Nine Days.

In nine days, I will have completed my sugar free year.

I'm so sorry for giving up on the blog halfway through! I ran out of time and things to talk about (mostly things to talk about), but for those who are interested, my giving up on the blog does not mean I gave up on my sugar free year.

Throughout the part of the year that I didn't document, I had a handful of sugar snafus (in which I ate sugar without realizing it). I also purposely ate sugar at my cousin Frankie's wedding in October -- less than a forkful of frosting from his wedding cake. I know what you're thinking: "HYPOCRITE!" Maybe. But you'd've done it, too, had your cousin's wedding cake been made by the Cake Boss!


One other time, I split an entire can of sour cream and onion Pringles with my best friend, though I knew full well that the sour cream and onion coating contained maltodextrin (aka sugar).


And twice -- though I by no means condone artificial sweeteners -- I had dessert that was sweetened with sugar substitutes (banana pudding once, and banana cake another time. What a coincidence!).



But, over all, I consider my sugar free year a success.

I learned that life is, in fact, possible without dessert. I KNEW IT. And then, I proved it. At the start, I got a little flack about it: "Why do that to yourself? Why voluntarily suffer?" Believe it or not, foregoing traditional dessert (all but thrice, really) wasn't all that bad. While it was occasionally mildly difficult to watch other people eat dessert that I know I'd enjoy, it was by no means torture. And most of the time, I barely noticed let alone felt bothered by it.

Additionally, while I have no proof of it, I also think my memory improved in conjuction with my quitting sugar.

As for the future, I don't think I'll host a sugar party on New Year's Day or anything like that. While it'll be nice to feel free to eat a piece of cake, I really have no desire to eat a piece of cake. I will likely continue to be mostly sugar free even after my sugar free year ends.

Steps: Part 2.

Since 8:30 this morning, I have taken a mere 2,579 steps. That's 1.03 miles Which is nothing in comparison to the 10,000 steps that promote better health and fat loss.

Today was a typical Tuesday: work all day, school at night and lots and lots of sitting.

Holy wow I lead a sedentary life. That is about to change.

Steps: Part 1.

As planned, I spent today -- a day off -- tracking my steps with a pedometer.

Today was a typical Monday. School work at the computer, laundry, ironing, food prep, chiropractor, a short walk to the mailbox, another short walk to a neighbor's. Not including exercise, I took 4,235 steps.

I was a little alarmed when I realized that between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m.-ish, I'd only taken a little over 900 steps. But in the latter half of my day (when I did more of what on the aforementioned list required walking), I made up for my usually sedentary Monday morning.

Clearly, on a day off, I'm nowhere near the desired 10,000 steps per day. Tomorrow, we'll see what it's like when I'm at work all day followed by at school at night. I'd hate to say it, but I don't think I'll be taking more steps tomorrow than I took today.

10,000 steps.

It hit me today that I'm nearly 7 months into my sugar free* year.

If I had learned ten ago that dessert isn't a necessity in my life, I'd probably be 40 pounds lighter. Speaking of which, since quitting sugar, I don't think I've lost any inches of fat and I certainly haven't lost any weight.

It concerns me. But not because I can't figure out why. I'm concerned because I know perfectly well why I'm in no better shape now than I was when I always ate sugar (i.e. I exercise inconsistently, if I'm still awake after eleven at night there's usually food involved, I just plain eat too much, etc.) and yet, I don't do a thing about it.

Until now. And exercise is first on that list.

As some of you know, one of my summer classes is on eating disorders and obesity. In a recent session, the professor mentioned that if you're taking less than 10,000 steps per day, you're probably not promoting weight loss. And according to this web site, she's right.

Ten thousand steps is approximately equal to 5 miles, the site says, and people who do that each day burn an extra 2000 to 3500 calories per day, which promotes results of all kinds (including weight loss and a longer lifespan!).

And I so bet I don't walk anywhere near that far. (I'm a pro-writer, so I sit at a desk all day! I'm a student, which means more desks. I also live far from almost everywhere I go, and as a result, I spend about 8-12 hours a week behind the wheel of a car.)

So tonight, I bought a pedometer. For my first few days as its owner, I'll live life like I have been. Monday, I'll find out how many steps I take on an average day off. Tuesday, I'll learn how far I walk when I'm at work all day and at school in the evening. And on Wednesday, we'll see what it's like on the days when after a day's work, I just head home. If I exercise at all, I won't wear the pedometer (otherwise, my results will be skewed).

Here's hopin' I'm not too far from 10,000 steps per day (but it's probably safe to say that's wishful thinking!).

*In case anybody needs to be caught up: from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2010, I'm not eating anything if it has added sugar, with the exception of bread.** The purpose? To stick it to the man (the one who says I need things like donuts and ho-ho's in my life) and to find out what might change in my body and mind when I'm not consuming an excess in sugar.

**Kinda bet weight loss would be a result if I'd also eliminated bread that has added sugar!

Working out!

You can't be lazy and lose inches of fat.

Two years ago this summer, I set my alarm for 4:45 in the morning so I could make it to Spring Hill Adventure Boot Camp for Women.

