kelley...kelley moore!!! health & fitness

The whole point of dropping the sugar (and I mean all sugar except sugar from dairy and fruit) was to lose my deep cravings for sugar….

I had reached almost one dessert per meal and I needed it to stop.  After reviewing my pics from the beginning (in Sept, 2010) during my blog re-organization, I noticed that the desserts began popping up a little in posts for October near Halloween, increasing at Thanksgiving.  Then, Christmas had a slew of dessert pics, daily if not at each meal or more.  I had given myself the green light during the holidays for holiday foods.. justified because I have kids and I didn’t want to deprive the kids of the holiday goodies… But when January hit, I should have dropped the desserts from my menu.  However, because of all the sugar in my system, I craved it like crazy and couldn’t shake that feeling.  February came and I took this as an opportunity to stifle the cravings once and for all.  I’d hoped to give up sugars as well as sugar substitutes.. but realizing that sugar substitutes inhabited lots of the “healthy” foods I eat on a regular basis, I began researching to see if it was really necessary to drop them out of my diet as well.  What I found was that research did not conclusively prove that sugar substitutes caused cravings for sweets, it only suggested it.. and they advised you to not eat the substitutes “just in case” it was a culprit in causing the cravings for sweets.  After allowing my sugar substitutes back into my diet, things became much much easier for me.  I will say that at the beginning of Feb, the first 3 days I had a horrible headache that was non-stop… I believe because of sugar withdrawals.  Once that was past, it was probably 15 days or so before I stopped picturing yummy desserts in my mind.  Now, if some sweet is RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME, I drool a little bit, but I feel I can control it.  Out of sight, though.. out of mind.  My cheats on sweets this month happened for Valentine’s dinner dessert, a birthday celebration cookie, and today’s sweets from Double Dave’s (which were minimal).  Some people say that after they have gone without sweets for a while, that any sweet was just way too sweet for them.  That didn’t happen for me.  The desserts that I had as my “cheats” were absolutely delicious.. a tasty bit of heaven.. and I think that will always be true for me.  But, what I was trying to accomplish through this experiment was to alleviate a constant nagging of my brain, demanding a dessert after each meal.  That, I believe, I accomplished.  The hardest part, however, is yet to come.  Adding just enough of anything in which you are “addicted” so that MODERATION is obtained is the kicker.  I never try to wipe out any particular food from my diet, unless of course, I just don’t like the taste.  But what I’ll be trying to accomplish next is adding just a tad of sweet dessert, that it doesn’t overtake my life and setback my goals…and at the same time that it’s not completely eliminated from my diet, which if denied completely I’d at some point explode and binge on every dessert in sight.

Surprisingly, my weight did NOT go down during this time.  I was not trying to lower my calorie intake, however, and just because I eliminated the sweet didn’t mean I eliminated the “snack” time.  I just made healthier, more nutritive choices for my snack time.  

Energy levels did not drop because of the sugar elimination.  So many of us who do a lot of cardio and are the “energetic” ones in classes are sweet eaters.  And I, along with quite a few of my friends, have always been under the notion that a lot of this “ENERGY” was coming from the SWEETS that we eat.  This is NOT what I found.  The heart rate stats that I’ve been posting on my workouts were making sure that my heart rate stayed constant, on average, before the experiment as well as after it began.  I believe my stats, before my heel injury, proves that.  Once I had my heel injury things changed, but I believe that the cause of the change in my heart rates at that point was because I could no longer perform plyometrics, deep lunges, etc., advanced moves.  

Mood, on the other hand, was affected by the elimination of sugars.  I laughed at my husband because he says he’d like to take a vacation away from home at the beginning of each of my experiments.. hehhee.  This, I assume he means, is that I’m not the most easy person to live with as I go thru withdrawals.  Later, after the headache was gone, was much better.  I can say that because I don’t feel terrible guilt from eating sweets day in and day out, puts me in a much better mood all around.  

Again, I didn’t lose any weight during this period of time, but by choosing other healthier foods in their place, I feel that my strength grew by leaps and bounds.  I’ve been concentrating on my weightlifting, especially trying to build my hamstrings… but even my upper body has seen improvements in strength as well.  Yay !!

Overall… a great experience with Experiment #2 Cravings BE GONE !!  Let’s keep er going !!

An update with my friend Laura… who also held thru this month with no sugars … WooHOO, Laura !!   today when I asked her how she felt about this being the last day of the experiment?  she said .. last day?  really? already?  and said that it didn’t matter, she was continuing on with it !!  She had only one cheesecake cheat during the month and has said that she’s gonna do my next experiment with me … EXPERIMENT #3 Eating Clean and Shredding the Fat.  She and another friend are waiting for a list of what they need to buy from the grocery store.. anxious to SHRED that FAT with me !!  Hello 6-pack ABS =)  Right in time for swimsuit season !!

Because I’ve been so restrictive in my diet for the last 2 months, I’m giving myself a breather for a week … I’ll begin Experiment #3 on Wednesday, March 9th.. so if you’d like to do this with me, watch this week for posts about what’s to come .. the changes in the workout & the changes in the diet.  I’ll publish a general list of foods soon, so we can all get our shoppin done !!

