Sweet Nectar of Life

Now that my official sugar and coffee hiatus (always separate NEVER mixed) is over, I feel great. This is partly due to having awesome friends that surprised me with birthday coffee and jelly doughnuts to celebrate my latest year of existence and the end of my 10-day detox. It was so special to get sugar from my dear friends. I have to say, it was one of the most amazing doughnuts I have ever had. The strange part was, as I sat eating my strawberry jam-filled doughnut, that it was pleasantly satisfying. I enjoyed the doughnut, I did not crave it. I got to eat it because it was something special. I also chose not to eat 6 more doughnuts while still sitting there; to ensure I did not ruin the specialness with nausea and vomiting. Waiting makes doughnuts taste better, but don't take my word for it - try it. Don't eat sugar for ten days and see how awesome doughnuts can be.

Tomorrow is the last day of my sugarless coffeeless 10day existence and I wanted to reflect on everything that I had to endure. If you are debating improving your health with a no-sugar fast let me tell you about all the downsides. 1) I was plagued by sleep I slept better, fell asleep faster, slept all night harder (and woke up stronger?) On days I worked, I squeak out 10hrs of sleep between shifts (I had not been able to do this for a couple months due to insomnia). On my days off I could get 11-12hrs. The first couple of nights were not so good, I would wake up a lot through the night; my body did not like going to sleep and wanted to stay up with coffee and a box of doughnuts. 2) I was cursed with tasty meals. I had to eat vegetables and fruits in all shapes and colors, salads, chocolate protein shakes, handmade pizzas, cheesecakes, casseroles, chips and dips, sodas, candy - all with no added sugar, no artificial sweeteners, and within the guidelines of health as dictate

When you add sugar to everything You feel so awesome you could stay up all night and party ~ When you stay up all night and party You feel miserable in the morning ~ When you feel miserable in the morning You eat candy instead of breakfast ~ When y ou eat candy instead of breakfast You impulse buy a vaccine because it has green buttons ~ When  impulse-buy a vaccine because it has green buttons You justify it by spending all your time vacuuming everything ~ When you spend all your time vacuuming everything You neglect your house and your wife gets upset ~ Don't upset your wife Dump sugar

Today is Friday. Seems like basically everybody else knew that but me. I thought yesterday was Friday which was a real bummer because I had this awesome throwback Thursday picture for Instagram... so now I'll have to just throwback to Thursday.  So yesterday, Let's see... Interesting things... Ummm (blogging is harder than it looks). I have come to realize the milk is very sweet; especially when you cannot add sugar and die to your water (ie Mountain Dew). Drinking milk feels like cheating but it's not. I know that technically the cows add sugar to it but they can't help it so it's not on the label. And I doubt California and Hawaiian Sugar Company have had the time to add sugar to cows when there are so many other things to put sugar in. Thursday was spent mostly staring at the ceiling because I was too tired from work to live but not sleepy enough to stay asleep. After 2 quarts of milk, I felt well enough to go to the library and shop for some food. That wore

Day 2 ~ How is that no sugar / no coffee thing going? ~ As the adventure continues, I feel the keen sting of loss. A mild headache, most likely exacerbated by looking at LCD monitors at work and malaise is all I have to show for what I have given up. Not too bad, not too good but just the right amount of misery. On the plus side, I had quinoa and ground beef with butter and salt for supper and breakfast. It was great and tasted good hot and cold and hot again. I have to make sure to never wander around hungry or I'll eat anything that looks good on sight.  The real bummer is that so far there haven't been any awesome treats to tempt me (or lame treats or even non-treat foods that people didn't want and left to share) in the break room for two days; no donuts, cookies, sheet cakes, double whopper with cheese and med fries, egg - sausage - pancake breakfasts with all the fixings... nothing. How am I going walk around self-religious in my sugarlessness if th

Day 1 {To keep everyone on the same page when I say "Day" I am referring to the midnight to midnight section. I will refer to past times from the perspective of a night shifter so "yesterday" can actually include anything from up to 48hrs from today; "today" starts a 4pm yesterday and "tomorrow" begins at 8am today (if you have any questions I can answer them later tomorrow)} Well, this no sugar thing is a piece of cake, easy as pie, like taking candy from a baby, simple as duck soup  a real challenge. Did you know that goldfish have sugar in them? I know, GOLDFISH!! They are cheese and crackers and salt-shaped like fish, why is sugar in them?! And pretzels, they have it too. And yogurt. And Rice Krispies. And even glazed doughnuts! I would not be shocked if there was sugar in my broccoli. Have I bitten off more than one can chew? Probably not, there is nothing without sugar in it to bite. However difficult, I made it through the firs

On February 15th, 2016 at exactly midnight I am off sugar. Not kissing "sugar" Not LSD "sugar cubes" Not cocaine "sugar" Not "Sugar" by Maroon 5 But good old refined, processed, bleached, filtered, and added to everything SUGAR Joey RN - is a man with a vision to overthrow big sugar one stevia packet at a time. He has led "No Sugar" challenges and currently is doing one (he is on day 8214 or something). My friend and I, knowing Joey, decided to team up. At midnight on Feb 15, 2016, we will have no more sugar (the ingredient/maybe the song) for 10 days. And to add insult to injury I will hold my coffee too; cuz go big or go home, right? Not going to trade one drug for the other. In the grand scheme of things, my home diet is healthy. Mostly none of the sugars listed above. My wife carefully curates a diet with organic, free-range, antibiotic-free, gluten-free, no colors, preservatives, or artificial anythi