Upon waking up when it rang, I finally realized I'm not sane. I mean, who, pray tell, gets up before 5 -- before 6, even -- five days a week for a month to work out with a trainer? Let me tell you: I did.

And it changed my life.

For the first time since high school, I saw results from working out. In four weeks, I lost several inches in several places. I saw, for once, that like much of life, I couldn't get where I wanted to be if I tried to do it alone. We're designed, after all, to be our brothers' (and sisters'!) keepers.

I'll be honest with you -- though it's been more than four months since I've eliminated added sugar from my diet, it wasn't until recently I noticed any change in my size or shape. That's because I wasn't getting adequate exercise. Any good trainer -- like Frank Pastorelli in Florida or Dustin Maher in Wisconsin -- would tell you the best results will come when how you eat and how you work out are both top notch.

Four reasons to hire a trainer

Expertise

"If you hire a good trainer, they definitely know things you don't know," said personal trainer Dustin Maher.
Those things, he said, can make or break your workout. Among them? Ways to work out without getting injured. Ways to safely work out after a pre-existing injury. What to eat in order to best reach your fat loss goal (and when to eat it!). How to keep the fat off once you've lost it.
"Personalized programs and nutritional plans for your needs, goals and body type," said personal trainer Frank Pastorelli. He also said a good trainer makes sure the trainee doesn't hit a fitness plateau. Often times, when you work out alone, "you'll get results in the beginning. But they'll come to a permanent halt." A trainer, he said, can see those plateaus coming and change the workout routine before they happen.

Accountability

Pastorelli can always tell when a trainee has reached his or her limit. But in the following, he's a firm believer: "You would have quit 20 seconds ago if you didn't have me, or whoever, there to get the most out of you."
A trainer, Maher said, doesn't just keep you accountable during the workouts. His or her presence also keeps you accountable on the days in between them.
"Chances are, someone who's really unhealthy (or) overweight doesn't have a good support network around them," he said. A trainer can be that network -- or, at least, get it started.

You can probably afford it.

"Some people truly can't afford it," Maher said. But "I tell people there's no money in the world to trade for health."
One of his trainees, Becky Runo, agrees.
"So many people will pay $4 a day on a calorie, sugar-laden mocha and not give it a second thought," she said. "But when it comes to paying for even one personal training session, they can't afford it."
Pastorelli sees the same pattern.
"Just brew your own (coffee) and hire a trainer," he said. "I hate the excuses." Some people say they can't afford it, he said, but "they'll go spend $50 on a meal at Outback."
The issue, the trainers said, is usually less about money and more about priorities.

Results

Runo, 38, has been working out with Maher for more than 15 months. Before she started training, she weighed 174 pounds but changed her diet. When she reached 154 pounds, she met Maher. Three months later, she weighed 124.
"My body has really transformed in more (ways) than the scale alone conveys," she said. "I have much more tone and definition."
And the results, she said, wouldn't be as good without a trainer.
"I never push myself as hard as Dustin pushes me," she said. "Even on the days when I'm working out on my own, I know he is going to ask me about what I did. So, in a sense, he is still there, encouraging me."

I'm back!

As of Tuesday night, I am academically free!

Until summer classes, that is. But maybe once they start, the workload won't be as heavy as mine during the spring semester and I won't neglect the blog. Just in case, I'll try to step it up with updates in the time between now and then.

You'll be glad to know that since my last sugar snafu, my eating has been without mishap. I am still sugarless! Speaking of which, I've got a quick story:

The other morning, while I got ready for work, I stood near my mom's mug of coffee. I'm not a coffee drinker. I don't taste it. I don't make it. Nor do I pay attention when others do. So, I had to ask her.

"Do you put sugar in your coffee?"

She said yes.

And I knew it. Wanna know how?

Because I could smell it. I wonder if that's a sign of my sensitivity to sugar now that my body's not used to it!

I could be wrong, of course, but I really don't remember ever getting a whif of coffee and knowing the difference between it with and without sugar. Interesting, no?

Disclosure.

Forgive me.

Not just for failing to update since mid-March, but for sitting here at my desk munching some Snyder's of Hanover pretzels that have dextrose (a.k.a. sugar) in them.

Clearly starving, my foggy brain convinced me that I'd gotten the pretzels before and all was well in my sugar free year. But upon donating $.50 to the vending machine, I realized I was wrong.

But today, hunger outweighed wrongness.

And I won't let this happen again.

My sugarless brain does it again!

Forgive me for taking far too long to write! Let's just say my Spring Break felt a lot like finals week. But while I work toward repressing that (I kid.), let's move on to the matter at hand.

You might remember that a few weeks ago, I took a test in my human growth and development class. While I studied for it, and when the time to take the test arrived, my brain recalled what I needed to know with a rapidity I'd never before experienced. (In case anyone wondered how I did on the test, I got a 98. Go on. Celebrate with an air guitar solo. I did!) Immediately, I became convinced my elimination of added sugar played a part in that.

I am still convinced.

