Too Sweet

someone brought cookies to work

Hi, My name is Kim and I am a sugar addict.

I know I wrote a blog post just last summer about limiting sugar. It is something I strive to do and have been success at different times in my life.

However, right now is not one of those times. Right now my sugar addiction is probably as bad as it has ever been. I recently decided to do 100 days alcohol free and at the same time recommit to my Low Fodmap diet for my SIBO diagnosis. Being alcohol free hasn’t really been an issue. I am on day 11 and so far only one night when my husband wanted to open a bottle of wine with dinner that I was mildly tempted to have some, but otherwise I haven’t really even thought about it.

HOWEVER During this process of paying a lot more attention to all the things I am eating I realized just how bad the sweet tooth had become.

The Low Fodmap diet does not require you to be sugar free, only limit the fermentable sugars you encounter in a variety of foods. Candies like gummy bears, Laffy Taffy, Butterfingers, Reese’s Pieces, Skittles and Swedish Fish are all considered Low Fodmap as long as you don’t overdo it.

Well, I was overdoing it. Once I start with sweets it’s really hard to stop. I was giving myself permission to eat them because the diet can feel really restricted otherwise so my thinking was “as long as it’s Low Fodmap I can have some!”

me, seven days ago

But I knew I had a problem. I was eating sweets multiple times a day. Definitely some after each meal, and maybe some in between too. I had candies stashed in my desk at work, in my drawer at home, in my car, in my purse. I never wanted my supply to run out. I would sneak some of my daughter’s treats when we got home and she wasn’t paying attention, before my husband came home. I would sneak more when he was doing his part of the bedtime routine with her. I consciously didn’t want him to see me eating her candy. True addict behavior.

So 6 days ago I decided my goals needed adjusting. I am still doing the 100 days sober, but now I am also cutting out sugary treats. No candies, no sweets, no adding sugar to tea (something I never do anyway).

HOLY SHIT. This has been so hard. So much harder than the alcohol. I feel like it is harder this time than when I have done this in the past. Maybe it’s the same. But IT SUCKS. I think about sugar all the time. I crave sugar all the time. It’s only been 6 days.

I know this seems crazy, but here are some of the symptoms I have been feeling the last 6 days

• Headaches
• Irritability
• Insomnia
• Fatigue
• Depression
• Trouble Concentrating
• Sugar Cravings

I can’t believe I have let myself get to this point! I consider myself to be pretty health conscious, but I am also usually against traditional dieting. I follow a Low Fodmap diet for gut issues but not to lose weight. I also know that too much deprivation can backfire. So this is something I need to take into consideration.

However, I also know myself. I know that I don’t do as well when I am told to just “cut back.” I am much more effective at going cold-turkey. Once I am in a place where the cravings have gone, then I can allow myself to go back on my “limited sugar” plan. It is always a struggle with me though. Sugar is my biggest vice and eventually I end up slipping back into these bad habits of overindulgence. So it will likely be something I have to work on forever.

It sucks right now, but there is light at the end of this tunnel. It’s just that the tunnel right now feels like the tunnel in the boat scene from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.