It all started back in June when we were trying to decide what to watch one night. We had heard of the documentary, Fed Up, and decided to watch it. Little did I know how much my life would change that night. A very long story short, we felt compelled to try to cut out sugar from our diets. Once of the most disturbing facts is that the recommended amount of sugar for an adult is 6-9tsp per day (4-7tsp for children, I believe) and we often consume up to FOUR TIMES that amount on a DAILY basis! So after looking at different blogs and Pinterest, we found an 8 week program called "I Quit Sugar" by Sarah Wilson. We looked through our schedules and were somehow able to carve 8 weeks of our lives to cut out the white (and brown!) stuff. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that we cut out all sweeteners, as well...this includes honey, maple syrup, agave nectar, etc.
The jist of the program is weaning off sugar (and processed white flour) in the first two weeks, completely cutting out all sugar (including fruit) in weeks three through five; adding low fructose fruit back in during week six and seven, and then by week eight, you've survived! Note: the reason Wilson promotes a fruitless 3 weeks is so that your body can truly detox and your palette can be reset so you know what "sweet" really tastes like. It is allowed back in during week six and thereafter.
Let me just say that sugar is in nearly EV-REY-THING!!!!! Oh my word, it was a challenge to find edible things that didn't have sugar as an added ingredient. But, we prevailed. It took awhile to get acclimated, but I somewhat found a groove when it came to shopping. It was a mindset change, and once we found things we liked, it was ok. The hardest part was breakfast and snacks. Fortunately, the kids were able to eat plain oatmeal and plains Cheerios. Rylan enjoyed plain yogurt and coconut granola in addition to oatmeal and Cheerios. I'm amazed how much the kids now enjoy carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers now. We also ate a lot of nuts for snacks.
I originally didn't tell the kids what we were doing. I didn't want to fight or argue with them, but Reagan continued to ask why we were eating the snacks we ate instead of "normal" snacks. I finally explained to him that we were not eating sugar because sometimes eating too much of something can make our bodies sick. He seemed to understand and accept that answer, and he was totally fine. He didn't complain much throughout the process; he only wanted to eat fruit and syrup on pancakes again :)
My overall feelings of the past 8 weeks are mixed. There were a few things I expected to happen. First, I thought my palette would be affected more. I definitely am more sensitive to sweet things, but not as much as I anticipated. For example, in a venti drink, there are 5 pumps of syrup - I couldn't handle that much; I can only handle 1 pump. Anything more is too sweet. So that's a positive. Second, I also still crave sugar and if I eat something with sugar, I don't feel crummy like most people who've been through this program do. My body doesn't seem to notice a spike in sugar and respond poorly. On the positive side, we are eating more vegetables and I know that eating less sugar is good for our kids' growing bodies.
The bottom line is that we will mostly likely continue to be sugar (or nearly) free at home, but we will consume in moderation at social events. Our desire is to keep the kids away from the white stuff as much as possible, but not deprive them as kids. We realize after the past eight weeks that sugar is literally in all "kid friendly" items and depriving the kids of EVERY treat will just backfire in the future. So our goal is to allow them small amounts so that they can know the taste of something too sweet.
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