Sugar, Sugar

"For me, sugar is like drug." Every time I reach for some chocolate or a piece of candy, my ex-coworker's words echo in my mind. Only difference is, he was a 6 foot tall Latvian with maybe 1% body fat and I was a 5'8 American woman, all soft and fluffy. Soft and fluffy is good for a cat but not for a human. I did share his sugar addiction though, only I wasn't so great at overcoming it.

Sugar is in almost everything you can think of. "Healthy" frozen dinners are loaded with it, low-fat cookies and cakes have tons of it: which is why it is super important to read labels on EVERYTHING, no matter how healthy you think it is. When I was at the store, I was tempted to buy some of those little Weight Watchers chocolate cakes until I read the label: 11 grams of sugar. Um, do you know how small these things are?!

I'd say to liken sugar to a drug is very appropriate, at least for me. I'm addicted to it. I can't get enough and I need a fix. I've never really been addicted to anything, but sugar is definitely something I can add to the list. If I don't have it, I get mad (especially at that TOTM); I might throw things, I might scream at people who don't deserve the wrath, and when I start munching on it, I can't stop. It is an awful awful thing, being addicted to sugar...especially since it's the #1 reason why I can't lose weight!!!

There's a new show called "Thintervention" on Bravo; it's about celeb trainer Jackie Warner whipping her clients into shape. She even offers some sound nutritional advice. The #1 rule: no sugar. Processed that is. Even on her old show, "Workout," Jackie preached how bad sugar was. I know it's bad. I know what it does to me. I know that a lot of this squishiness comes with eating way too much crap. So why can't I give it up?! Cuz it's just too damn good...

I know in one of my earlier postings, I said nothing in your diet should be off limits. The only problem is with sugar, if I get a taste of it, I go out of control. That's not even an understatement. I will find myself binging on ice cream right out of the carton, m&ms: whatever will get me my fix. I have gone out at 10PM to grab some cookies or candy. It's sick. I ate so much sugar this week that I'm not even going to post my meals because it is THAT embarrassing! I definitely went over my caloric goal a majority of the days and I am praying that the number on the scale does not reflect that. But I find that if I steer clear of the white stuff (ironic parallelism, no?), I'm ok and I don't even crave it all that much.

So here is my challenge: no sugary crap for 6 out of 7 days a week. On one day, I will allow myself some ice cream or whatever floats my boat at the time, I just have to make sure I stop at 1 serving. Who's down?! I'm warning you, this is going to be rough, so if you see some woman tearing down the street sounding like Godzilla, you know I'm doing pretty well :)