My overdue update is finally here, I have been going through some pretty crazy experiences last week and would love to share it with you now that I have my senses back!
Last Sunday I had the pleasure of meeting Lisa to get my measurements taken and give her all the details she required in order to put my report together. My goals are to add size this year so that is the focus for me when it comes to eating the right foods at the right times it's important I know what i'm doing with Lisa's guidance.
Prior to receiving my report from Lisa I promised myself i would take on board everything she suggested no matter how big or small those changes may be. So when she told me how important it was to remove the artificial sugar from my diet I really didn't think much about it but made a promise to myself to follow everything she suggested so I knew what I had to do, stop using them!
My consumption of these lab made sugars were high and I really didn't notice that until I had to write down everything I put in my mouth for three days.
The funny thing is I don't have a sweet tooth and I didn't consume Extra Drops for the sweetness, but rather I think I just needed something for my mouth to do, like a nervous energy or something along that line. If it wasn't a sugar free drop it would be sugar free gum. It became very habitual and that is where it became a problem but I wasn't aware of it until now.
I have read about the dangers associated with the consumption of artificial sugars but never let it worry me because I was using it and I had no side effects, I ignored it because i was the exception, so I thought.
Day 1: I stopped adding equal to my oats, stopped buying Extra drops and went through my day without any artificial sugars without a problem. It was easy and I couldn't understand why I was consuming so much of it in the first place. It was not for the sweetness, it was just a habit and I could tell by how easy it was not to have them.
Day 2: Still cruising nicely and have no desire to have the sugars. Once I knew it was just habitual I knew it wasn't going to be a problem to change that habit. All was good.
Day 3: This day started bringing me some weird headachy feeling on and off throughout the day, it wasn't really painful but enough to make me notice they were there.
Starting to feel very emotional, very sad and I didn't know why I was feeling so down.
Day 4: Lisa emails to see how i'm doing, I tell her i'm feeling down and emotional (this was in the morning). Things go worse through the day. I'm now feeling so down, so sad, so alone and in a very dark place I didn't like being in because I had no reason to be in such a miserable place. Headaches are still coming and going.
That night my sadness turned to anxiety, anger and tension. It was like a volcano inside of me ready to erupt at the slightest tap. I had a very difficult night trying not to erupt at my innocent Hubby and son, I had to go to my room to be alone before I erupted. (This was not PMT as I had just finished TTOTM a day before seeing Lisa)
Day 5: I went to the gym in the morning still feeling that anger, I trained like a crazy mad man and throw my weights to the ground when i finished each set with anger. This is so out of character for me as I hate bringing attention to myself. I finish my training, get in my car and then started balling my eyes out, it was Niagra Falls for a good hour on and off. The tears poured out of me and if you asked me why I was crying, I couldn't have given you an answer.
Today I am extremely sensitive to sugars. What I mean by this is when i have my protein shake (same brand, flavour, amount etc) it tasted sickly sweet to me, even a carrot tasted so very sweet, I am highly sensitive to anything with the slightest sweetness.
I spoke with Lisa and she told me this was the effects of detoxing from the artificial sugars.
Later that day I started feeling better. I think after the big cry it felt like I cried out the evil that was within me and now I feel relieved and better. Sounds crazy I know but i'm trying to express how I felt.
So today is Day 8 and I am not longer emotional and my sensitivity to sweetness has returned to normal. I know for a fact that the only changes i made to my daily food intake last week was the removal of these chemicals known as sugar. I wanted to implement Lisa's report on my nutrition slowly, one thing at a time so that I could make sure I got everything right.
Basically I am only having one can of Pepsi-max a day (if that) and that is it. I used to go through a packet of Extra Drops a day, plus two packets of equal added to tea or oats, at least 4 pieces of sugar free gum and an Eclipse mint (1-3), and this was in just one day! Add that up over a week, a month, a year, no thanks I don't want to think about it.
It's funny how we think that these things aren't effecting you just because you have no symptoms of it while you taking it. And because I started on them at a small amount per day and gradually increased my intake (blindly) over the months I didn't notice it doing anything to me until i stopped.
I wanted to wish everyone a very happy and prosperous New Year for 2009, I hope we all achieve all our goals for the year.
