Two Months sugarfree
Soooo … I am two months sugar-free now. It's smooth sailing now; I have very few cravings, and if so, they pass quite easily. I would never have figured I'd be able to sustain this for such a long time, but i seem to be the kind of person who can deal more easily with no sugar than with moderation. So I enjoy the taste of savory food, the subtle sweetness of cinnamon and milk, sugarless banana-chia pudding, and 90 percent chocolate. It really is easy now; I have different taste buds.
My overall health has improved: my vision is better, my smell has improved, i sleep better (and need less), i have notably more energy, i feel happy and I have very few panicky moments (still do, but not like looking at the bottom of my internal Mariana Trench).
Weirdly, my sensation of pain seems to be changed (once a year I have a minisurgery where the doctor cuts off moles and such, and usually it feels quite painful afterwards; this time it was nearly painfree); I can concentrate MUCH better (usually i get fatigued after a while when i visit museums because the exhibitions are an overload after a while; now i am fine with staying longer); I also feel mentally calmer when dealing with stressful, frustrating or new situations (i am not totally zen, but i feel much more in charge of my inner and outer reactions).
In the beginning, I lost a lot (of water, presumably), but now my weight loss is going very slowly, if at all. I got myself a scale that told me that I was close to being normal weight and very muscular; it also said that my body fat composition is good, aka not viscaral. my bloating disappeared, and my waist is in proportion to the rest of the body.
My body finds workarounds though —sigh. Even though i eat no sugar and hardly any added sugar, sometimes I get hooked on white flour. I also noticed when I was making sugarless banana bread with bananas and oats, my bloatings returned. I exchanged oats for chia seeds, which have a lower glycemic index, and I have to watch my banana intake (no more than one a day). I still love cheese—maybe this is because my weight loss is very slow (like two pounds in one month, which seems more like fluctuation than actual weight loss).
However, even so: I feel so much better, happier, put together. my skin improved, my brain seems to process information so much better. I love it so far and hope that I can stick to it. Everyone who has horrible cravings and a withdrawal depression: hang onto it; you've got this. It really, really is worth it.