Joyful Sugar Free Living: links to get started

You probably feel horribly guilty and ashamed. I’m here to tell you it’s not your fault. Sugar sensitivity starts in the brain – it’s our biochemistry.

And yet caring for our sugar sensitivity – and finding freedom from the pain of sugar addiction – may mean limiting how much sugar you eat or doing what I’ve done – giving up sugar altogether. Gulp. I know. No more ice cream? Candy? Soda?

I promise you – it can be done. And it can be done willingly, with acceptance and without deprivation. It can also be done gently, without neuroticism about food. I’ll show you how – because this is what I’ve lived, and what I’ve learned.

I was a lifelong sugar addict who suffered terribly with violent mood swings, up and down weight, depression and bingeing from my sugar addiction. I was bulimic in college, and I’d binge on sugar. I did a lot of work to heal my eating disorders, and yet as long as I ate sugar, I’d go back to bingeing.

I tried to get off sugar for 10 years. In 2007, I reached a turning point and gave up sugar for good. I knew I couldn’t have health and eat sugar at the same time.

After I found my sugar abstinence, I worked on creating a joyful sugar free life – on maintaining my sugar abstinence over the long haul. On the sugar blog, in my sugar addiction book and in my sugar program, I share the path that worked for me. You’ll learn exactly how I did it, and how I continue to stay sugar free today.

Start by just observing yourself. Keep a food diary and track your eating. How much sugar are you eating? How do you feel after you eat sugar? What triggers a sugar binge?

With this awareness, step back and examine your patterns. Do you have a problem with sugar? Does one bite lead to more and more?

Consider experimenting with a few days without sugar. Track how you feel. At first you may feel awful as you detox from sugar. But after a few days without sugar, the physical cravings disappear. You don’t feel so hooked. This may tell you that sugar abstinence is something you want to pursue over the long haul.

I know it may seem impossible to live sugar free – and to live this way joyfully. You start with one day at a time. I eat very differently than I did 10 or 15 years ago. I didn’t do it overnight – it was a gradual, step-by-step process. And yet little by little my eating habits have changed. Little by little my emotional habits have changed too.

That’s the deeper benefit to this work. On the surface, it’s about living without sugar. As you heal, you’ll find it’s about living without unneccessary pain.

Audio message from Karly: A guide for where to begin… Download Audio File » Click the Play button above to listen right now. Or to download in MP3 format for later, right click the link above and choose “Save Target As…” or “Save Link As…”

Overcoming Sugar Addiction book by author Karly Randolph Pitman