I Stopped Eating Sugar And Barely Survived

Quitting sugar isn't so bad. JK it's hard!!!! But doable.

I'm Joanna and I love sugar. This is me in my natural state.

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I love sugar more than I've ever loved any person or thing. When people say things like "I'm just not into sweets," I kind of want to punch them in the face. But I've heard that sugar is bad, and that makes me sad. So I decided to give up the only thing I've ever loved and go a week without eating added sugar.*

*Naturally occurring sugar from things like fruit and milk would still be allowed.

My normal diet is best described as "eating whatever." I often have the goal of eating healthy. Sometimes I'll make a dinner of roasted vegetables and fish at home. And then I'll fill a glass with Oreos and milk and eat it like cereal. The latter is I GUESS not ideal if I care about my health.

This is just one of my normal meals of beans, ham, and frozen yogurt.

Instagram: @jbornz

How much sugar do I eat in an average week? (A lot.)

I logged everything I ate for a week so I could confront the horrible truth of how much sugar I was eating normally. I knew it would probably be a lot, and boy oh boy, it was.

On average, a woman should have no more than 25 grams of added sugar per day — about six teaspoons. A man should have no more than 38 grams of added sugar per day — about nine teaspoons.*

TO BE FAIR, I think I overdid it a little bit on the sugar this week because I knew I would be giving it up the next week. But that was dumb. On average, I ended up eating about twice the amount of sugar you're supposed to eat in one day. On a few of the days, I ate three times the recommended limit of sugar. Just typing that feels embarrassing. I'm an adult, not a child with a bag of Halloween candy. WHAT HAVE I DONE?

*According to the American Heart Association.

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Some nutrition advice from an expert:

Before I gave up sugar, I spoke with nutritionist Abby Langer to get some advice. One time I tried to quit sugar cold turkey with no planning whatsoever, and I felt like I was going to die from the withdrawal. Langer's advice: Don't quit cold turkey.

She said the best thing to do is try to train your body to expect less sweet. "We're just addicted to sweet," Langer said.

Tips for weaning yourself off of sugar:

* Avoid artificial sweeteners and using other sweeteners like honey and agave so you can get used to not tasting as much sweetness.

* Get enough sleep. You crave sugar more when you're tired.

* Don't cut all carbohydrates from your diet. (That's just making it really hard on yourself.)

* Get 20 grams of protein with each meal. And eat snacks with protein.

Langer also doesn't recommend weaning yourself totally off of sugar. "If you really want something, have it," Langer said. "Just not too much."

I realized my survival in quitting sugar would rely on preparing food ahead of time. (Which is annoying and terrible, but crucial.) Langer gave me some snack recommendations (below). I also expected to be shoving fruit into my face nonstop to try to quell my sugar cravings, but Langer said to limit fruit to two to three servings per day.

Nutritionist-recommended snacks

* Frozen red grapes (no more than 1/2 cup)

* Mixed nuts (salted OK)

* Rye crisps with avocado and hard-boiled egg

* Cheese and crackers (good quality cheese is important)

* Medjool dates

* Fresh figs with goat cheese or prosciutto

Snack Prep: The Only Way to Survive

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The Sunday before my no-sugar week, I decided to make blue-cheese-stuffed dates wrapped in prosciutto as a snack. This is a Frankensteined version of what the nutritionist recommended because I couldn't find fresh figs.

I also prepared raw string beans and carrots to snack on. I put grapes in the freezer. I was told this would be like "a replacement for ice cream." I knew I would never, EVER eat a frozen grape and feel like I was eating ice cream. To me, healthy dessert is usually worse than eating nothing. I have a Pinterest board of healthy dessert recipes titled "Nightmare World."

But in an attempt to crave sugar less, I put frozen grapes into my mouth and ate them.

I also made a gross homemade chili that I often ate for dinner.

Check out this photo of "ice cream" lol.

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Disclaimer: The meals you'll see below aren't always perfect examples of completely healthy meals. They're just the things I ended up eating in an attempt to avoid added sugar.

Breakfast

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This is chicken sausage and prosciutto to make sure I got 20 grams of protein. I ate strawberries (natural sugar) to try to trick my body into being OK with what was about to happen. (The nightmare of healthier lifestyle choices.)

An hour after I ate this, I was craving sugar. So I had an apple. To my horror, I learned that an apple counts as two to three servings of fruit on its own. I had already exceeded the recommended fruit limit for the day. But I had to do it to stay off added sugar. I HAD TO DO IT.

My co-worker was eating very fragrant peanut butter. It smelled amazing. I ate some string beans. All I wanted to do was eat candy.

Lunch

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I tried to really hoist a bunch of chicken onto this salad to meet my 20 grams of protein. And yes, I had a second apple — blasting the recommended daily serving of fruit through the ceiling. But I was starting to feel light-headed and weak, and the apple helped.

I was scared about working out while going through sugar withdrawal, but I ate my prosciutto dates before and after my workout and felt surprisingly fine. And by "fine" I mean dying to eat an entire bag of candy. I ate gross chili for dinner, then started to get a headache, so I had a hard-boiled egg and some ice cream.* (*frozen grapes)

Dinner

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This is the gross chili I made on Sunday to last the whole week. I often ate it for lunch and dinner, but I couldn't bring myself to photograph it every time because it looked so unappealing. So get a good look at it now and just memorize its grossness.

