Life After Sugar with Guest Blogger Netta Gorman
“For me, being sugar-free is a form of self-care” - Netta
Had you told me when I was in my 30s and 40s that not eating chocolate and deserts and ice cream would actually make my life better, I would have laughed all the way to the cookie jar!
I mean, I’d spent all my adult life using sugar as a source of comfort, reward, self-soothing… it was my emotional best friend, and all-round answer for everything. And my childhood was normal in the 70s and 80s - you know: summer excitement when we heard the ice cream van in our street (I grew up in England), after school trips to the corner shop to buy penny sweets with our pocket money, and all the usual celebrations and holidays with sugar being a normal and expected part of it all.
I never had a problem with sugar. I didn’t have a problem with my weight either.
Sure, I’d put on a few pounds in my late 30s after four years of infertility treatments and finally IVF that gave us a beautiful healthy baby girl when I was almost 38. But I mean, I was almost 40 so it was normal for me to hold onto those postpartum pounds, right?
The day I delivered our baby girl, along with those cute onesies and tiny newborn diapers in my hospital bag, I brought along a couple of packets of chocolates to enjoy as my reward for what turned out to be a 16-hour labour. Wouldn’t you have done the same?
I considered that I had normal habits with sugar: I would crave it at that time of the month, I would always have some kind of sweet treat hidden away in my car or in my desk at work, I would sneak my daughter’s Halloween candy or a few cookies at night… my identity was tied up with my love for desserts. I proudly told people that I was the dessert queen, and I had no problem admitting that I had a sweet tooth.
It was only in my mid 40s after I’d suffered from chronic constipation for over 15 years, making my bathroom visits only a once-weekly occurrence, that I realised that I just couldn’t carry on feeling bloated and in pain any longer. The doctors had all told me to eat more fibre, and I did, but things were getting worse, not better.
Reluctantly I ended up consulting a nutritional therapist in the spring of 2015. She suggested that I stop eating sugar, flour, and sweeteners for a temporary period of two weeks.
And I said what anyone would say: Er… no thanks!
It took me months of more pain and suffering before my body finally backed me into a corner and made me try something that I have never tried before - what did I have to lose?
I couldn’t see the connection between my sluggish digestion and sugar, but I jumped into this 2-week experiment all the same.
The first few days were pretty rough, I can’t lie. Now I know that I was going through sugar detox, but at the time I just felt awful! It didn’t last long though, just a couple of days during which I was exhausted and irritable and suffering with a splitting headache.
But then wonder of wonders! I began to feel great, with more energy and mental clarity than I’d ever had before… plus my spare tire began melting away. I couldn’t believe it! I mean I wasn’t eating less, just differently: no sugar, no grains or flour, and no sweeteners. So basically, real whole foods. What a concept!
Well, honestly it was a new concept for me: I remember standing in the grocery store with an empty shopping cart feeling totally confused and bewildered, thinking that I would be eating ice cubes for dinner. That’s how clueless I was about real food actually was. My first few trips to the grocery store involved picking up box after packet after can, looking at the list of ingredients and then putting them back on the shelf because they all contained some form of sugar, starch or flour.
It took me a while before I realized that real foods don’t have labels, and in most grocery stores they are to be found in the perimeter of the grocery store.
At the end of the two weeks, I felt so good that even though the nutritional therapist gave me permission to start eating some forms of natural sugar again, I said: No thanks!
I felt great so I decided to carry on for another week and then another week and then another week… and it’s been almost 6 years.
I can say now at the age of 51 that I feel half my age. I’m a college ESL teacher and I have more energy and joie de vivre than my students.
After just a few weeks, all my aches and pains disappeared, no more inflammation, my middle-age spare tire and love handles melted away, I was no longer getting athlete’s foot or headaches, my skin cleared up, my bloodwork showed that my fatty liver had gone back to normal, and my hunger levels stabilized so that I no longer craved sugar or needed snacks.
I started actually enjoying my food without seeing it as some sort of enemy… or reward.
I felt like I had developed a really healthy relationship not just with my food, but with myself.
Over time I learned to appreciate celebrations and parties and birthdays for who I was with and why we were celebrating. Amazingly, desserts, cakes and chocolate gradually fell off my radar. I just didn’t need them anymore.
In any case, my tastebuds had changed, and I actually began to DISlike sweet tastes. Can you believe it?
I was having plenty of fun without sugar, and none of the guilt or shame that I felt when I was eating it before. Even after six years, it’s still amazing to me.
One other happy side effect is that I feel that I’m a good role model for my teenage daughter, not just because of what I eat, but especially how I relate to my food, to myself, and to my body. I can see that my daughter is growing up to be adventurous around food, and proud of what her body does for her as a source of strength and joy, and not as some sort of decoration.
I would never have believed that my life after sugar would be so sweet. It really does feel like I’m taking care of myself. I don’t feel I’m denying myself anything, I don’t think I’m missing out, and my life is certainly not dull and boring. On the contrary, I feel free!
And now I’m in a place where I feel that I can pay it forward and inspire others to find the sweetness in their life too. So I created the Life After Sugar podcast, as well as my website aftersugarclub.com. With my 25 years of college teaching experience, I’ve also created the Life After Sugar Program for people who are really ready to re-evaluate their relationship with sugar and find the freedom that comes from not wanting or needing sugar anymore.
I hope my story inspires others to believe what I could never have believed before: that being happily sugar-free is possible.
~ Netta
Because Netta is in her early 50s with a 13-year-old daughter, their empty nest will come at the same time as their retirement. Because they had their daughter later in life, Netta and her husband already traveled a lot, and one of their retirement dreams is to spend the winters in a warmer country than Canada! Living a healthy lifestyle is key to planning their empty nest ... and when their only child flies the nest, they'll be ready for the next chapter of their lives. Find more at https://aftersugarclub.comThanks, Netta! I enjoyed learning more about your health journey!P.S. If you're interested in other posts about sugar detoxing...
The life philosophy of A House With Four Rooms suggests thinking of yourself as being four rooms: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual rooms. It advocates for doing something daily for your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being.