To say that I\u2019ve had a sweet tooth since I was a child is an understatement.\u00a0 I think all 32 (now 28, thanks to the modern-day torture some refer to as wisdom teeth extraction surgery) of them were sweet.\u00a0 Even though I never really ate a lot of candy, I loved anything of the cake-variety.\u00a0 Cupcakes, birthday cake, brownies, Twinkies, you name it\u2026 I ate it.<\/p>\n
Ice cream was my other love and so much easier to maintain a relationship with because all it required was a trip to the grocery store, no pesky baking.\u00a0 Cookies and cream and chocolate were my favorites growing up but as I got older, my palate expanded to include such wondrous creations as peanut butter buckeye and graham central station (from a certain ice cream chain).<\/p>\n
I usually was pretty good in the mornings.\u00a0 I was never a huge fan of the sugary cereals or donuts, except once in a while as a \u201ctreat.\u201d\u00a0 But lunch and dinner were a whole other story.\u00a0 As soon as I\u2019d finish eating my main course (or usually before I was even done), my body would start craving something sweet for dessert.<\/p>\n
[On a side note, can I just say that part of this must have been due to genetics because my mother would actually stop eating a meal halfway through in a restaurant and take the rest home in a box, JUST so she could have dessert.]<\/p>\n
I also loved whenever we celebrated a birthday or anniversary at work and they\u2019d bring in a giant sheet cake for everyone to share.\u00a0 Or when a coworker decided she was going to use all of us in the office as guinea pigs for the new cupcake business she was starting.<\/p>\n
I would actually post photos of all the cupcakes I was eating on my Facebook page because they made me so happy.\u00a0 I had found a cupcake shop too that must\u2019ve literally dropped from the heavens because they had flavors like French toast, mojito and chocolate chip cookie dough.<\/p>\n
It was a love story that I thought would never end.\u00a0 All of my teeth were miraculously staying in and my jeans still fit, so why stop a good thing?<\/p>\n
That was until my health started going downhill in 2011.<\/p>\n
It was gradual at first\u2026 a pain in my left side appeared, I started feeling very fatigued even when I had barely done anything, my skin started breaking out more and I started having trouble sleeping.\u00a0 This would end up dragging on for over three years, with more symptoms popping up and endless amounts of doctor visits and medications going nowhere.<\/p>\n
Thankfully, through a naturopathic doctor and a lot of research on my own, I ended up finding out what was wrong.\u00a0 It was a combination of issues with my adrenal glands, blood sugar, GI tract and hormones and I\u2019m now on the road to recovery.\u00a0 But do you know what I discovered along the way?<\/p>\n
My love affair with sugar was doing serious damage to my body.<\/p>\n
Sure, you hear \u201cit\u2019ll rot your teeth\u201d from the time you\u2019re a little kid.\u00a0 But no one ever tells you it can damage your liver (which happened to me) and contribute to serious conditions like heart disease, diabetes and even cancer.\u00a0 The studies have been done and the information is all out there, it\u2019s just not being advertised as loudly as the new snack cake on the shelves of the grocery store or the new shake at the drive-thru restaurant.<\/p>\n
But I\u2019ll admit, even with me, the real \u201cclick\u201d didn\u2019t happen until I had to give up sugar as part of a restricted diet my naturopath put me on.\u00a0 I needed to give my GI tract a \u201cbreak\u201d so it could start to repair itself.\u00a0 So along with sugar, I was also off of alcohol, caffeine, dairy, gluten, eggs and grains.<\/p>\n
What does that leave you ask?\u00a0 Not a lot.\u00a0 But I actually got used to it pretty quickly and realized (again, pretty quickly) that this was what my body was craving<\/em>\u2026 vegetables, low-glycemic fruits and lean meats.\u00a0 Not the so-called \u201cfood\u201d I had been putting in it for so long.<\/p>\n I have since put a few of those things back in but I am still sugar-free and you know what?\u00a0 It\u2019s crazy what happens when you give it up, even for a few weeks.\u00a0 My body that used to crave something sweet til the sun went down, stopped.\u00a0 I could eat dinner and not be obsessed with having to have something sugary afterward.\u00a0 And even more significant for me, I stopped shaking 24\/7.\u00a0 I used to tell people when they\u2019d comment on my shaky hands, \u201cOh, that\u2019s just me.\u201d\u00a0 Until I realized I didn\u2019t have to shake if I kept my blood sugar at a normal level!<\/p>\n But the most shocking thing for me was my body\u2019s reaction to sugar when I did<\/em> try to have it.\u00a0 Shortly after I finished the restricted diet, I met a friend at the Cheesecake Factory for dinner.\u00a0 (Side note for the non-gluten folks \u2013 they have a fantastic<\/em> gluten-free menu there!)\u00a0 I realized they had one gluten-free cheesecake on the menu, a Godiva chocolate cheesecake.\u00a0 This is something that prior to my restricted diet would have sent me straight into the heavens.\u00a0 So I was excited to be able to still have it.<\/p>\n It came\u2026 I took about two bites and\u2026.<\/p>\n UGH.<\/p>\n I could not stand<\/em> how sweet it tasted.\u00a0 I literally felt nauseous and had to end up getting the rest boxed to take home to my sister.\u00a0 (Note \u2013 I\u2019m not saying Cheesecake Factory\u2019s cheesecake is bad!)\u00a0 That break from sugar had reprogrammed my body and brain and stuff like that no longer tasted good.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t have to fight the urge to indulge because even if I gave in, the results were usually not great.<\/p>\n Plus, I didn\u2019t have to worry about what I was actually doing to my body.\u00a0 It\u2019s easy to walk around being blissfully ignorant, but once you\u2019ve been educated on what sugar can really do to your body, it\u2019s hard to go back.<\/p>\n But the good news is there\u2019s plenty of ways for me to still have something sweet when I feel like it \u2013 agave, stevia, xylitol, honey or one of my personal favorites, coconut nectar.\u00a0 I can bake with any of them and have a yummy batch of cookies or brownies or a delicious cake in no time.\u00a0 Sure, there\u2019s a little more work involved, but the time and energy put forth are worth it to know I\u2019m not willingly putting my health at risk.<\/p>\n So do I sigh longingly sometimes when I see the picture of the ooey, gooey new dessert on the restaurant menu?\u00a0 Of course, I\u2019m only human.<\/p>\n Do I wish I could go back and un-program my brain about sugar and continue my love affair?<\/p>\n Not a chance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" To say that I\u2019ve had a sweet tooth since I was a child is an understatement.\u00a0 I think all 32 (now 28, thanks to the modern-day torture some refer to as wisdom teeth extraction surgery) of them were sweet.\u00a0 Even though I never really ate a lot of candy, I loved anything of the cake-variety.\u00a0…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":589,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[18,16,6,7,10,17,20,3,9,4,11,19,22,21,23,15,14,2,8,13,12,5],"class_list":["post-9","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-brownies","tag-cake","tag-clean-eating","tag-clean-living","tag-cooking","tag-cupcakes","tag-dessert","tag-diet","tag-food","tag-health","tag-healthy-body","tag-ice-cream","tag-love","tag-love-affair","tag-natural-sweeteners","tag-recipes","tag-restricted-diet","tag-sugar","tag-sugar-free","tag-sweet-tooth","tag-sweets","tag-wellness"],"yoast_head":"\n