I start every morning with the best of intentions; no sugar, no grain, no crap. Most days this works out and I have no problems, I’m prepared, I’m disciplined and I can get through the day without reverting to those habits. But then there are the days where I am 9 months pregnant with allergies and a raging appetite. Yesterday I walked across the entire building (damn near a quarter of a mile I think) because they were giving away cookies. I had a 5 minute walk to talk myself out of it… but I didn’t… after all it was a sugar cookie with colorful frosting and in support of Autism Awareness. (As if eating a cookie was going to support the cause). I ate the cookie and it was really one of the best sugar cookies I’ve ever eaten, which did make me feel slightly better about my poor willpower…but not much. I would like to say that this was an isolated situation but it’s not, there have been many other cookie/ice-cream/pizza/chocolate incidents along the way.
In the bigger picture a cookie really isn’t a big deal, but this isn’t about the cookie. This is about letting sugar and grain sneak their way back into your diet when you have chosen and know that those things aren’t going to help you on your quest for optimal health. Everyone once-in-a-while you have to take inventory and see how many little pretzels, M&M’s, or “bites” of desserts have snuck into your daily diet and eliminate them. It’s easy to let this happen and hard to make it stop.
Sugar has many aliases. It’s so dangerous it tries to hide in food labels. Some of the many disguises sugar hides behind are listed below. Keep in mind some of them are “natural,” but they are still going to break down into your body as glucose and cause the same reaction. Some natural forms of sugar are okay, just eat them in moderation–that does not mean daily.
- barley malt
- beet sugar
- brown sugar
- buttered syrup
- cane-juice crystals
- cane sugar
- caramel
- carob syrup
- corn syrup
- corn syrup solids
- date sugar
- dextran
- dextrose
- diatase
- diastatic malt
- ethyl maltol
- fructose
- fruit juice
- fruit juice concentrate
- glucose
- glucose solids
- golden sugar
- golden syrup
- grape sugar
- high-fructose corn syrup
- honey
- invert sugar
- lactose
- malt syrup
- maltodextrin
- maltose
- mannitol
- molasses
- raw sugar
- refiner’s syrup
- sorbitol
- sorghum syrup
- sucrose
- sugar
- turbinado sugar
- yellow sugar
Check your labels, better yet, if it has a label don’t eat it. Stick to meat, vegetables, fruits, and nuts (and a moderate amount of dairy if you choose). You’ll have your pitfalls but keep those situations isolated, don’t let them become your norm. Remember that excess sugar becomes fat and nobody wants that! Start today by cleaning up your act, prepare your meals ahead of time, and recommit yourself to an optimal diet.
*The above list of sugars was provided by fitsugar.com

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