I had an interesting conversation (again) yesterday.
“That’s ridiculous!”
“I could never quit sugar. Why would I want to try? – You can’t be addicted to sugar!”
…Was her reply
Her tone was dismissive – to say the least.
Well, she did ask what I do for a living..
And when I told her that “I help people quit using sugar. I own this website SugarAddiction.com etc.”
She just launched into the above tirade without even thinking about it.
I smiled and said: “Yeah, some people don’t have a problem with it. But some do and I help them.”
I smiled and walked away…
That’s the whole message.
Just walk away.
It’s good practice in caring for yourself.
Now this gets exponentially more difficult when the same responses come from a family member, work associate or dear friend.
But the basic message is the same.
Walk away.
The more you engage them, especially in your early days, the more time you waste.
You can imagine after close to 30 years off sugar how many conversations I’ve had about this topic.
There was my “I’m going to convince them” stage.
That only ended in me being frustrated and wasting hours of my life.
My lying stage. “I have diabetes” or “I’m working on an elimination diet with my doctor and I want to stay true.”
Those both work well by the way and the diabetes one is a definite conversation ender. But I never felt right doing it. I just couldn’t try to explain it all again.
You can imagine the conversations I’ve had with grandparents, school officials and friends moms when I tried to explain it to them as I raised two sugar-free kids!
For the foreseeable future, this is going to be a hot topic of discussion.
You need to know that going in.
You need have enough reasons to succeed written down so you can walk through it.
…And you need support.
You need a group of people who believe exactly as you do. Who have traveled your same path and now want to travel another one – with you.
Family is the toughest.
I could regale you with the limbic brain research where families have an ingrained natural response to keep you within and like the group so no harm comes to you.
Back in the old days, being different or operating outside the group could get you killed by a sabertooth tiger.
But today being different than the family group is that same equivalent. They baked your favorite treat – “just for you.”
It was truly done out of love.
But you’ve reached a place where you need to try something different. And sticking with it requires some loving jujitsu. You have to field these reactions in the right way.
Some relatives, coworkers, and friends just won’t like that you are looking introspectively at yourself and doing something about it.
Please know that most of the negative responses to your new behavior are knee jerk and subconscious.
I can’t begin to tell you how many apologies I’ve received months and years later from folks who initial reaction to my sugar freedom and that of my children was negative.
Being prepared, like quitting or controlling sugar in general, takes just a few small and easy tweaks so that comments like I got yesterday, don’t throw you.
I’ve said this before, almost everyone we work with is some kind of “pioneer” in other aspects of their life. They’ve shown a willingness to go against the grain to accomplish a goal they set for themselves.
If that’s you then welcome.
If you’re ready – let’s do this thing: Quit Sugar Now.
The last thing you want to is get into is a big argument. This is a fragile time for your psyche. Big upsets could throw you back into a sugar binge… I got your back. Quit Sugar Now.
