Blog Post 4: Looking back to move forward.
Blog Post 4: Looking back to move forward.
This week I’m remembering the why. I truly believe your willpower will only be as strong as your why. So, I’m taking you back to my why, which takes us back almost six years to the birth of my second son. It was a beautiful day, when He was born with His big brown eyes and brown hair making me the proud mom of two healthy boys. Except I still remember the nurse coming in every hour and pricking my youngest son’s feet. It was horrible. I was tired, He was tired, my husband was tired, and all I wanted to do was sleep, but the nurse had to check His blood sugar.
Why? Well because I had gestational diabetes all during the pregnancy leading up to the birth of my second son. My Dad had triple bypass surgery about three years ago, His mom had type 2 diabetes and later developed Alzheimer’s, and my aunt has type two diabetes as well. The gene pool clearly wasn’t flowing in my favor and the sickness seemed to trickle right down to me. The symptoms were low mood and a lack of energy, but I was mom. So, I chalked it up to job description. I mean, all moms are exhausted right? Apparently, these were warning signs of what was to come, I just didn’t know that at the time.
I ate sugar free chocolate pudding every day after dinner to curb my sweet tooth in a healthy way and took walks when my sugar was especially elevated. After I had my son, and after the heartache of hearing Him cry when the nurse checked His blood sugar, I moved on with life, sweets, and all. But a couple years ago I was diagnosed with chronic gastritis and acid reflux. So, this is when I became a vegan. I let go of the meats and cheeses, filled up the fridge with vegetables, and watched many documentaries about how diet is connected to overall health. My favorite documentary is still “What the Health” by Kip Anderson. In this documentary, Kip uncovers the secret to reversing chronic diseases.
After years of living a vegan lifestyle and seeing the health benefits including clear skin, good digestion, and overall increase in energy, I began to get lax in my efforts and became a vegetarian, and now I eat meat again. The point is that those habits are only as effective as my ability to maintain these healthy eating choices consistently and over a long period of time. Now I am focusing on eating healthy foods overall. I’m pulling back out those old but loved vegan recipes including crispy tofu with quinoa and steak seasoned zucchini. I even put some of the candy from my Christmas bag into the communal candy pile for someone else to devour. This may sound small to you, but it’s a big deal for me.
I said no to Super Bowl brownies and key lime cake last night, as well as all the diet sodas that I used to love. My favorite soda used to be cherry coke zero. The point is that Americans, myself included, consume too much sugar. I know I did, and I now must come up with a game plan to leave the sugar where it needs to stay, on the shelf for special occasions. According to the American Heart Association Americans on average consume 20 teaspoons of sugar per day while the recommended daily amount of sugar is 6 teaspoons for women and 9 teaspoons for men. Beverages make up most of our sugar consumption at a whopping 47% which include soft drinks, sports drinks, energy drinks, coffee, and tea. The second leading cause of excess sugar comes from snacks and sweets at 31%.
The point is, sugar consumption has gotten way out of control, especially in the United States, and we need to be aware of the risks associated with excess sugar which include chronic inflammation, tooth decay, acne, advanced skin aging, weight gain and obesity, diabetes and insulin resistance, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, brain loss, cancer, and premature death. Sugar though sweet can be deadly. It’s recommended by John Hopkins Medicine that we avoid sodas and other sugar sweetened beverages, reach for fruits instead of candy, cookies, or other sweet treats, read ingredient labels, and watch for sugar aliases. As it turns out, smoothies with no added sugar still taste sweet because that’s how they are made naturally. If we stop and think before we run to the sweets isle, in the future we will be happy with the choices we make.
“Always begin with the end in mind.” - Ellen Muth
References:
“How much sugar is too much?” American Heart Association. https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-eating/eat-smart/sugar/how-much-sugar-is-too-much
Ndumele, Chiadi. “Obesity, Sugar, and Heart Health.” Johns Hopkins Medicine. https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/obesity-sugar-and-heart-health
