Mind Power – No Sugar
Vida Li Sik takes on what she thought impossible — giving up sugar for a month — and learns to make informative food choices
Here’s an admission: I love cake, pastries, biscuits and chocolates. Lots of chocolate. I also drink copious amounts of “normal” tea, which, naturally, calls for two teaspoons of sugar per cup. On top of that, I’m a stress eater. While at school and varsity, I’d often cope with the pressure of exams with an arsenal of sweet treats by my side. Now, I’m often faced with moments during a challenging deadline-driven day at work, where I think, “This problem can only be solved by a bar of chocolate.” Sadly, experience has taught me that it seldom does. In fact, I feel worse afterwards, wracked with guilt over my lack of self-control.
So when I decided to give up all things sugar for a month, I thought I’d surely fail and it took a while for me to commit to the task. The kick I needed to get going followed after a conversation I had with a nursing sister who shared with me that she suffers from Type 2 diabetes. “I just can’t give up sugary things. I love them too much,” she confessed, even as she admitted her health could benefit from such a lifestyle change. “Wow!”, I thought! A health practitioner finds
it hard to give up sugar, even for the sake of her health. What would I do if faced with the same decision, I wondered. I decided to give it a shot.
Note to self: Never attempt a drastic move, on my part, on Mother’s Day!
#NOSUGARFOR30DAYS
The first three days after I made the decision were very hard, and I did my best to talk myself out of it. After all, I had a cake for Mother’s Day that I could not allow to go to waste. Right? Not to mention the chocolate bar and box of assorted Lindt chocolate I got on the same day. What a struggle it was! What finally pushed me along was the Bible verse that says: “Everything
is permissible, but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible but I won’t be mastered by anything (1 Corinthians 6:12, CSB).” There was no way I was going to give in to that piece of chocolate that cried out, ‘Eat me. You know you want to!’ So I put my box of chocolates in a cupboard and out of sight.
USING MIND POWER
While my colleagues at work and immediate family knew, I decided not to share my decision with other people to avoid having too many accountability partners. During the first week, I had to keep asking myself if whatever sweet thing I craved would be “beneficial” to me. If not, then I chose not to have it. After the first week, I thought, “this is not too bad” as I started drinking “normal” tea with milk only, and many cups of black rooibos tea on its own or with a bit of lemon. It was fortunate that I was already used to doing the latter.
AVOIDING TEMPTATION
It would be madness for an alcoholic to go to a bar to test their willpower, but evidently, I thought I could pass the test of going on a date with my husband to a bakery that offers “not bread alone”. Nope, I couldn’t, because this particular coffee shop offered cakes, cookies and a divine chocolate brownie that didn’t even have to beg me to eat it. I confess to not even feeling a tiny bit of guilt for giving in. It was that good. After that indiscretion, I had to learn to avert my eyes from the glass cake tin at home packed with all kinds of baked goodies my family enjoy almost every week.
FINDING ALTERNATIVES
I found reading food labels very helpful. It’s amazing how much sugar is already in what we eat, under difference names (there are at least 56) like glucose, sucrose or dextrose. Cinnamon, which I love, makes a great substitute for honey or sugar over oats, and milk is naturally sweet. I also had no problem including naturally sweet food like fruit.
GOIND FORWARD
Psychology researchers at University College London discovered that it takes at least 66 days (yes, you read right) for a habit to become automatic, and not 21 days as is commonly thought. I find this inspiring, because it means that it’s okay to not get it right immediately and that I shouldn’t judge myself if I “fall off the wagon”. It also means I have “permission to fail”, as long as I quickly get back on track. Lastly, what I’m taking away from this month-long experiment is that change is a process, which starts by taking that all-important first step.