My heel is just about healed..  so today I’m skipping my yoga class and instead I’m gonna lift weights first (lower body), then try out my heel with a cardio class —-Zumba, although I’m not gonna do any of the jumps or side lunges where the heel is pressed.  I’m trying to ADD muscle, specifically the backs of my thighs, so I’m concentrating there and the quads secondarily.  My food, I feel, is workin for me.  I’m eating enough calories to gain, good foods/healthy choices, high in protein.  I’m trying to prepare my mind not to panic when the scale tells me it’s higher… it should be higher because I’m purposefully making it that way.  I’m also narrowing down that threshold of cardio (1) because I’m trying to be careful on my heel as I recover and (2) I’m trying to gain muscle weight, thus I don’t want to burn all the calories I’m purposefully eating.  We’ll see how it goes.  I’m takin David’s advice on doin the weights first while I’m fresh and can give it my all.  Then the cardio following.

sugarrr-tits asked: I love your blog. I absolutely love love love it. I embarked on my weight loss journey a little over a year ago and have managed to fall in love with every aspect of fitness and healthy living. I'm in the process of getting my second personal training certification and stories like yours are so inspiring. I TOO am going on a low sugar food change. I really don't like to use the word diet in regards to my food intakes because diet literally translates to lifestyle. I prefer to have a healthy diet. :) Thank you for following me back, regardless of whether I am a fitblr or not, but I absolutely love your blog and you! Also, your post about "Just because you're a nice girl doesn't mean you can't have evil legs" post. My legs are one of my best physical features and that post made me SO happy. I loved it.

Thanks so much !!  ”the low sugar food change” is going much better than predicted …  I’ve had so many sweets in my diet, previously, that most of my friends can’t even imagine me passing up a piece of cake.  They also add.. oh, she’ll just go dance it off —- she works out so much anyways ! …. Well, no more.  I want to prove that I can eat sweets in a “normal” way, that I CAN pass up a piece of cake, that I don’t have to work out all the time to keep my physique.  And it starts with getting rid of the cravings for sweets.  DAY 18, and I’ve only had one “cheat” dessert for Valentine’s dinner.  My heel injury has almost ceased my cardio workouts, but I’ve chosen other options in the meantime … yoga, pilates, weightlifting, bellydancing.  And I just keep on keepin on.  I loved the “legs” post, too !!  My legs aren’t as sexy like yours as they are athletic.  I have jeans get stuck at my calves, boots that won’t fit because the rim is too tight… all because of very muscular calves, mostly from Body Step classes.  But muscles mean POWER … and power makes me SO happy !!  Good luck with your 2nd personal training cert —- wow! I know how hard it is to get one !! Happy studying =) Kelley ♥

I’ve worked my tail off lifting weights these last 2 weeks.. if I haven’t seen a change in my weight by now, MUSCLE-weight, btw… then dadgum I’m doing something wrong !!  How come ya never hear women say YAY to weight gain ??  bc we’re all so wrapped up in losing weight, that when we work really hard to gain muscle, then when it happens, then all we can think about is … O dear, I’ve gained weight… I musta ate a twinkie.   BUT I didn’t EAT NO TWINKIE !!  I worked FREAKIN hard in the weight room, and I deserve to be HAPPY I gained weight =)

WOOHOO !! for MUSCLE GAIN !! 

Valentine’s Day.  I managed to buy sweet goodies for my family and NOT get some for myself.  I treated myself to fresh blueberries earlier in the day.. and to one of my hubby’s sweet (but really low in sugar dark chocolate) treats tonight.  My dinner, however, was a CHEAT .. no other way around it.  I shoulda stopped at half, when my body was screamin ENOUGH !! but I didn’t.  I ate the whole thing.. well, except for a little 2” portion of weiner that wouldn’t fit in the bun.   I guess that’s okay, since it’s Valentines and all, but back to basics tomorrow.  Only good thing about it, other than it tasted really good, was that it had 32g protein.  Just tons of fat to go along with it.  But, my point is.. no sugars.   For those of you who are new followers, I thought I’d add a pic of an earlier workout.. upper body, weightlifting… BodyFat 21%  … current BodyFat is still 21%, but since I’ve gone through my Water Experiment in January, I’ve added water weight (3-5lbs) after realizing that I’d been dehydrated, currently making my weight 150lbs.

It’s now Day 13… and for my sugar, I’ve had one cheat meal with sugar (valentines dinner, day 11).  Other than that, I’ve been doing really very good.  Other than the 3 day headache at the beginning, I’ve not had major cravings, unless somebody’s eating a dessert right in my face.  Sweet substitues?  No one was able to give me a source of where the phrase “Avoid artificial sweeteners. Research has shown that artificial sweeteners cause intense cravings for sweets,” has come from; thus, I’m not making assumptions that this statement is true.

I came across another article where it states, “It’s still too early to say that there is a definite link between artificial sweeteners and skewed appetite control. But regardless of the sweetener you choose, be conscious of the total number of calories you consume whenever you eat or drink sweet things.” http://www.realage.com/eat-smart/food-and-nutrition/sugar-substitutes

Okay… I get that.  Be conscious?  Okay, I will.  And a lot of the artificially sweetened products that I choose are chocked full of nutrients, say for instance, fat-free yogurt.  Thus, at least until the information is presented to me that support my first statement .. that artificial sweeteners cause intense cravings for sweets, then “adios,” my sugar substitute - FREE diet.  Hope ya never come back… ya made my life miserable. 

However… I have found that after doing away with ALL sweetness in my foods for a week and a half, that I do, in this last day or two, use much less artificial sweeteners in my decaf tea, etc.  In fact, I don’t use packets, but rather a tiny tiny spoon and measure it out myself.  That way, I can use much less.  Also, I have come to appreciate my artificially sweetened foods and now regard them with a much higher status.  I check the “sugar” labels on the artificial sweetened products, too, to make sure that they’re not containing both sugar subs and sugars.  And I guard to not eat a sugar-substitute product unless there is some nutritive value in the product…. otherwise, I treat it as a “dessert” just as I would treat something full of sugar with no nutritive value as a “dessert.”

So, in short…. sugar-less diet continues.

Sugar-substitute-FREE diet is DONE.  But, I’m keeping it in check, keeping them to a minimum.