Today I feel pretty rough. Not from the 115km Gran Fondo Kelowna I did, but from all the sugar I consumed! On these long rides the feeding stations offer mostly sugar and electrolytes. There's fruit, gels, sugary electrolyte drinks, bars and other assorted goodies (Honey Stinger waffles are my favourite!). I love the feeding stations!
When riding a long ride you need the sugary carbs to keep your glycogen levels topped up so you have energy to get through the ride but I tend to go a bit overboard and I justify it by telling myself that since I'm doing such a long hard ride I need to eat all the sugar I can get my hands on. Did I mention that I used to be very addicted to sugar?
When I was younger everything I ate had sugar in it - and I mean everything! Breakfast was a sugary cereal, or a non-sugary cereal with loads of white sugar added to it. For lunch a sandwich with lots of miracle whip (contains sugar). For dinner whatever we were having smothered in ketchup (contains A LOT of sugar)! My mom loved to bake and I loved to eat desserts anytime, anywhere. No wonder I used to be a bit on the chubby side. I also had exercised induced asthma and pretty bad allergies.
Sometime in my twenties I decided to try to give up sugar. It was not easy - not for me, nor for the people who had to be around me. The first 3 or so days were the worst! Then after a while I started to notice that my allergies were pretty much gone, and I was hardly ever using my inhaler. I used to have to use my inhaler before doing any kind of exercise. I used to use my asthma as an excuse to get out of doing physical activity actually. Once I cut out sugar it all went away, not to mention my head became clearer and I didn't feel as sluggish as usual. The best thing was that my taste buds started coming back. Did you know that regular sugar consumption will deaden your taste buds? That's why when you first give up sugar everything tastes bland. Don't worry though they do come back after a while once you give up the white death.
Sugar causes inflammation in your body which is why it aggravates such conditions as asthma, arthritis and any kind of joint pain. If you have any kind of dis-ease in your body sugar will only make it worse! So why do so many of us eat way too much of it? Because it's addictive and it's in practically anything that comes in a package. Check the ingredients on any packaged good and chances are there will be some sugar in it. Any word ending in 'ose' is a sugar by the way. The marketers try to be clever by saying they're product has whole grains and is therefore healthy. Here's a hint - if your cereal has brightly colour bits and little marshmallows in it, it doesn't matter how many whole grains there are: IT'S NOT HEALTHY! I think it's disgusting how these manufacturers are able to get away with confusing people into eating a product that is totally unhealthy for them. So many people are making food choices that they think are healthy and wondering why they have problems with obesity, diabetes and all sorts of other health problems.
Anyway enough ranting for now. I'm off to have a healthy dinner with no sugar and get to bed early so I'm ready for another fun-filled day of teaching fitness classes!
Want some advice on how to kick the sugar habit? Leave a comment below and I'll gladly give you some advice :)
No comments:
Post a Comment