Assessment On My Two Weeks No Sugar Challenge

My two weeks no sugar challenge ends today and I thought I'd make a note about my journey and my thoughts, although, if I want to be honest, this is going to be a long post and a brutally honest one, to the point where some of you might consider it offensive. So if you're sensitive, please don't read it.

Why?

This is the question I have to ask myself and answer it, several times a day and to others too around me, who are kinda surprised I'm doing this challenge. They don't understand why.

The whole thing started at the beginning of this year, when I had a chat with a trading psychologist about willpower, which you need a lot of, if you're in trading and he mentioned his two week no sugar challenge. He said, on the first day, he was experiencing withdrawal symptoms, like hand shaking, headache, mood swings and so on. I could fully understand him as I felt the same on the first day, when I decided to quit drinking coffee. Maybe even worse.

I could say this conversation came in the right time for me, and after six days of thinking about it, I was finally ready to start my journey.

There's a saying in Hungarian, according to which:

Everything that is delicious is either immoral or fattening.

Obviously this is a joke, but some of it is true.

One of my plans for this year is losing some weight and focusing on my health, so this challenge came in the right time as it fits my plans and today I can say, it helped me a lot.

The start day for me was Friday and really put me to the test because I had a fruit yogurt in the fridge. I made the decision midday, without eating all the sweets I had, previously. In the movies and reality shows you see people through the whole content of their fridge in the garbage bin, to have a bigger impact on people, but I don't like to throw away food. I adjust my shopping in a way to buy only as much as I need and never waste food, but this was a different case.

My first thought was to eat it and either lie about it, or delay the challenge with one day. But how would that made me feel, I asked myself? Who am I kidding here? The smartest option was to say NO to that damn yogurt, focus on the task in hand and that's exactly what I did. I gave the yogurt away and was really happy for being determined and not giving in, the very first day.

Lesson no 1. in every addiction challenge is, be truthful to yourself, in my opinion at least and I'll tell you why.

Self justification is a very powerful thing. In most of the cases, if you can convince yourself, or your conscience to be precise, that what you did or what you're doing is right and justified as well, you will never change your behavior. Let me give you an example.

My brother has a colleague who is eating a bar of chocolate every single day at work and telling everyone he needs it because his sugar level is dropping. He's not diabetic, he's perfectly healthy, but he's invoking this reason to justify his action in front of others and he's firmly convinced everyone believes him.

Now, have you ever seen anyone experiencing dropping sugar level? I have, and the person was already closing his eyes, as was close to losing consciousness. Do you know what to do in such cases? I do, and had to act fast as it was the only chance to save him. He was diabetic on two insulin shots per day.

Did the guy with his daily chocolate need come close to that? Oh please, he didn't even know what dropping sugar level feels like, let alone experience one. It was all a charade, to have his chocolate without feeling guilty. After some time, this can becomes a lifestyle and that's why this kind of thinking is dangerous.

I've been abusing drinking coffee for years, because my low blood pressure. At least that's what I was telling everyone, myself included of course, and I've been convinced I truly needed that damn black liquid and that I could not exist without it. The worst in this was that it was recommended to me by my GP, to balance out my low blood pressure and this is not a joke. She said she can't give me any medication because it's hard to get the right dose and sometimes you can get the opposite effect. But she recommended three tings to me: plenty of water every day, more salt than usual and 2 cups of coffee per day, if I like it. Plenty of water goes for everyone, so that was a no brainer. On the other hand, I knew from the start I'm not going to use more salt for the obvious reasons but coffee? Oh yes please! The strongest espresso possible and as much as I could have!

When I say low blood pressure, I mean sometimes dropping below 90/60, while normal is considered to be between 90/60 and 120/80. (I hope none of the doctors is going to read this :D.) Every time my blood pressure is taken by a doctor, I am asked if I'm feeling ok and told to sit down to avoid fainting. It's amusing already, but I got used to scenes like this over the years. I remember before having surgery, I asked the nurse about my blood pressure and she said 115/80 or so. Most of the people would have had their blood pressure up to the roof, due to fear. I wasn't calm either, but this is how my blood pressure works. This was quite high for me, they just didn't know that. They were happy my blood pressure was normal, by medical standards.

You can imagine when I decided to quit coffee, I knew it can affect my blood pressure a lot and that I had to deal with the symptoms somehow but here I am, five years later, living without coffee or any kind of blood pressure manipulation, and it's going well. The funny thing is, when people are telling me they need coffee as they have low blood pressure, I'm just smiling politely, not saying anything. I know what I know and that's enough for me. I don't want to convince anyone about anything. The only one I want to convince is myself.

Why am I telling you this? Because it serves me as a very good lesson as to why we're doing things. I think this was one of the most important lessons I've learned in life about addiction and self justification, and one of the hardest challenges I've faced in this regard, as all my strengths and willpower was put to the test, but the biggest win as well, because it taught me a lot. Now I know if I was capable of going through all the horrible withdrawal symptoms (shaking, dizziness, headaches, weakness) and resist, I can do a lot more. I can do this no sugar challenge easily and I did it.

Need And Want Are Two Different Things

Saturday was a bit more challenging than Friday. It was the second day and for me it is the day in which I make time to watch some Italian programs, if I'm not away or out. It's common behavior to eat something while watching TV and I'm not any different than the crowd in this regard. Because the programs I'm watching are after lunch, usually I have some snacks ready and it's always something sweet. Well, this time I didn't have anything and tried to train my brain to think that my black tea with lemon (no sugar) is all I can enjoy.

