Hey Sugar!

Wait. Considering what I’ve learned about sugar in the last week, I shall not sully your good reputation by using it as your pet name.

About 20 cm of snow fell last night. In response and protest, I have assumed the position demonstrated in the photo and will stay as such until April. Almost true, except the snow, i.e. the threat of someone slipping on our sidewalk and suing us, compelled me to venture out in a toque (don’t picture that) and git ‘er done. Excuse me while I log into My Fitness Pal and choose “9 hours of high-impact aerobics.” Don’t judge me. You haven’t seen my shoveling technique! Oh look, I’ve earned 9125 extra calories today. *snort*

So, sugar. I’ll try to keep this short and… awww, no. That pun almost trapped me! I’m in the middle of listening to Taube’s “Why We Get Fat.” It’s very (yawn) comprehensive, which is awesome but (zzzzz) I sometimes crave the Coles notes. Here’s a fairly succinct synopsis (say that 5 times fast):

“Let’s say you eat a meal that contains carbohydrates. These carbs get broken down into smaller carbs and enter the blood stream in the form of glucose, which is a sugar (aka “blood sugar”).  The body recognizes this spike in blood sugar and starts producing insulin (to be fair, the body has already started producing insulin…just thinking about eating up-regulates insulin production).  This insulin is the hormone that tells your body to remove glucose from the blood and store it as fat.

More Carbs = more blood sugar.
More blood sugar = more insulin.
More insulin = more fat storage.

Now of course this is an oversimplification of the getting-fat process. Blood sugar isn’t always stored as fat plus protein has an effect on insulin (but it’s markedly less severe). HOWEVER, as far as oversimplifications go, it’s a pretty useful one.”

GAH!

THIS IS GETTING DRY. Here’s something to break up the seriousness: I had a fabulous gig on Saturday night, but the town was so small that their accommodation was limited to one motel (the hotel was worse, trust me). Though I stayed in one of the ‘updated’ rooms (questionable), I didn’t sleep alone. I met my first cockroach, who I quickly squished in a tissue and flushed. Then I used intense mind control to go to sleep in a room where I imagined another thousand of them under my bed.

Back to class. Another thing about glucose is that it ‘makes fat cells fatter.’ Even though I haven’t come to the exciting conclusion of my research, it’s safe to assume making my fat cells fatter isn’t going to shrink me. I’ve been eating 1800 calories per day and most of my choices are healthy. Some foods obviously have added sugar. Some are more insidious. My personal culprits include: fat free French Vanilla creamer (my whore lover; it’s SO over), almost every breakfast cereal, fat free salad dressings and what I thought was my new treat – Starbucks Skinny Vanilla Late, may it rest in peace. By the way, run away from soda pop and juice as fast as you can.

The recommended daily amount of sugar according to the American Heart Association (I couldn’t find Canadian data) for women is 35 grams and for men is 45 grams. FYI, 5 grams = 1 Tbsp of sugar. This week I was on a mission to cut down sugar drastically keeping in mind that sugar from fruit (eaten in moderate quantities) does not count towards daily sugar intake. My average daily sugar intake this week was 10.6 grams. Pretty kickass.

I have two friends on a program where they abstain completely from sugar. Kim (Hilarious Shorty), when texted, “What do you eat when you want something sweet?” replied concisely, “Cake.”  That is why I love her. I asked her and Michaelah if they had sugar withdrawal. They did. It was described as similar to having the flu. It hasn’t been too awful for me, but I was a bit moody and tired for a few days. Michaelah claims there is wonderful clarity when you’re off sugar. So, please tell me when you can see through me and I’ll know it’s working.

My big selfish question is, “If I cut out the sugar, am I going to lose weight faster?” I haven’t found a concrete answer for that in my research yet, but I’ll keep looking. Regardless, I’m going to keep dodging sugar for all the obvious reasons to do so.

I have to go gather nuts and berries and fish now. Oh, what’s that? You’re wondering where my ass went? Well, 1.5 pounds of it fell off somewhere this week. I hope nobody tripped on it.

Thanks for being amazing, i.e. being here.

Love,

Lori  (MyFitnessPal: lorihasfun)

Pounds lost this week: 1.5

Total pounds lost: 29.1

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