Two nights ago, I took a mid-term in my legal, ethical and professional standards of counseling class. Because of a few scheduling snafus (and a slight lack of diligence on my part), fate left me with Thursday, Friday and Sunday for making my flash cards. That left me with Monday -- until the exam at 6:20 p.m. -- to quiz myself with them.

Would you believe my brain did it again? One card after another. And my professor posted grades last night. How did I do, you ask?

I got a 60.

Out of 60.

[Insert celebratory air guitar solo.]

the whole person

I'm off to study shortly, but something hit me this morning and I'd like to share it!

Last semester, a professor of mine expressed her qualms with the fact that there's always been this great divide between mental health professionals and medical doctors. So many mental health professionals are solely concerned with the mind and so many medical doctors are solely concerned with the body. But what happens to one affects the other since they are, in fact, connected. No matter the setting, we need to look at the whole person.

That's why I think it's time to take my sugar free year up another notch.

So I've got this sugar thing down. Thanks to sugar's many names and perpetual need to show up in the most surprising of products, I've really cut back on eating anything that comes in cans, bags or boxes. If I do, I read the entire ingredients list and I don't go for it if I'm not completely sure it has no sugar. But as I ultimately head toward taking care of my body the way a body really needs to be taken care of, there are a few more steps I'll need to take.

1. Prayer. I pray -- but I need to be more consistent. If I could only get my sleep schedule on track, I'd be up early enough to go to daily morning mass. Which brings us to...

2. Sleep. Oh, how I enjoy sleeping. But I a) need to get to bed earlier so that b) I can get at least eight hours but still arise early enough in the morning so I won't need to rush to get to work.

3. Exercise. I do -- but I need to be more consistent.

I figure if I'm taking this year to eliminate my dependence on the excessive sugar the food industry says we should all be ok eating, I may as well work on some of the rest of what's necessary as part of a healthy life.

Why not now?

To quote a Tobymac song I've heard a lot lately...

"If you gotta start somewhere, why not here? If you gotta start sometime, why not now?"

Every time I hear it, I think of the state of this culture.

I think about the American obsession with all that's quick and easy. I think about the way so little of what goes on here is about preventing problems. I am reminded that this culture's focus is always, always on finding ways to negate problems without actually removing the things that caused them. And so few seem aware that living like that never works out well. Without fail, the quick fixes screw something else up in one way or another and in response, we look for a new quick fix to fix the mess the first one made.

Absurd, no?

What a place. What a place where drugs exist for every symptom. We can't get food except for from an industry that cares more about profit than people. We choose coffee over sleep and we're all right with it. We live for money (think about it. We do.). Will power is obsolete. Toddlers eat Circus Peanuts.

The longer we let it go, the worse it'll get. The longer we participate, the more it gets our vote. It's overwhelming. And it's hard. What are some ways we can make a change? Shop at a farm or a farmer's market instead of a grocery store. Get enough sleep. Make lunch for a homeless person. Simplify your life. Declutter your space. Give it away if you never wear, use, look at it. Don't feed crap to your kids. What are your ideas?

We've gotta start sometime.

Why not now?

Marie brings up a good point.

A friend and former colleague of mine named Marie sent me a great note in response to my blog. I'd like to take a quick sec to share part of it with you!

"I had some work done on my teeth. I could only eat soft food and my daughter, trying to help me, brought me some baby food. I was horrified at the amount of sugar in baby food. Food companies should be sued for this. Poor babies. I wonder if mothers read labels. I wanted to scream! Needless to say, the baby food is still in my pantry two months later. I do not want to give it to a food bank because I feel it will harm little ones."

Wow she's right! Even among all things food related that cross my mind on a regular basis, since I don't have children, I never really thought about what the youngest of us eat. Marie's baby food experience reminds me of the time I saw a woman walk out of a convenience store with a package of Circus Peanuts. She opened it and gave it to her toddler.

Would you like to know what's in a Circus Peanut? Sugar. Corn syrup. Gelatin. Pectin. Artificial flavor. And colors yellow 6, yellow 5 and red 40. No adult needs that, let alone a toddler!

Sigh. Something's gotta be done. We really do need a food revolution.

Aspartame.

History lesson: in a lab years ago, some guy sought to create a drug for treating ulcers. While he worked, some of the substance must have stuck to his fingers because later -- rumor has it while he flipped through the pages of a book -- he licked a finger and discovered that what he hoped would become an ulcer drug tasted really sweet.

Today, we know it as aspartame.

Aspartame is the ingredient in NutraSweet and Equal that inspires so many people to pour it into coffee without reservation. It's also in a newer artificial sweetener called AminoSweet. I did a little digging this morning and on AminoSweet's website, I found a press release posted by its maker, Ajinomoto, about its defense of aspartame. In part, it read as follows:

"Products sweetened with aspartame help people to control their weight. At a time when the health profession and the government are seeking ways to combat overweight and obesity, it is unconscionable that ASDA should try to villify a safe and beneficial food ingredient."

