Day 10: Craving Meter 0

Day 7: Craving Meter 3 – total sugar consumption for the day: 21 g

Day 8: Craving Meter 2

It’s hard to believe that 8 days have already gone by and that I haven’t cracked and had a cupcake or cookie yet.  I guess my willpower is stronger than I give myself credit for and/or what they say is true, the less sugar you eat the less you crave it.  It’s really nice when I get that mid afternoon hunger pang and my first thought isn’t devouring the entire candy jar in the lobby (if you ever wondered why there is never any chocolate in that thing it’s because of me).  I will say though that my diet has never been stricter – it is a lot harder to stick to a regimen of no more than 21g of sugar each day than reduced calories!  And to be completely honest I find it completely unrealistic to expect people to stick to this low of a number.  So many of our foods are saturated with sugar – it’s no wonder there are rising health concerns involving sugar – it’s in EVERYTHING!!!!

I do want to clarify that it is Women who should consume no more than 21 g of sugar per day.  Men can consume 36 grams (damn you!) and children should only consume 12g a day (which most children get in their breakfast alone).  These numbers are from the American Heart Association; however the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) suggests that adults who consume a 2000 calorie diet can consume 40 grams of added sugar each day.  So which is it, 21 or 40?  To add to my confusion MyPyramid.gov says that you should allow a few calories each day for treats that range between 100 and 300 calories.  If you divide your discretionary calorie budget by the number of calories per gram of sugar you’ll know how many grams of sugar you can have and still stay within your daily limits of additional sugar intake.  For example, if you allow yourself 200 calories per day for treats that would equal 50 grams of sugar.  50! 

It’s no wonder so many American’s are so confused about healthy eating and weight management!  So I went one step further and contacted a dietician who I had worked with in the past and she said that your sugar intake should be calculated in conjunction with the calories you consume each day and burn each day while exercising. 

With that being said, my daily intake is no more than 1500 calories and I usually burn anywhere from 500 – 800 calories per day, so according to her I should consume no more than 25 g of added sugar each day.  She also went on to add that it is ok to create a ‘sugar deficit’ and save my sugar grams for a particular occasion (say ice cream at Hartzler’s on Sunday!) and she added that if you prefer sweets its ok to have them but definitely not everyday – she said to consume additional sweets no more than 3 times a week.  This is great news for me!  I do want to add though that if you aren’t physically active on a regular basis then your daily intake of added artificial sugars should be no more than 21 g.  Additionally, sugars from fruit and dairy are natural and not considered added (unless you’re downing chocolate milk of course!).

Total Sugar consumption for day: 26 g (I did have a hot chocolate after dinner – but this is not a bad thing!)

Day 10: Craving Meter 0

I’m almost afraid to write this down for fear that the minute I acknowledge that I actually went one whole day without craving sweets will cause a shift in my brain and turn me into a Gremlin-like animal who seeks nothing more than sweets after midnight!  But its true – I went the whole entire day and didn’t crave sweets once!  And when I started to get a little hungry in the evening my first thought was not a sugary snack but in fact was a more sensible, healthy piece of fruit with some tea.  Go me!

Total Sugar Consumption for day: 14 g

This personal challenge has helped motivate me to continue with this momentum and make all of you proud!  They say it takes 21 days to make or break a habit – only 11 more to go!