A Wife Loved Like The Church

Sometimes You Can Have Too Much of a Good Thing

Posted on: September 30, 2010

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I really, really love sugar and coffee. But I’m wondering if my two loves could be the root of my long term headaches. While I haven’t been drinking coffee as long as I’ve been eating sweets, I do tend to drink a lot of coffee. {Depending on what you consider a lot. Maybe 2-4 cups a day – usually closer to 4.} Oddly, I don’t put sugar in my coffee, which might be a plus for what is about to happen:

I’m giving up sugar for the month of October.

{photo credit}

Now there are a couple of ground rules:

1. I will continue eating yeast breads that contain sugar {i.e. yeast rolls, sandwich breads, etc}.

2. I will stop eating sweet breads, cookies, cakes, etc.

3. I will continue eating natural sugars – honey, agave, peanut butter {without added sugar}, fruits.

4. I will in addition cut back my coffee to once a week, drinking one cup at house church on Sundays.

I’m giving myself two weeks to see how my body handles the changes. If I don’t see much improvement in my headaches, I’m going one step further and eliminating all sugar {basically cutting out sugar from my yeast breads}.

I’ve already cut out the coffee this week. It’s not been as hard as I expected, but I do miss it something fierce. I’m not as concerned about eliminating coffee from my diet as much as I am cutting it back and being mindful the timing of when I drink {better before 9/10 am}.

I’m a little nervous about this new “diet” adventure. I’m imagining having night sweats when I just have to have something sweet and can’t. Hopefully my imagination is just a little overactive. I’m keeping a date journal to see how things go, chart my improvements {fingers crossed} and if there is anything more that might trigger my headaches.

*Please keep in mind that I am not a medical professional and my crazy no-sugar diet is my personal exploration for headache remedy and not medical advice.

Visit Alicia at Alicia’s Homemaking for more Try New Adventures Thursday.

13 Responses to "Sometimes You Can Have Too Much of a Good Thing"

Sarah, I really hope this goes well for you. We’ll root you on and try not to tempt you with TOO many posts about sweets and our favorite seasonal Starbucks beverages (thankfully I’m too poor to visit Starbucks this year!).

I’m thinking the first week especially might be really tough–but YOU CAN DO IT!!!!

My best friend cut out all sugar for a month once, and she said by the end, she wasn’t craving it at all and could take it or leave it quite easily.

Thanks for linking up to TNAT. 😀

Well, I was really tempted to make your chocolate cake today as my last hooray before October starts. But then I stopped myself because I wasn’t sure I could look at it all the time and NOT eat it. 😀

Just remember, the headaches might increase at first when you stop the coffee. That headache will clear up in about a week (maybe less if you are lucky). Also, you gave up chocolate for a year (unbelievable!) so, I have great confidence in you!!

[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Alicia's Homemaking, Sarah Windham. Sarah Windham said: I'm about to embark on giving up sugar AND coffee for an entire month. *Hold me.* http://bit.ly/a9FALc #trynewadventures […]

Good for you! When I was in high school I did a “sugar fast” for an entire year, and also recently went without sweets (minus a slice of my son’s birthday cake) for about four months during a weight-loss competition with some friends. It was easy and hard in ways that I didn’t expect. The worst part is always the “peer pressure” in social situations when everyone is doing it. 🙂

I hope this helps with your headaches. The sugar would be hard, but the coffee would be harder. You gave up chocolate for a year?! You must have amazing self-control.

I did give up chocolate for a year. I allowed myself to have it 4 times (my birthday, anniversary, Thanksgiving and Christmas). It was hard at times, but after a while was pretty easy. I did start eating other non-chocolate sweets which might have been my down fall. 😉

Don’t ever tell a pastry chef you’re giving up sugar!!!!! Ok, I understand the idea, and hope it helps with the headaches. I have a good friend that, after a very stressful divorce, devloped intolerances to lactose, sucrose, fructose, soy, and just about everything else. It has been interesting to try to help her make substitutions when she can no longer digest much of anything besides protein. I’m glad you’re keeping some sugar there, as I know you know it’s all part of a balanced diet.

Good luck!

I think this sounds pretty reasonable and hope it helps with the headaches, and am sorry you’re giving up coffee during the season at that coffee place with the cracktastic drinks that shall not be mentioned. Can’t wait to hear the results.

[…] I spent some time last night figuring out good “sweet” options for this month’s no sugar/no coffee diet. After being so tired all weekend and then taking a 2 hour nap yesterday, I realized I need […]

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[…] spent the month of October taking a break from sugar. I wanted to explore what effects sugar was having on my frequent headaches. I realized these two […]

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