To ASDA (a European grocery store), villify on! There has been lots of controversy over aspartame for years, and lots of people who speak out against it: like DORway, and a documentary called Sweet Misery and a list of 92 side effects reported to the FDA by the countless who swear the sweetener has hurt them. Personally, I'm a believer. But beyond the complaints about the synthetic sweetener causing health problems, the real reason I encourage ASDA (and the rest of the world) to put up a fight against aspartame is Ajimoto's defense of it.

It basically says products sweetened with aspartame help people control their weight, and at a time when ways are sought to combat obesity, how dare the world trash talk aspartame.

Bull. How dare aspartame (and the people behind it) sleep at night? Yeah, there may be some truth to its ability to help a person control his or her weight, but that means squat to me. Aspartame is an enabler. It's another excuse humans can use to live one way and look like they live another. It's nutritional narcissism. It's another step away from behavior modification and another step toward a weak and helpless human race. And that, friends, is what is unconscionable.

I find it funny that when somebody has diabetes (it runs in my family) or wants to lose weight, so many are quick to cut out sugar and even quicker to replace it with artificial sweeteners. They give up soda, but drink diet soda daily. They don't put sugar in their coffee anymore -- instead, they use Equal.

It's typically American that we'd convince ourselves we need soda so much that to give it up altogether is absurd, and to replace it with drinks that are laced with what should have been an ulcer drug makes sense.

If you want to control your weight, you have to control yourself. And aspartame doesn't promote that ability.

Sugar and the brain.

Friends, grad school is hard.

By hard, I mean time consuming. Brain stretching. Challenging. But totally awesome, with the exception of midterms and finals. (Those will always stink.) Yesterday, while I quizzed myself with flash cards for a test in Human Growth and Development, I noticed something interesting.

Apparently, my memory is amazing.

Now, I don't mean to brag. I mean to express the following: WHAT THE CRAP IS HAPPENING TO MY BRAIN? But, you know, in a good way! While I studied, I sincerely, repeatedly surprised myself with how quickly I recalled what I hadn't read about in weeks. I assure you that this has never happened before. I'm not a bad student by any means (3.7ish undergrad GPA, represent!), but studying has never been my strong suit.

Anyway, I almost blogged about it right away, but I didn't want to jump the gun and bomb the test. So tonight, I took the test and -- once again -- I surprised myself.

The test, mostly essays with some matching and multiple choice, was simple until I got to page four, where two essays were worth a combined value of 18 points (out of 100). My heart sank because I hadn't studied either topic. I really had no idea. So, I wung it. I went with answers that seemed feasible and moved ahead. Afterward, unable to take the suspense, I checked the textbook. As I skimmed for something relevant to the second of the two essays I was sure I bombed, I vaguely remembered reading the chapter.

Weeks ago.

And when I found the answer, I surprised myself again because at least 2/3 of what I wrote was exactly what the book advised (and the other third should count as well, according to my mom who already has a master's degree in what I'm studying). How, pray tell, did I pull it out of my brain without a reminder of it between learning it and being tested on it? And how is any of this relevant to my sugar free year?

Well, I can't help but wonder: is there a connection between sugar and memory? Could it be that my breaking up with sugar has given my brain new powers?

Clearly, I haven't done the research. Yet. But so far, I think I'm a believer.

Support Jamie's Food Revolution!

Love it.

Label happy.

Since learning about sugar's several names, I've gotten a little label happy. I read labels like my life depends on it (and in some ways, it's starting to seem like that's possible).

Even when I have no plans to consume what's inside the box, bag or container, I find it all really interesting. For instance: Friday night, while some family members sat around the kitchen table sipping coffee, I read the back of their powdered, non-dairy -- I repeat, non-dairy -- creamer container.

Among the ingredients? Milk.

Who do these people think we are? And how much longer are we going to take it? If I'm starting to sound like a renegade eater, ready to forsake convenience for the sake of my health, it's because I'm probably on the verge of becoming one.

The more I look into what we are being fed (both literally and not-so-literally), the more inspired I am to steer clear of the standard American diet. And the easier my sugar free year starts to feel.

Study snacks.

I should be studying.

In fact, I should have been studying all day, when instead, I surfed the Web, braided my hair, watched three Lifetime movies and caught up on my Google Reader. (In my defense, my uterus hurts and this is what I do when my uterus hurts.) (Is that TMI?)

Now that night has rolled around, I managed to get myself to turn off the TV and my flash cards, text book and notes are a few feet away. Still, something is missing.

Study snacks.

I like to crunch while I cram. Whenever I study, I get the munchies. But during my sugar free year, I am having the hardest time finding easy snacks. So far, popcorn is all that really qualifies. And as mesmerizing as it is to stand dangerously close to the microwave to watch the miracle of popcorn unfold with the bag that holds it, it's getting kind of old.

There's always the concoction -- bananas, walnuts and honey -- or, as I discovered this weekend, a spoonful of all natural peanut butter (ingredients: peanuts and salt. I love it!) plus honey. But... is there anything else?

I am open to ideas.

a letter to the American food industry

Dear food industry,

First and foremost, thank you.