It's interesting how the human mind works. When you know you can't have something, your mind instantly tries to find alternatives, substitutes. I was trying to think what can I eat, that has no sugar, but it's still sweet or it gives me the sensation that I'm having something sweet. This is a dangerous thing if you don't put a stop to it in time, as usually this is how you replace one addiction with another. This is why I decided to not eat fruits in the firs week. Fruits contain both fructose and glucose and once you are not allowed to eat sugar, it's easy to exaggerate on fruit consumption, saying it is healthy. This is why I said NO!

The second weekend was way easier already because in one week you get used to it to some extent and the craving goes away, mostly. At least in my case that's what happened. However, starting from the second week, I allowed myself one fruit per day, which was either apple, or banana, but this was more like my afternoon snack as fruits are better on an empty stomach. How did it feel? The first apple felt a bit strange, but I can assure you, I didn't feel like having a second one. One was enough, which is good. It was already a huge win!

What I noticed during these two weeks is my shopping behavior. A couple of days ago I went shopping with a well defined shopping list, that contained only what I needed for cooking. While roaming around the isles, all of a sudden I thought let's buy some snacks as well. This was a spontaneous reaction to what I usually see in the supermarket and not a conscious thinking. The next second my conscience kicked in and realized I'm not allowed to do that. But other times I'd have bought both sweet and salty snacks, as that's what we usually do, right? I could have still bought salty snacks as I'm allowed to, but I asked myself Do I really need it? Or just want it? Well, you know the answer. I just wanted it, to reward myself. Reward myself, why? For what? I didn't do anything special that needed to be rewarded and besides, I'm not a dog to get a snack every time I do something special. So why reward myself? Because it feels good? Hell no!

And this is how you find the answers to your questions and learn why you do things. If you know why, you know how as well. You just need strength to continue.

Who?

The other major issue you're going to face with similar challenges is the outside influence and I'm not talking about temptation on every corner as soon as you leave the house, but people. Yes, you need to learn how to handle them and stick to your plan. Is it easy? Nope, it's actually just as difficult as saying no to a charming slice of black forest cake, but it's a must if you want to reach your end goal and be in peace with yourself.

When you deviate from a certain behavior, which is common and considered normal, you start to draw attention. Unfortunately most of it is unwanted attention, not pleasant and you can't avoid it either, so the only way is to deal with it in a proper manner.

I have two relatives, who find a way to politely insult me each time we meet. (When God was distributing manners to people, they were standing in another line, where most likely food was handed out.) Most of these polite insults happen when I don't want to do what they do, at their lunch table. When I say no to the stake, which is black, due to exaggerated ground pepper use, or I don't want to have two servings of everything, like they do. These conversations always end the same way, by them telling me, YOLO. Fine, I admit, you only live once, but the quality of the life you live depends heavily of how you treat yourself and the faster you understand that, the better for you. They are both extremely obese, with high blood pressure. One of them had a heart attack a couple of years ago, coded in the hospital and went into kidney failure. He's fine now, but fine has a different meaning in his case.

Would be nice if this would be an isolated case and I would be the only lucky one facing this kind of problems, but if you look around, I bet you can find similar people close to you, who would like to stuff you with food, even if you don't want to eat. Some cultures don't help either as saying no to food and drink you're offered is considered and offense. My culture included obviously, but I don't give a damn about who gets offended when I say NO! It's 2024, hospitality should be about making your guests feel good, not stuffing them to make yourself feel good! Or insulting them because they do something you don't. Sometimes I have 10 people at my lunch table and have to consider all the ingredients they are not allowed to eat or don't like, when preparing the menu and I'm more than happy to do that, as I want them to feel good.

So, it comes the question: Who? Either you or them. Meaning you need to choose between them and yourself, which is not easy to do, it comes at a price, but it gets easier in time as you become immune to what people say about you and they get used to you not doing what they want. It's more difficult for people pleasers and those who's happiness depends heavily on being appreciated by others. But it's the only way in my opinion.

What Now?

Today is the last day of the challenge, which means tomorrow I'm free to do whatever I want. These two weeks served me as a training to have a different mindset and I think I succeeded. I'm not planning on eating sugar anytime soon, like I used to. Most likely I'm going to have a small snack here and there, but my goal is to keep this balance for as long as I can.

No matter what justification you’re selling yourself, it doesn't mean it's true, it just makes you feel better, or less guilty. Now I know I can go without sugar if I want to, it depends exclusively on me! No one else! And if I can do without it, why exaggerate every day? I'm going to have one fruit each day, or a bit more when the fruit season comes, but yesterday for example I forgot to eat my fruit and only realized it this morning.

By the way, today I thanked the trading psychologist for mentioning his no sugar challenge and motivating me to try it out. I was really lucky to be in the right place the right time as I needed this. Life is full of challenges and sometime a lot of self control is needed. We deviate from the right path and abuse different things like alcohol, smoking, drugs, sugar, food in general and so on, but there's always a way back to the right path and it's never too late. You just need to make an effort.

I'm going to close it here as it's already a novel what I wrote. I should say If you got to the end, you're and idiot, but I'm not going to, rather say thank you for reading all this. I hope it helps.

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