Benefits of reducing sugar in my diet

As a full-time martial arts instructor I’m very conscious of the things I eat and drink, but as I’ve got progressively  busier with work and had less time between classes I’d started to snack on chocolate and tea or coffee had become an excuse to eat cakes & biscuits 4 to 5 times a day.

3 weeks ago (just after accumulating another easter egg mountain) I decided to see what would happen if I stopped eating cakes, biscuits and chocolate for 1 week.

WEEK 1:
No chocolate, no cakes, no biscuits, tea with milk (no sugar), café late (1 sugar).

I’m amazed at how quickly I started to feel the effects.  I wasn’t feeling desperately tired all day (for the first time in my life) and had even stopped falling asleep on the tube journeys between classes.
My energy levels became much higher and more constant, and I generally felt a lot better in myself.

WEEK 2:
Feeling so good decided to continue for another week.

I used to drink really strong tea but now think this was because of the sugar overpowering the taste of the tea itself.  I’ve now started drinking a much lighter tea without milk and have to say it’s far more refreshing.

One other thing, I’d started to sleep very lightly and started waking an hour earlier in the morning (although I wasn’t convinced this was related).

WEEK 3:
I quite simply don’t like the taste of anything with too much sugar in it now.

I’m now sleeping deeply again, waking up earlier, naturally, and for the first time I can remember, feeling completely refreshed after a good nights sleep!

I think I’d fallen into the trap of believing that I could eat anything and everything just because I was training so much.  I now believe the extreme energy spikes that were making me seek a ‘sugar hit’ were actually caused by an excessive sugar intake in the first place.

There’s no way I want to go back to feeling so tired so I’m going to continue with this.  I still have the occasional sweet snack now and then but am struggling to find something that doesn’t taste like sugar is the main ingredient…

I know 3 weeks isn’t a long time so will update this post should I notice anything else.  Finally, if anyone out there wants ask a question or wishes to add something to this then please ‘Leave a Reply’.