Losing Lucy

A friend recently told me about the book, Potatoes Not Prozac, by Kathleen DeMaisons. I was so glad she recommended it. It has been very helpful to me.

The author has done a lot of work with addicted people (drug addictions, alcoholism), and she has found a diet that is helpful not just to alcoholics and drug addicts, but also to people who are addicted to sugar or sensitive to sugar. I am definitely one of those people who are sensitive/addicted to sugar.

The book does a great job of explaining what goes on in your body when you eat sugar, why you crave it, etc. It explains the role of diet in your levels of serotonin and beta-endorphin, two chemicals which influence your mood and sense of well-being. It all made so much sense.

The diet itself is pretty much a diet of healthy eating, but she breaks it down into stages and also has some helpful suggestions. One of the suggestions that I have already been following is to have some protein with every meal and to have a carbohydrate snack before bed. This has really helped my moods already.

However, her actual first step of eating only 3 meals a day (and the snack before bed) has been way too hard for me. I am used to snacking and grazing all day long, and I think my sugar addiction has a lot to do with it.

Anyway, without going into too many details about the book, I decided to quit sugar “cold turkey”. I have been struggling along for weeks with the diet in the book, but have not been able to do the gradual process. I have quit sugar, cold turkey, before, so I know I can do it. It just takes about 3 weeks of misery until my body adjusts.

Those first 3 weeks are hell, though. So I want to get started now, before my son comes home for Christmas. I don’t want to be crabby and irritable when he is here.

So it’s now day 2 for me without sugar. I have found this time, that the trick is to expect to feel bad, and not do anything about it. I am so used to medicating myself with food whenever I feel bad. But there is nothing that is going to make me feel better except to eat sugar, which I am not going to do. Actually, if I do nothing, the bad feelings usually pass for a while.

I think I can do this.

Tags: Addiction, Endorphins, Moods, Potatoes Not Prozac, Serontonin, Sugar

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