by the hand and providing a step by
step plan.

I feel Connie has the long term abstinence, experience and coaching
experience to help tens of thousands with her books and classes. She
is even offering and opportunity to win a coaching session with her if
you pre-order the book. That’s right I’m jumping the gun a little as the
book is set for a June 1st release. Check out her website:

http://www.beyondsugarshock.com/

Sugar Shock, Connie’s first book on sugar addiction, tells her story and
is one of the best researched books on sugar and sugar addiction I’ve
ever read. Now almost six years later and a mountain of experience in
her classes and on her websites she brings that experience to you in
Beyond Sugar Shock.

This is way to big a problem in society for one author, one educator or
one website to tackle. We all need to work together to raise the awareness
of sugar in our society. If you know of any others that have helped you
please list them in the comments below.

Be well,

The Healthguy

Dr. Robert Lustig and his UCSF colleagues Barbara Laria and
Elissa S. Epel start their seven part series on the obesity
epidemic.

The University of California at San Francisco may be the one
of the most advanced institutions of learning in the nation.

Their YouTube channel UCTV Prime is premiering The Skinny
on Obesity (Ep. 1): An Epidemic for Every Body. It’s a hard
hitting news like show that chronicles the obesity epidemic and
the role sugar plays in obesity.

It is powerful stuff and Lustig is a courageous guy as he describes
the role sugar plays in the epidemic backed up by sophisticated
research.

He asks what we all want to ask: “How did the world get
this fat this fast? Did we all turn into gluttons and sloths?”

He’s a short trailer:

And here is episode one – the first in a seven part series. (it’s only
12 minutes – watch it!)

The Easy Method to Stop Craving Sugar
and Lose the Weight You Want.

I’m asked a lot about sugar cravings. One:
what are they? and two: how do I stop them?

Sugar cravings seem to get in the way of of a
lot of things. Weight loss being the number one.

If not for the sugar cravings, and might I add flour,
- losing weight would be easy. We all know flour
turns to sugar in your stomach and if you didn’t know
– well now you do. Sugar and flour are pretty much
the same when it comes to cravings.

The thing I find interesting is that there is not one
diet book you can name that doesn’t, usually at it’s
core, tell you to stop using flour and sugar. All the
“white” stuff including white rice and potatoes. But
for sure they all say “no flour and no sugar”. One is
even named that.

So this brings us to a very intriguing question that I
spin a little and challenge people with all the time.

If, indeed, stopping sugar and flour will help us lose weight
and over sixty percent of us are over weight and presumably
want to lose weight – “why is it that no one can just stop
with the flour and sugar and watch the pounds melt off?”

Why can’t we just wake up one day and say: “that’s it! For
thirty days I will eat no flour and no sugar!” ? And then keep
our promise to ourselves.

Most can’t do that simple exercise because of cravings. We
crave to eat the stuff even though we promised ourselves we
wouldn’t. But wait a minute – we are grown adults here.

In most aspects of our lives we function and perform tasks
that we don’t love but we do it because we’re adults and we
know it’s our responsibility – work comes to mind.

But when it comes to not using flour and sugar it’s obvious by
the growing obesity epidemic that we just can’t say we are going
to do it and then do it. Why is that? The word addiction comes
to mind but you’ll need to read around the site more and make that
decision on your own. (to declare yourself a sugar addict)

Here’s the challenge I put to new people: Choose one weekend where
Friday will be a light day at work and you have nothing planned for
the weekend. Stop using sugar and flour and caffeine if you can.
(I always recommend quitting caffeine before attempting to quit
sugar and flour) Stop as early on Thursday as you can. The first
day will always be a grace day. The cravings won’t be to bad. Rest
as much as you can on the weekend. Eat anything you want that
doesn’t have any flour or sugar in it. Then leave a comment below
if you were able to go to work on Monday.

If you are like most people by Sunday evening you will be a basket
case. Yes, that is a medical term for you wiseguys. You will literally
not be able to function well. Headaches, lethargy, depression, cold
and flu like symptoms and more, in short you will not be fun to be
around.

