Sometimes it takes a really painful experience to force you to change a bad habit.
My bad habit? Too much sugar. I eat quite a healthy diet otherwise – plenty of fruits and veggies, whole grains, lean proteins, etc. But I always follow up that good food with something sweet, and I don’t mean dates and bananas. You’ve probably seen my posts about my chocoholism. In addition to my special chocolate treats, I regularly pop chocolate chips in my mouth throughout the day. Lately, I’ve been keen on the mint chip ice cream. Yes siree, I do loooooove the sugar food group.
My painful experience? Thrush. (Sounds like a cool band name, doesn’t it?) BoyWonder is still nursing, and I noticed a few weeks ago that one side was really painful when he’d nurse. Then it gradually became raw and chaffed and almost unbearably painful. It felt like he was nursing with glass shards in his mouth. Yeah, that bad. Then the other side began to show the same symptoms. Owie.
Thrush is a candida (yeast) overgrowth. So if I really want to get rid of it, I need to cut out sugar in addition to the grapefruit seed extract I’m applying topically. And if I were to follow a true candida diet, I’d have to cut out almost all fruit and grains as well. Umm, I decided I’m not going that far yet. Baby steps.
So I’m now going on 36 hours without any added sugar, with the exception of a strawberry yogurt I ate this afternoon. I feel weird. I thought for sure I’d have huge sugar cravings, or at least huge chocolate cravings. But all I felt was HUNGRY. I ate constantly today. Moreso than usual, even. And I never felt totally satiated. I didn’t expect that.
I also feel a bit blah. Like I’m on the verge of getting sick or on the verge of tears. From my understanding these are normal sugar withdrawal symptoms. It got a little better when I ate the yogurt. Like I said, baby steps.
So forgive me if I get snippy or burst into tears over the next couple of weeks. And don’t tempt me with anything scrumptious and chocolatey. You might lose an arm.
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