30-Day Sugar Challenge
If you want to lose weight, cutting the sugar out of your diet will do the trick. When I say sugar, I mean any food that quickly converts to sugar(glucose) in your body and raises your blood sugar levels. That would include fruit, grains, starches, cereals, breads, crackers and potatoes. Even too much “healthy sugar,” like fructose from fruit, gets stored as fat when we have more sugar than our body can handle. Excess blood sugar levels lead to heart disease, inflammation, cancer, diabetes, insulin insensitivity, obesity, ADD, fatigue, arthritis and many more chronic illnesses.
Here are three ways to reduce sugar in your diet:
Belly Fat Cure – In the 19th century the average American consumed 13 grams sugar a per day. Today Americans average 285 grams sugar per day! Fitness trainer, Jorge Cruise, is coming out with a new book called the Belly Fat Cure. He challenges us to reduce our sugar to < 15 grams per day and the weight will come off! Are you up for the challenge? All sugar counts. Not just processed sugar. Orange juice has 35 grams per glass. A medium banana has 14 grams of sugar. Most of the foods you eat have sugar – milk, bread, pasta, cereals, fruit etc. You must read nutrition labels and know your carbs and sugars. Here’s a link to look up nutrition info with serving sizes. Cruz suggests we follow a 15/6 model – 15 grams of sugar per day and 6 servings of carbohydrates where each carbohydrate serving is 5-20 grams. One of my spiritual teachers, Wayne Dyer, did this program and lost 18 lbs. in a month, by reducing his daily sugar to under 20 grams/day. All from his belly!
The Body Knows – In Caroline Sutherland’s book, The Body Knows, she recommends ridding excess sugar from the diet along with corn, wheat and dairy. Her approach is to take these four know allergens out of our diet for two weeks and reduce daily overall sugars to 30 grams or less. You then add back one of the allergens each week and see how your body reacts. After you’ve determined what leaves you feeling best, a maintenance diet averages about 60 grams of sugars or less/day.
Know the Glycemic Index of Foods – Certain foods have a greater impact on your blood sugar levels. You want to stick with a moderate to low glycemic index rating. A rating of less than 55 is low, 55-70 is moderate and above 70 is high (and are foods you want to eat sparingly). On page six and seven of this PDF you can print out a list of foods to eat and what to avoid. Here’s a database to look up additional GI food ratings.
If it feels like a lot to give up, challenge your stories and excuses as they come up: “I can’t do this.” “I can’t give up my ____.” “We’ve always eaten this way.” Educate yourself and know your nutrition info. You will feel so much better and energized. Who knows what great things you will be inspired to do next!
Whichever approach you take, try it for 30 days. You can do it. Don’t worry, you don’t have to give up starches and sugars for good. Think of them as a treat and something you save for special occasions. You will develop a greater desire for quality of treats that you do choose.
If you’d like some assistance getting your eating habits back on track, try a complimentary 30-minute coaching session and see first hand how setting goals and having a plan with accountability will help you be successful. (847) 971-3643 or email: andrea@hgcoaching.com
