Sugar, Sugar

You got me wanting you!!! How did Arch and the gang from Riverdale know just how I would be feeling.   At least once a day, ok once an hour, my mind fills with all things sugar.  But its not just sweet innocent sugar plums dancing in my head, its hardcore sweet tooth candy bars like Reese peanut butter cups and snickers or five cent ju jubes, washed down with by an Arnold Palmer or an ice tea lemonade from Starbucks.

It wasn't until I got on the paleo wagon and read Robb Wolf's "Paleo Solution"  that I completely cut sugar out.  This omission made me realize how much this simple substance had taken over my life.  Back when I started "casually" crossfitting and eating in the "zone"  I had myself fooled into thinking I had my junk food binging under control.  When in fact sugar was in control of me and I didn't even know how much harm it was doing to me. During low sugar times of my day my life revolved around getting that fix of something sweet.  Isn't acknowledge one of the first of 12 steps? Dr Drew would have a field day with my classic case of addiction.

But since making the 30 day commitment to go paleo, sugar just had to go.  What I am quickly learning though is that  ridding your body of the sweet stuff isn't as much fun as it was putting it in there.  The withdrawal as my blood sugar rises and falls with the time of day has been the worst part.  At any given point of my day I can feel weak, tired, dizzy and without warning a raging headache can emerge just as quickly as my mood can take an ugly turn.  I used to call the hour just before dinner "the witching hour" but for so many different reasons.   Sugar is a tricky vice, just because you aren't eating a chocolate bar doesn't mean you aren't consuming mass amounts of the stuff everyday in almost everything you eat.  It hides in almost all the foods that we were keeping in our home.  I mean the tip off that you should avoid having it in your system is that it has more street names than ecstasy. Now obviously sugar in fruits and veggies wasn't what I am going after and I am still debating whether I should bend the rule and allow natural sweeteners like agave or honey, a girl has to have something sweet once in a while.   Regardless life without sugar is tough and right now no amount of tea is going to replace a big gooey freshly cooked chocolate chip cookie.