Thank you for existing. Thank you for filling our grocery shelves, shopping carts and stomachs. Thank you for funny commercials, free delivery and fabulous selection. Thank you for saving time for parents with Hamburger Helper, frozen dinners and fast food restaurants. Thank you for turning lunchtime into Food Heaven for kids (most notably with Luncheables, Handi-Snacks and Squeeze-It). Thank you for dollar menus and dollar-off coupons and under-the-cap contests.

While I thank you for the ways you have supplemented American life, I would be remiss not to thank you for even more of what you have done. So, thank you also for clogged arteries and obesity. Thank you for cancer, heart attacks and the bypass surgeries you inspire. Thank you for the fat that fills the spaces between our vital organs and the rest of our torsos, especially in people who have pot bellies. (And thanks for not fear mongering, as you would have been if you hadn't refrained from warning us it would happen. Way to go!) Thank you for diabetes, for cavities and for cankles.

We appreciate it.

What's that, food industry? You're feeling a little misled by my first paragraph? And it hurts? Well, DON'T DISH IT OUT IF YOU CAN'T TAKE IT. But that, food industry, isn't my only suggestion.

For starters, be honest. Don't act like we know what maltodextrin is. Unless you tell us it's sugar, we can't know (Oh, snap! The secret is out!). And speaking of secrets, define natural flavors. Don't act like anyone knows what it is.

And care, for once, about something other than the bottom line. Your dishonesty causes death.

You don't need to exchange morality for money. You can have both, if it's what you really want. Need I remind you what country we're in? If you tell us what your food has that we don't need (and why we don't need it) and what your food doesn't have that we do need (and what will happen if we don't get it), there are millions of lazy Americans who will still buy what you sell. If you want to get really crazy, forsake the things in your food that we don't need and sell us real food instead. If that's a step you aren't willing to take, then for the sake of the ones who care, stop acting like what you have to offer is exactly what we need.

It is evident, by the way, that you have partnered with the diet industry, the medical industry and several infomercials. But don't get excited. Several of us are aware that you cannot be healthy if all you eat is "healthy" frozen meals. We know that even a little fast food does hurt. We realize you cannot keep the results of working out if you eat anything you want and if exercise is easy, it is clear that you are doing it wrong.

But, I digress.

Finally, I also suggest you put a lot of thought into whether you will be able to live with the chest pains caused by eating what comes from your line of work, and with the stents that are sure to follow. (It might be wise, too, to consider whether you can handle knowing you caused that and worse in several million other people.)

Sincerely,
Arleen Spenceley

---

Notes to readers:

1. No offense to people with pot bellies. It's important that American eaters know that as fat distributes in the body, it is more likely to show up surrounding vital organs when a person has a large stomach.

2. I have never had a cavity. Heck yeah!

Go Jamie!

As a longtime appreciater of nutrition and English accents, I am stoked to share the following quote, which comes from a guy who promotes both:

"My wish is for you to have a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, to inspire families to cook again and to empower people everywhere to fight obesity ... This is a global problem. It is a catastrophe. It is sweeping the world. England is right behind you [America], as usual ... We need a revolution." -Jamie Oliver, a.k.a. The Naked Chef.

The quote comes from a CNN story about the celebrity chef's recent win of the TED Award. The prize is given annually to a different speaker at the TED Conference, a gathering of good thinkers who share ideas that could probably rock the world. Each winner gets the honor and a cash prize, plus the chance to share a wish for the world. According to the story on CNN,

"Oliver outlined a number of specific steps to help America get back to local and fresh foods and to combat obesity. Among them, he said:

• Every child in the U.S. should learn to cook 10 meals before leaving high school.

• Supermarkets should appoint 'food ambassadors' to explain to customers how they can prepare local, fresh and seasonal foods.

• Food companies should make education a central part of their business.

• Food labeling should be improved to accurately warn people about unhealthy food. He called America's current food-labeling system a 'farce.'"

So I think I speak for all of us when I say, "Go Jamie!" Now, go watch the video of him featured with the story on CNN. It's only a little over 2 minutes long. Bask in his wisdom and his accent.

Duped.

I can't say I didn't see this coming. But just FYI, on a daily basis, we are duped. All of us. Swindled. Hoodwinked. Made victim of cold hearted corporate trickery! Read on and I will explain.

On the way to work this morning, I stopped at Publix to replenish my workday snack supply. Since starting my sugar free year, I'm an avid reader of ingredients lists while I aimlessly wander the aisles waiting to spot some deliciosity. Today, I spotted it quickly. A can of wasabi-soy covered almonds. Love them! [insert celebratory air guitar solo]. Buy one, get one? Don't mind if I do! I cradled the nut cans and decided I'd check out the Cheez-Its. While I walked toward the cracker aisle, I read the ingredients on the almonds.

Three ingredients in, I got de-nied. Almonds, canola oil, sugar.

Oh come on! So naturally, with a heavy heart because I love any and all combinations of wasabi and soy, I put them back on the shelf. I replaced them with the much less exciting but sugarless salt and pepper nut mix and moved on to the Cheez-Its. I chose Italian Four Cheese, paid for the snackage and went to work.

