Sweet Poison

A couple of months ago my boss put up on our work noticeboard an article about a pilot who had lost a heap of weight, after reading a book, Sweet Poison, by David Gillespie. I thought that sounded interesting so I finally got around to going to the library last week. I couldn't find that book but they did have a copy of the same authors book "Sweet Poison Quit Plan" which I am now in middle of reading and its one of the best books I have found for what is going on with me.

Basically I'm a sugarholic (according to all the symptoms I've been reading in the book) and I need to go cold turkey on sugar. I started 4 days ago, but yesterday I fell "off the wagon" at a friends birthday party with the cake. I thought that wasn't too bad though considering how much less sugar I've been having over the last few days. I even made myself some raw sugarfree chocolate to assist in case I get tempted, its very bitter but has the same mouth feel as chocolate.

Some of the withdrawal symptoms were an eye opener for me - as I have experienced these on previous occasions of trying to temporarily cut out chocolate (my main source of sugar) and thought that my body was falling apart, when actually no, thats my body trying to right itself after my bad habit of consuming sucrose for so many years. These include headaches, muscle pains, accelerated heartbeat, chills, insomnia, restlessness, anxiety, streaming eyes, runny nose. I haven't experienced all of them this time around, but a few, definately.

According to the book these symptoms can last a few days, or a few weeks, and for some people (women, more particularly though they're not sure why) up to three months. I'm not looking forward to this withdrawal period, but I am looking forward to the benefits they say occur after this time - namely that your taste buds recover from their sugar induced fog & that you can actually taste food properly, and that you lose weight, feel more energized and don't have crazy mood swings all the time.

My sister has said that she will do this with me, which is excellent because we both eat far too much sugar, and we're both very competitive, so I think this will be good for us both.