I know this is going to scare some people off and I’m OK with
that. You’ll be back when you’re ready and we will welcome you then.

The answer to question number one:

What are sugar cravings? is simple – it’s sugar withdrawals. It’s
your body wanting to re-ingest it’s poison. I know it’s a hard and
clinical answer but please let it light on you for a little bit. Let the idea
that you may have a slight sugar dependency, built up over the years,
be a possibility for you.

The answer to question number two is equally simple. How do I stop
sugar cravings? You need to have a period of abstinence from sugar in
order for the compulsion to use it again to be released. I know more tough
words like compulsion but if you’re on this site you’re open minded
enough to handle it. You need to string together a week or more (yes
it will be tough) of sugar free living in order to feel the sugar cravings
dissipate. Now it will take much longer than a week to master the draw
to using sugar all together but the hard core physical cravings will not
be a part of your everyday life if you can string together some abstinence.

Anything we can do to help you in your journey to sugar freedom
please don’t hesitate to ask.

Be well,

The Healthguy
M. Powers

60 Minutes reports on Sugar Toxicity
with Dr Robert Lustig and Dr. Kimber Stanhope.

Dr. Lustig rides again. This time with CNN reporter
Dr Sanjay Gupta on assignment for 60 minutes.

In the almost fourteen minute story Dr. Lustig
finally comes right out and says it for a prime time
audience: high fructose corn syrup IS the same as
sugar – both are equally bad.

Dr. Kimber Stanhope seems to be a new shining star
on the information about sugar team and her research
is totally fascinating. Somehow she has secured the
funding for a five year study, part of which she has
young people on virtual lock down and measures and
tests the results of a diet as high as 25% HFCS. – You
know the results aren’t good.

As more of these educators get more and more tests
funded and completed the obvious question will become:
so what do we do about the info that you and I already
know? If sugar is causing this much harm to us and our
kids – what do we do about it?

Dr. Lustig favors government policy intervention and I
do wish him well with that fight. While he and others work
on that end let’s you and I work on the personal end.

If you think you have an issue with sugar just sign up
for our newsletter or join us in the forum and we’ll see if we
can help you in your struggle.

Enjoy the video clip.

Be well,

The Healthguy

Take The Sugar Addiction Quiz

It’s as simple as a little yes or no quiz.

The Sugar Addiction Quiz:

Just count your yes or no answers here.
If you have to eat something sugary while
taking the test just skip the test and get
some help.

1. Do you eat refined sugar every day?
Yes or No

2. Do you joke about being “addicted” sugar or bread?
Yes or No

3. Does the idea of living without sugar or bread make you uneasy, anxious or sad?
Yes or No

4. Can you go one day without eat a product containing sugar?
Yes or No

5. Have you ever hidden candy or other sweets around your house to eat them later?
Yes or No

6. Are you children eating to much sugar, or always asking for it?
Yes or No

7. Are your emotions out of control? Do you feel depressed?
Yes or No

8. Do you make excuses and find ways to eat what you really crave but then feel guilty about it?
Yes or No

9.Can you go more than three hours without eating and not experience the shakes, fatigue,
perspiration, irritability, depression or anxiety?
Yes or No

10. Does it exhaust you to constantly fight your urges to eat sugar and white flour based foods?
Yes or No

Results.

1 to 3 Yes answers = pretty normal
3 to 5 Yes answers = you might want to look at getting help. Start in the forum LINK
5 to 10 Yes answers = you definitely qualify as a sugar addict and might want to seek help.

Again start HERE - it’s free and the people are really kind and helpful.

Do you like these little sugar addiction quizzes?  We have another one ==> HERE!

I rarely rant. I’m really a “steady as she goes” kinda guy.

I believe we make our lot in life by just tackling the next thing
in front of us and try to do the next right thing.

But in coaching lots of people to quit sugar and, as you can
well imagine, answering lots of questions about sugar there
is just one thing that really still bothers me about this whole
topic.