When I got a free minute, while stuffing my face with Italian Four Cheese Cheez-Its, I decided to do what I've been putting off: look a little deeper into alternative names for sugar. I knew there were several substances that hide in ingredients lists. They lay low like nothing's wrong when what's really, really wrong is that they are sugar masquerading as things you've never heard of. Some are actually sugar under a sneaky name, and some are basically sugar under a sneaky name. Either way, it is best that I avoid them.

So tell me how horrible it is that both the nuts I bought this morning and the Cheez-Its are wolves in sheep's clothing.

Yeah, that's right! Planters Salt and Pepper Nut Mix sits there in the can, acting sugarless, not even telling you about maltodextrin! And you think there's no sugar in Cheez-Its? How about they have both dextrose and corn syrup solids?

Like I said. Hoodwinked.

It looks like I'll need to step it up a notch or several for the rest of my sugar free year. I'll put some thought into what snacks are safe and report back later. In the meantime, courtesy of trainer Dustin Maher, here's a list of what you might see in an ingredients list that may as well say sugar.

1. Barley malt
2. Barbados sugar
3. Beet sugar
4. Brown sugar
5. Buttered syrup
6. Cane juice
7. Cane sugar
8. Caramel
9. Corn syrup
10. Corn syrup solids
11. Confectioner’s sugar
12. Carob syrup
13. Castor sugar
14. Date sugar
15. Dehydrated cane juice
16. Demerara sugar
17. Dextran
18. Dextrose
19. Diastatic malt
20. Diatase
21. Ethyl maltol
22. Free Flowing Brown Sugars
23. Fructose
24. Fruit juice
25. Fruit juice concentrate
26. Galactose
27. Glucose
28. Glucose solids
29. Golden sugar
30. Golden syrup
31. Grape sugar
32. High Frustose Corn Syrup
33. Honey
34. Icing sugar
35. Invert sugar
36. Lactose
37. Malt
38. Maltodextrin
39. Maltose
40. Malt syrup
41. Mannitol
42. Maple syrup
43. Molasses
44. Muscovado
45. Panocha
46. Powdered Sugar
47. Raw sugar
48. Refiner’s syrup
49. Rice syrup
50. Sorbitol
51. Sorghum syrup
52. Sucrose
53. Sugar (granulated)
54. Treacle
55. Turbinado sugar
56. Yellow sugar

Sweet!

So I'm 39 days into my sugar free year. Is it just me, or does it seem like it's been longer? Anyway, for those who are just now joining me, a recap:

In the last month and a week, I've already had a couple of sugar snafus: twice I ate sugar accidentally. And during a bout of what may or may not have been the plague, all I could (and sometimes couldn't) keep down was Jello and Gatorade. So we're going to have to cross off that week. According to some, we should rename the blog: my almost sugar free year.

But that just isn't as catchy.


Aside from the aforementioned failu--- No. Incidents. We'll call them incidents. Aside from them, things haven't been so bad. I rarely crave sweets and when I do, I can usually quench it with fruit or quell it with distraction. Except for once.


I can't remember what my parents were parading around -- brownies, cookies. Something like that. (I've repressed it.) But I needed something sweet. So, I raided the kitchen. And this -- totally legal in terms of my sugar free year -- is what I came up with:

1 banana, sliced.

a handful of crumbled walnuts.

a teaspoon (or two) of all natural honey drizzled across the top.

I call it... the concoction. And it was delish! Hit the spot totally, and I haven't really craved sweetness ever since (at least not to the extent that required my raiding the kitchen).

I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

WARNING: Some of the following might be TMI for those who have vivid imaginations. But suck it up. You can handle it!

Wow it's been forever. My apologies for keeping you out of the loop! What's kept me from blogging was horrid. If I had enemies, I wouldn't wish it on them. And it forced me to put my sugar free year on pause. Time to disclose!

On a recent Monday, I spent all day trying to study for the class I'd have that night. But, friends, it just wasn't happening. I had less than no appetite, so I barely ate a bowl of soup and for the entire day, that's all. When I'd read, I'd fall asleep. When I'd sit up, I'd feel weak. When I'd walk, I'd get dizzy. And when four o'clock rolled around, I ignored it all and headed off to school. (So studious!)

By the time I got there (it takes an hour one way), I could barely hold my head up. My skin hurt. My joints ached. I experienced eye socket sensitivity. (Crazy!) And as long as my eyes were open, I was woozy. Class clearly wasn't going to work out for me. So half way into it, when the the prof gave us our ten minute break, I told him, in other words, that I might be dying so I needed to go home.

Somehow, undoubtedly by the grace of God, I made it home without stopping to spew. But what followed was horrible. Dizziness. Weakness. Couldn't keep food or liquids up (or down). (Is that TMI?) Dehydration. Delirium from the fever that fought the sickness. (That part was funny.) I didn't go back to school at all that week, and I didn't go back to work until Friday. And all I ate --- confessions! --- was Jello, and all I drank was Gatorade. Clearly, friends, these items broke my rules. But my mom made me do it (in effort to avoid extreme dehydration). I complied.

