I'm going to go 7 days with no refined sugar. I will still be eating breads, but candy, soda, ice cream, etc... I will completely remove from my diet to see what kind of results I have.
My hopes are that I will have more energy and some weight loss by the end of the week.
Day 1.
I didn't have much trouble not eating any refined sugar. There were a few moments where I caught myself habitually going to the ice cream aisle or the candy aisle, but little will power was required to pass them by.
I also noticed that after dinner I didn't have much of a craving for a late snack or dessert.
Day 2.
This morning I woke feeling more refreshed than I have in some time. I only slept 7.5 hours which is a lot less than what I have been sleeping recently. More in the range of 9-10 hours. Not much else is different from the first day aside from feeling well rested.
Day 3
Craving coffee more than normal. Motivation seems lower than normal as well.
Day 6
My sleeping has remained good. I feel like I ate a lot more food than normal the first few days but that seems to be tapering off. I was originally going to do 7 days with no sugar but I think a month is a better idea. I feel like I'm just starting to get used to no sugar, although there are definitely moments that I crave a Mocha from Starbucks, it's getting easier.
I've been eating more fruit, mostly apples. They seem a lot more appetizing to me now, and taste very sweet. My skin is looking better. Little blotches that have been on my face for years seem to be getting smaller and clearing up. My energy levels seem pretty good, nothing much different than before.
Day 16
I've been sick so I don't feel I've been able to accurately asses things this week, but my weight is hovering around 211 which is on the low side for me. I've had an appetite for burgers and cheese steaks which happens often when I'm sick. Even given the added food intake and the lack of gym in the mornings, my weight is not going up much.
My cravings aren't as strong as before, I have pretty much replaced those sweet cravings with apples which I have grown very fond of. Trying out other fruits to see if they taste better to me now.
My skin remains very clear and sleeping is very good, I'm not waking up for long period in the middle of the night anymore. Excited to see how another week goes as I am healthier now. I originally wanted to just do this for a week but now that things are going so well I'm losing my desire to eat sugar anymore as the effects it was giving me are so undesirable.
Week 4
It's Christmas time and I was at a Christmas fair and had some hot chocolate and a few candies. I thought they would taste sweeter than they did before but they didn't seem particularly sweeter than what I remember, but I had an apple today and it tastes slightly less sweet (but still good). It seems like there is a maximum sweetness we can experience and everything else scales down from there.
This is the end of my experiment in no sugar. I will continue not to eat it as I feel better and most importantly I sleep better. I have struggled with insomnia for a long time and I never would have guessed that sugar had anything to do with it. I still don't know why exactly but it is working for me. I think eating it every once in a while is fine, but when consumed on a daily basis it is detrimental to my health. I'm going to probably keep it down to a few times a month.