Breakfast

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Chicken sausage, avocado, and hard-boiled egg on weird Swedish crackers, and strawberries.

I felt surprisingly good, but I was late for work because I had to take the time to make and eat this breakfast and prepare snacks.

This may have been the lack of sugar talking, but I went into a shame spiral about how I take fruit for granted. It really is candy that the earth made for you. It's a miracle. Mother Earth makes sweet dessert for me and I turn it down in favor of sugar garbage. I'd rather eat garbage than the earth's sweet blessings. What is wrong with me???

Around midday I randomly craved a cinnamon roll. I found it incredibly difficult to concentrate.

I packed chili, carrots, hummus, lemon potatoes, prosciutto dates, radishes, and hard-boiled eggs for lunch. It's hard to be that person who eats hardboiled eggs at their desk. Nobody wants to be that person.

For dinner I had rice, beans, and frozen grapes. I'm not perfect. I was so spacey from sugar withdrawal I didn't get photos of these weird, sad meals.

Snack: Radishes

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I had to answer yes to the question "Are you just eating radishes at your desk?"

Breakfast: This again

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I'm so bad at getting up early to make breakfast. I was late to work again.

Lunch:

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I covered my salad with cheese because I could. I started to enjoy the smugness you get to feel when other people see you eat a salad. (Though I think my smugness was not earned considering this cheese situation, but whatever.)

In the afternoon I was DYING for some Diet Coke, but I couldn't have it because I was avoiding the sweetness of artificial sweeteners. I had seltzer instead, and that sucked.

I WANT SUGAR SO BADLY. I WOULD COMMIT A MURDER AND FEEL NO REMORSE.

I eat more gross chili for dinner.

Breakfast

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I gave up on protein. I just didn't have it in me to create a more elaborate breakfast than avocado on crackers.

I got a coffee and proudly realized I could avoid the shame I usually felt when people saw me dump sugar into it.

I was actually starting to crave sugar less. But emotionally I still wanted it.

Lunch

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Smoked salmon and lemon potatoes.

I wanted to take a walk to clear my head, and I thought about how much nicer that walk would be if it was on the way to get frozen yogurt. But no. Just no.

Dinner was gross chili, of course.

I walked past this cake display and felt like a part of me was dead.

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Breakfast

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Friday was a disaster. I didn't get enough sleep. Some random wild animal came and took a bite out of this chicken sausage before I could even photograph it. Just kidding, that was me who did that. I am the monster. The monster who was too lazy to make a balanced breakfast.

I went to the grocery store and just wandered around in a haze muttering to myself. I was craving the hell out of some cereal. But the vast majority of cereal has added sugar. Even the "healthy" cereals. IT'S BONKERS.

EVEN THIS CEREAL HAD ADDED SUGAR.

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I settled for this sugar-free cereal with a creepy boy on the box.

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Shhh, don't speak.

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Join me for a bowl of creamy hot wheat cereal.

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I put strawberries, almonds, and cacao nibs on my creamy wheat cereal and tried to pretend it was froyo. :(

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I woke up from a dream where I had accidentally eaten a chocolate chip cookie. At least I got to eat sugar in my dreams.

I was so tired of thinking about the ingredients in food that I couldn't bring myself to take any photos of my meals on this day. I went out to brunch for a friend's birthday, but the only thing on the menu I could eat was eggs. A pastry basket was ordered for the table and I had to explain why I couldn't try a bite of each kind.

I ate a weird mishmash of the sugar-free items in my home. Cheese. Crackers. Hard-boiled eggs. Gross chili.

This was the first beautiful spring day of the year, and every single person outside was eating ice cream. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. I could hear the ice cream truck taunting me. This was my last day of no sugar, but I still felt so helpless.

"LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!!" is what I wanted to scream at this ice cream shop sign.

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My first meal after a week of no sugar was this cake.

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I really intended to hold off on eating sugar again right away. I didn't feel like I needed it anymore. But you know what? I ate this cake for breakfast.

And later I ate some frozen yogurt. And guess what. My body felt like it was filled with sludge. I felt physically ill, like I had poisoned myself. My body maybe doesn't LOVE consuming a bunch of sugar. Eating it again really made me realize why it's good to eat less of it. (It made me feel like garbage!)

Other things I learned:

* Getting enough protein and planning ahead with snacks really did make giving up sugar easier. My physical withdrawal symptoms were minimal. But my emotional attachment to sugar was what I really struggled with. (I love you, sugar. Let's never fight again.)

* I really like the strategy of focusing on one thing, like cutting out sugar, as a way to eat healthier without getting overwhelmed.

* My biggest takeaway is that I should just be mindful of my sugar consumption. I hate myself for saying a sentence that gross, but I said it and I meant it. It's OK to eat some sugar, of course. But I can't ignore the quantity like some kind of sugar zombie wandering the streets, ravaging candy stores, terrorizing pastry chefs, stealing children's ice cream. I have to stop doing those things.