But by Friday of that week -- when I could finally keep food both up and down -- I began, once again, eating real food and ever since, all of it's been sans sugar.

Coming soon: what to do when you can't eat sugar that doesn't naturally occur but you are craving sweets! I found the ultimate solution. Stay tuned!

A vending machine MIRACLE.

So last Tuesday night, I'm in class when I realize I am starving.

Tuesdays are odd, schedule-wise, in that I go from work to school, where I arrive early to read before class. I always end up eating an early dinner, and I also always end up in class when I'd normally be eating dinner. And to make up for that, I try to bring a snack.

Well Tuesday, I should have tried harder. But snackless and hungry, I held it together until class ended. On my way to my car, I passed... the vending machine. Basically, I've lived under the impression that in 2010, snack vending machines are entirely off limits. How can I know if what I get is sans sugar? And how many quarters am I really willing to sacrifice to find out?

I was hungry enough, it turns out, to sacrifice $1.75.

The dollar was a wrinkly bill. (And I apologize to all the hungry people who probably lost dollars after I did since mine jammed the machine and I didn't get to buy anything with it.)

The 75 cents got me a bag of Cheez-Its. Entirely committed to putting them back into the vending machine for the next lucky snacker to find in the event they included sugar, I flipped to the back of the bag to read.

Friends, Cheez-Its do not have sugar.

Do not take this lightly. It was a vending machine miracle!

Cakes and clarifications.

First and foremost, I encountered my second sugar snafu just last night. My mom poured Pretzel Crisps into a bowl and left them on the kitchen table. While I walked by, I mindlessly grabbed one and munched. When I realized what I had done, I sought out its package and hoped for the best while I read the ingredients.

The ingredients included sugar. Even though the crisps only include 2 grams of sugar per serving -- and I only ate a tiny fraction of a serving -- this second snafu served as a good reminder: Always check the ingredients, Arleen!

And now, on to other matters: For those who read my most recent entry -- about being tempted by a colleague's birthday cake -- know it was only the beginning.

After work that evening, I met a friend at Chili's, where somebody was celebrating something big in the conference room. While Amanda and I waited for our food, a guy walked by with a ginormous sheet cake, even bigger than the one I tried hard to ignore at my office.

So after dinner, when I headed home, I figured I was in the clear. I could keep my distance from what I can't eat. I could munch on something naturally sweet, like fruit, if I really had to. But while I watched a little TV, the unthinkable happened.

"Arleen!" A voice interrupted my show. "Help me!"

I jumped off the couch and ran to the kitchen. There, I found her:

My mom. My mom covered in splattered cake batter, in fact. More cake, being baked in my own house, no less! Long story short, my mom needs a new mixer. But I stayed strong while I helped her clean the mess the mixer made. I also stayed strong while I watched her ice the three layer coconut creme filled cake. And I also stayed strong while she, my dad and a family friend ate it after dinner the following night.

In its stead, I ate an orange.

And it was delicious.

Something sweet in lieu of something sweeter, in a culture that says sweeter is better. Half way through the first month of my sugar free year, I would already beg to differ. But as mentioned a couple entries ago, I have been criticized for feeling this way (or maybe just for acting on this feeling?). So for the sake of any new readers who don't have time to catch up, I'll clarify the point of my 2010 experiment with a recap of what I'm doing.

From Jan. 1, 2010 to Jan. 1, 2011, I will not consume foods that have sugar unless sugar naturally occurs. (Not intentionally, anyway...) In other words, if sugar is added, I won't eat (or drink) it. Considering the basically (but not extremely) healthy eating habits I had before 2010, this means I've cut out desserts. Most dressings (some salad dressings, certain sauces, etc.). Many juices. Chocolate (except for raw chocolate, which I haven't had yet this year anyway, and likely won't for awhile since it's expensive and Godiva has spoiled my tastebuds). I am still eating bread, but tending toward loaves that are freshly baked and sugarless (which is unfortunately not always possible).

For as long as I can remember, sugar and I have had a love/hate relationship. I love the way it tastes when I eat it, but I hate the way I feel later. Sleepy, anxious, depressed... By no means do I believe I need no sugar -- as it sounds like some of my critics believe. But by no means do I believe my body needs the excess of sugar that, without fail, I get when I consume the desserts, dressings, juices, etc. listed above.

And while my family and friends continue to eat cake around me (literally), I will spend this year learning what it's like to live a life without sugar... a body without it, a mind without it. And I believe it will be worth it.

Lord, beer me strength!

One minute, I'm sorting press releases. The next, I am being taunted. I so didn't see this coming.

From afar, I heard the door click shut and shoes shatter the silence in the hall that leads to the newsroom (10 points for alliteration). A colleague of mine walked in and up to the empty desk a mere three seats from mine. In his arms, he cradled my worst workday nightmare:

a freakin' birthday cake.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking over my shoulder in three minute intervals to gaze upon it longingly. I watched another colleague cut herself a slice. I can't smell its deliciocity in my nose, but I can smell it in my heart. I can taste the buttercream. I can't tell from here what it's filled with, but in my imagination, it's cannoli filling.

