About two years ago, I was facing a whole lot of craziness that included moving, chasing a toddler, pregnancy with my second child, buying our first home, finishing up with Tucson Food Day, running Lilly’s Table and dealing with some totally frustrating health ailments. There was not a lot I felt I could do to really get myself out of the drama that was then my life. I was just in survival mode.

After the birth of my little guy, I started to come out from that dizzying cloud and realized there were certainly some strategies that would help me dust off the madness. I am a wee bit obsessed with food, so I started to notice some things happening in my diet that made me less than excited. Since I was breastfeeding, I was eating a ton (for those unaware, you need more calories when breastfeeding than while pregnant) and had little interest in any type of severe cleanse or diet, but as I considered the ‘treats’ that were so common in my house I found myself wanting to let go of the golden sweet caramelized handcuffs sugar seemed to have on me and my loved ones.

I have never really been drawn to traditional ‘diets’, but if I find myself feeling a bit too reliant on anything that isn’t packed with nutrients (such as coffee, alcohol, meat, dairy, and more) I often take an extended break. I recently read the most lovely book Gratitude Works! and at one point he talks about how many religions include fasting in their rituals and how eliminating something for a period of time gives you more opportunity to reflect and feel gratitude towards it. If you LOVE sugar, taking a break is a great way to make desserts, treats and any sweetness that much more enjoyable.

I could certainly tell you all of the terrible things about sugar, but let’s just agree, it is not that great for you. Kind of terrible, in fact. But, really, with all of the research out there comparing it to other white addictive substances and how it is in just about every processed food, the best way to really dive in, to truly understand your own personal story about the sweet stuff and investigate it for yourself, is to simply: TAKE A SUGAR BREAK!

This is what happened to my family and I. When we stopped the sugar madness, we started to notice how much was present in every other thing we consumed. We were aware of how the evenings, the midday slump and even the rush out the door seemed much easier with sugar. But without our sweet buddy running through our bodies, we started to notice that we did not crash and burn as quickly. Also, my husband and I became annoyingly aware of how often we were bribing our child into the behavior we desired with promises of sugar. We weren’t daily offenders, but it happened more often than we wanted to be bribing at all, must less with sugar. And our eyes were widened to how often other people gifted sugar to our child– usually people we barely knew. It is so deeply engrained in our culture.

All in all, giving up sugar raised our awareness and we realized how much we were relying on it, rather than enjoying it as a treat. After the first initial days we were figuring out other ways to enjoy food. And all sorts of goodness happened:

Food tasted better!
We could even taste the natural sweetness of veggies.
We ate more at home.
We saved money (we sort of had an out of control ice cream shop habit at the time!)
We figured out different ways to end our evenings without dessert or wine.
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We dropped a few pounds and felt a bit slimmer.
My typical low-blood sugar crashes vanished.
We re-strategized the sugar bribes for our kiddos.
Stress was less. It still existed, but it was less overwhelming.

I wrote this post in the midst of that past cleanse, if you are curious about how we were feeling at the time.

Sugar, as it so often does, found its way back into our lives. What can I say, the sweet stuff brings smiles & joy that we manage to justify despite all of the good stuff in the list above that happens when it isn’t part of our daily diet.

I am always happiest when the treats of sugar are simply that… a rare, precious occasional treat. If you were covered head to toe in diamonds would you really appreciate another? In order to get to that state again, my family knows we have to take another sugar vacation. When it is ever present in your diet, you are more likely to NEED it- (yup, just like a drug) rather than ENJOY and treasure it- like the treat it actually is. We are looking forward to taking another break. This time we are joining a greater group effort and signing up for the Winter Community Dump that will include community support and knowledge from nutritionist Sara Bradford of Nourish Real Food and much more.

I recently wrote a list of Top Five reasons to go sugar-free, another Top Five reasons to sign up for Sara’s 10-day Winter Community Dump and another Top Five reasons to do her 8-week Winter Community Dump. If you are on my mailing list, you already saw it. If you are not, sign up for my mailing list! In the meantime, here is a peak at that email for you!

Cook seasonally. Eat consciously sugar-free. Live well,

Chef Lilly