Drinking Sugar!

I understand that there is sugar in foods and that sweet treats
are made of sugar and that through hundreds of years sugar
has worked it’s way into the food system and become part of
modern social life. Then High Fructose Corn Syrup was inserted
into the food supply and we ended up a planet battling something
we really didn’t bargain for. I compare it to the evolution of tobacco
into or lives. By the time we figured out it was doing us huge harm
we had a population addicted to the product and the fight was on
to help folks stop.

But drinking sugar is just crazy. It disguises the amount you are
drinking and just leads to weight gain and more intense cravings
for more sugar!

Let’s just make an assumption that if you’re on SugarAddiction.com
you have made an assessment that you have some issue with sugar
and are willing to at least look at your sugar intake.

We’ll also assume that you are a smart and aware person. You like
that right? So what’s with the DRINKING sugar? Our battle is hard
enough as it is. Most times the sugar is to mask the bitter taste of
caffeine and salt. Ohhh you didn’t know soda has salt in it? Well it
does – lots of it.

If you look around the site you’ll see that quitting caffeine first is a
recommendation we make before you attempt to quit the sugar. It
really is helpful to have your sugar to help self medicate your caffeine
withdrawals. I know that sounds a little crazy at first blush but just
trust us on this one. Caffeine may be harder to quit than sugar and
the folks that do it in reverse find it very difficult to eventually ever
get off the caffeine.

So now that we know that we are drinking sugar to help us ingest our
caffeine maybe we can rationalize that quitting all drinks with sugar in
them is the perfect place to start this journey. With the exception of
chocolate and some baked goods we get most of our caffeine from
drinks. So if we start with sugared drinks first and stop the chocolate
we take one huge step toward beating back both addictions.

And let’s not forget the kids in this one. They will do what ever mom or
dad do and won’t even care. Many of you know my passion (and next
section or even website) is going to be about kids and sugar and kids
and caffeine. Many times I find that folks will do things for their kids
before they will even do for themselves. So let’s start with this one. In
helping your kids limit the sugar and caffeine they drink you automatically
limit your own.

You Know I Love You Right?

The Healthguy

Recently Dr. Robert Lustig and his colleagues at the University of California, San Francisco Laura Schmidt and Claire Brindis have come out in an article in the journal Nature in favor of government regulation of sugar. Much like the regulation of alcohol and tobacco, Lustig is calling for higher taxes and a possible age limit for purchasing sugar.

I consider Dr. Lustig one of the hero’s of our movement to help people get educated about the dangers of sugar. I believe his work, his impeccable credentials and his drive to get this message out are going a long way to raise awareness of this issue. Since the tobacco litigation caused such huge publicity storm – tobacco use has definitely fallen.

There are many voices online speaking of sugar addiction and the dangers of sugar. Dr. Lustig’s approach is 100% necessary. More academics need to get involved in the research and add to the knowledge base.

Here at SugarAddiction.com we, by our very nature, have to approach the problem in a different way. We work only with people who have struggled mightily for years with sugar and finally come to the conclusion that the need help in stopping sugar. We are not in the recruiting or convincing business. If you think you might have a problem with sugar leave a comment below and declare you readiness to change.

One of the best parts of Dr. Lustig’s article in Nature was the courage he showed in broaching of the topic of age restrictions for sugar. We will be starting a new section of the website soon in hopes of educating parents about the dangers of sugar in young children. While I’m not a huge fan of trying to regulate addiction recovery or peoples use of anything, I do believe that feeding children sugar is a topic that needs much discussion. I’m of the simple mind – “if there is a question – why not leave it out?”

That goes for during pregnancy too. This silly, colloquial idea that mom’s get a free pass during pregnancy to eat “weird things”, which usually include huge amounts of sugar and results in a ridiculous and equally huge weight gain, is dumb and dangerous. Dangerous for mom and possibly life altering for baby.

