For the last 28 days, I’ve abstained from added sugar… AND alcohol!
I said at the end of Dry January that my goal for February was to be Damp and (Added) Sugar-Free. This brutally cold and wet winter persisted, and outside of Superbowl Sunday there was no external social pressure to drink alcohol. After 31 days of going without, it was more compelling to keep the streak alive than to have a drink just for the sake of having one – so I didn’t. And neither did Christine. It’s been a nice change, but I’m very much looking forward to a few pints of Guinness on St Paddy’s Day.
Onto a bigger problem… I have a sweet tooth, and living with two small kids who view sugar as a major food group means I’m facing temptation multiple times every day. This is a much more complex issue than alcohol. Because…
(Added) Sugar is everywhere.
“No Sugar Coated Lies.” That was the litmus test. This wasn’t an abandonment of all carbohydrates; it was an aversion to those that are void of any nutritional benefit. Donuts and Reese’s and Birthday Cake, to name a few of my favorite examples.
The only exception was for pre-workout carbs. PB&J is a staple that I’d definitely put in the “questionable” category if there wasn’t exercise involved. A long run or Crossfit workout will burn through that and then some, and the alternative is to risk bonking (having insufficient glycogen levels to support a high-quality workout).
It didn’t take long to realize what I already knew, which is that added sugar is everywhere. It’s embedded into our social rituals. It’s hiding in the prepackaged foods that we bring home from the grocery store. And don’t get me started on restaurants.
It’s no surprise that the US has an obesity epidemic. Avoiding sugar proved to be much more difficult than avoiding alcohol.
Once again, in Week 3, I started to notice positive changes.
The physical and mental cravings were pretty bad in the first two weeks. Then much like in January, things reached an inflection point and became easier.
The most noticeable change was that my desire for any kind of “Sugar Coated Lie” went to zero. We took the kids to The Melting Pot for a Valentine’s Day family date. People go to The Melting Pot specifically to dip Sugar Coated Lies in a melted chocolate concoction (another form of Sugar Coated Lie). Which is exactly what we did. Not only did I abstain, but the fruit on the plate was sweet enough, and we still had an awesome time without it feeling like I wasn’t participating.
I also felt more stability in my energy levels over the course of the day. Considerably more stable… around the clock stable. The normal carb-induced afternoon swings ceased to exist. I also started waking up feeling very well rested on less sleep than usual, and on a pretty rigorous work and exercise schedule.
Eliminating sweets wasn’t the silver bullet of weight loss that I thought it would be.
Given the results that I saw after eliminating alcohol, it seemed like a certainty that the weight loss trend would continue by eliminating sugar. Ultimately I did lose weight from January, but it was a choppy sideways motion for most of the month:
I care about body weight because there’s an established relationship between mass and speed (and power exertion) as it pertains to running. That said, body weight is the sum of a complex set of factors, so I try not to fixate on it.
The qualitative changes from January continued to improve. I continued to feel thinner and less bloated. My clothing continued to feel more loose. It’s possible that my target body weight of 2025 shouldn’t be my body weight of 2023 due to the muscle gains of 2024.
A quote from Sahil Bloom has helped ground me on this topic: Focus on direction, not speed. I’m taking actions that are in line with my goals, and avoiding things that would set me back from reaching those goals. Doing that consistently will eventually generate the results that I want. Direction, not speed!
Next up: Running Streak March!
I’m improvising this as I go, but as long as I continue to find changes that I can put into a one month time-box, the experiments will continue.
I’m going to have (and truly appreciate) a few pints of Guinness on St Paddy’s Day weekend. But nothing before, nothing excessive during, and then nothing after.
Sugar Coated Lies are still out. There’s too much common sense there.
And up next for March is a commitment to run at least 1 mile every day. I’m returning to racing next month with the Eagleton Trail Challenge 50k and I need to drastically improve my running consistency and volume between now and then.