Lord, beer me strength!

For my sugar free year -- for the record -- this is such a first. And with approximately several hundred days left, it won't be the last.

A quick update...

I wrote the following last night, but didn't have time to press "Publish" before my professor started the class:

Minus the bean salad snafu from last week, my sugar free year is off to a great start. From the lobby of the Florida Mental Health Institute, I'll fill you in while I wait for my next class:

In just twelve days [almost] entirely sans sugar that doesn't occur naturally, I feel different. Good different. More energetic different. Most days, I'm up between 6:30 and 7 in the morning now, as opposed 7:30 or 8 a.m. or later, which is when I'd usually arise before sugar and I split up. I'm quicker to get ready before work, quicker to complete tasks at work. More motivated to exercise. Really freakin' hyper! Ask Fernando. Or Sarah. Boy, do they know.

Fun fact: I've had a few dreams about sugar this week. And in real life, I really haven't craved it (minus when I saw a sign for a molten chocolate cake at Chili's. That looked good.) So far, living "sugar free" hasn't been too hard. It's work, in that you have to be familiar with the several shady names there are for sugar (there'll be a blog on that in awhile!). You have to read the ingredients or, preferably, you have to eat the kinds of foods that don't require ingredients. For those, you have to shop the "outskirts" of your grocery store -- the produce section, the meat department. The bakery (some bread doesn't have sugar!). The hardest part so far has been the criticism, which inspires me to clarify what this experiment is about.

And since class is about to start, I will do that next time!

PANIC.

Greetings from my grandparents' house! I'm here tonight for dinner, where I ate a delightful dish of chicken, rice and veggies -- with a side of sugar. But I'll get to that in a minute.

When I arrived at the g-rents', I walked into the kitchen where I noticed a pan of freshly baked brownies. Heartbreak! Before we even ate, I had to turn down dessert. And while I explained to my grandma why I'm giving up sugar, I mindlessly fiddled with a package I found on the kitchen counter, which turned out to be fudge, and that just further proves the title of my last post: sugar is everywhere.

Anyway, in the middle of my first bite of chickeny goodness, my grandmother pulled a bowl of beans out of the fridge. Three bean salad. I've never been a big fan, but vegetables are vegetables, you know? So naturally, I plopped a scoop onto my plate and took a bite. Little did I know that shortly after, the entire planet would shatter into several million pieces, each of which would punch me in the face. Hard.

"I'd hate to tell you this," my granda said. "But I think that has sugar in it."

Pardon me while I weep!

My grandpa suggested, however, that since the bean salad came from a can, it might have sugar alcohol instead of sugar. I googled sugar alcohol, which turns out to be sweetener I don't condone. But for the sake of my sugar free year, I needed to know: sugar, or sugar alcohol?

So my grandparents and I may or may not have dug through two trash cans to find the label from the bean salad. (Relax. We washed our hands.)

The ingredients are as follows: Green beans, water, wax beans, kidney beans, distilled vinegar, dehydrated onions, red peppers, salt, soybean oil, turmeric and...

sugar.

I'm still in shock. I refuse -- though I am tempted -- to call myself a failure. It is neither my grandparents' fault nor mine. (Feel free, however, to write angry letters on my behalf to the staff of Seneca Foods Corp. in Marion, NY.) (Oh, I kid!)

I think there's a lesson in this, though: living sugar free is going to be harder than I thought. But I still believe it'll be worth it.

Sugar is everywhere.

Sugar is everywhere.




Everywhere.

I mean, hot dang. Yesterday afternoon, for example, I stopped by Barnes and Noble to browse. Before I even got to the books, I got a whif of what I do believe were freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. The still-hot kind, with the melty chocolate chips, that are really actually too hot to eat, but you eat them anyway because really, who could resist.

But I resisted.

And when I got home last night, I opened the fridge for no good reason, which is where I found rice freakin' pudding. I love rice pudding. Oh, you don't even know.



This morning, I woke up at 6:40 to be at church by 7:30 so I could sell donuts. But that's actually ok, because I don't really like donuts.

But this afternoon, I had a late lunch at Red Lobster to celebrate my grandpa's 77th birthday. My parents shared a Warm Apple Crumble A La Mode. And they shared it while I sat between them. It's not because they are cruel, but because it just so happened that's the way we landed in the booth. But, friends, it was mildly similar to torture.

My mom to the left, my dad to the right. My temptation in the middle. It even smelled like sugar. But I stayed strong, since I'm entirely serious here about having a sugar free year. In effort to assist my efforts to not accidentally take a bite of the apple crumble in some sort of sugarless stupor, I asked our server whether Red Lobster has fruit.

They do! Of course it's the fruit that they use to garnish big, colorful and frozen alcoholic beverages, but the bartender was happy to hand a few strawberries, orange slices and pinapple triangles off to the girl in the corner booth who is spending 2010 forsaking her sweet tooth.

So I am all right, three days in. Only 362 to go.