I think that kids should be able to make their own decisions, later in life and on good information, about things like sugar, caffeine and alcohol. We don’t feed them the later so why should they start life with a sugar monkey on their back? We all know, at some level, too much sugar is bad for you so why, why would you want to give that to your kids before they we fully developed and able to choose for themselves? “Choice for Kids” will be the theme of the new section.

Ok, I admit I have been putting this post off. I partially didn’t want to have to face it, but if I did I wanted to do a video for you, but can’t find my camera ANYWHERE. I think I left it at my sister’s house over the holidays.

So YES, I finally had a HUGE meltdown and caved, BIG TIME! I had been craving for a couple days. The drive home after the holidays was brutal, because it was late at night, I was sad, hungry and tired…the killer combo for me. But I was really, really good and resisted. Then the next day, bad cravings still, but I resisted. By day three of horrible cravings I just could take it anymore!

I was tired of being good, being different, not able to handle the indulgences that everyone around me was. I was also sad about being away from some of my family and stressed about what to do with myself in the new year without the safety net of a normal job.

So on my way home from a meeting I stopped to get gas and a $1 movie rental from the kiosk and just had a melt down. And so no, I didn’t call my great sponsor, Mr. Health Guy. I should have, but honestly I WANTED wanted to be bad and eat that chocolate bar; I didn’t want to be talked out of it. I was tired of not being able to indulge just once.

It made me really sick but honestly now looking back I can’t say I regret it. Yes, it has now caused me to feel like I’m starting at day 1 again, because now the cravings are back and resisting every day is really tough.

However, I’ve never been one for regrets and this is just another instance of me learning a lesson and truly realizing that unlike a lot of people I really don’t have control of it. I can’t indulge just once and then leave it alone. It is a struggle for me and I want to indulge everyday. I want to be one of those people that can eat whatever and have it not effect me (like I was when I was 20), be able to take it or leave it with no problem. But I’m not one of those people and I this relapse illustrated that.

So here I am again, back in the saddle of cutting it out all over again. I probably won’t post everyday, because I’m not sure you want a rehash of all of that. However, I will post at least a weekly recap on here to hopefully spark some discussion.

And every day I will strive to make this true:

I would love your comments, because it’s good to not feel alone in all this! Thanks for reading.

I survived Christmas!! We entertained a few friends and of course made traditional pies and my favorite cranberry chutney.

Making these goodies for everyone else was mild torture, but I abstained. However a friend brought over some excellent ice wine and so I had to indulge…it would have been horribly rude otherwise. Hahaha

So little slip up because it was a sugary wine, but luckily this doesn’t set up cravings for me like I know it does for a lot of people.  I am glad however that the holidays are over and the temptations will now be minimized!

It is tough being around people that are indulging treats that you are trying to resist. It really helps to have someone to talk to, lean on for emotional support and to talk me through cravings. Otherwise it’s rough to resist when everyone else is eating this junk you sooooooooo want!!

It it’s definitely getting easier now and I don’t get The emotional cravings it even the cravings is opportunity as much.

I have to admit the sugar cravings aren’t bad at all anymore but the flour cravings still hit me…craving pizza, pita chips, fried food….

It is a tough habit to break, especially being a stress and emotional eater. That is why I’m so grateful I have a great support system!

Have you figured out your craving triggers?

Last night I went to a Hanukkah party. It was a lot of fun and though I stayed away from the pastries, I went over board on the potato latkes….of course I used the excuse that it didn’t contain sugar or flour!

I do find that I’m getting better about my eating, but when I spurge I still go over board. I’m just glad that I’m at least indulging in slightly better choices.

I know it’s part of the process. For me, I want to learn how to eat better over all, so I need to know that it’s ok to have some of these little non-sugar/flour splurges without eating too much!

Today, I was good. I survived making cranberry chutney without even a little taste! I am starting to get over the sugar cravings…though the flour cravings are a little tougher.

I how you are having a wonderful holiday and are a lurker more conscious about your eating. Don’t use the excuse of waiting until next year…be good to yourself and start today!