I’m doing this in June

I mentioned before that I like to join challenges and so it will probably come as no surprise that I signed up for another one. I’ll dedicate my June to Nicole‘s 30-day sugar detox. Yes, you heard me right. I (and I know many of you with me! Hooray!) am going to take a good look at (hidden and not-so-hidden) sugar for the next 30 days. I know a lot of people who use food as a comfort or reward and Nicole pointed that out in her outline for this challenge. Quite honestly, I’ve never really been the emotional eater, but before you exclaim how jealous you are, abstaining from any food completely in stressful and overwhelming situations is not a healthy coping mechanism either. I do tend to reward myself with food when I have something to celebrate, which is why I usually have to watch what I eat more when I am happy than when I am sad/stressed out. Also, my bigger vice are salty snacks, but that’s a completely different story.

I guess you could say that everything that is related to our emotions somewhat revolves around food in one way or another. That is a very interesting observation, don’t you think?  I believe that I knew that on a subconscious level before, but I never really thought about it in a way that would make me want to break and re-establish connections that were made in the past about my emotional needs and certain soothing foods habits. I mean, look at what our culture does when we celebrate something or just simply get together. There is always food! I love the fact that food brings people together and the saying “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach” is certainly no accident either. I just think that food can sometimes take over a role in people’s lives that it was never supposed to play.

I am honestly not so much concerned about the “conscious” decisions I make when I put sugary foods in my body. I enjoy (and cherish) a nice dessert or the occasional rock sugar in my black tea. What freaks me out much, much are the hidden sugars that are basically in everything these days and I want to know how I can avoid them. I mean, have you taken a good look at the labels of some processed foods? I try to buy as little processed foods as possible to begin with, but sometimes it seems like you can’t really get around it and I really would like to know what it is that I feed my body.

Trying to cut out sugar sounds like I am going on a diet. This is not the case. In the next 30 27 days, I am not hoping to completely change my eating habits or even lose weight, but I am looking forward to learning more about my relationship with certain foods and food cravings and a mindful approach to a more balanced, healthy diet. This is a conscious look at what I put in my body and an approach to change potentially bad eating habits and be more aware and knowledgable about the foods that I do buy/eat.

To say that I am excited is an understatement. At the same time though, I am also a bit afraid of what I might learn – about my emotional needs, about my eating habits, and about changes I might have to make. But hey, that’s the challenge and I am up for it, because you can’t keep doing the same things and expect a different outcome!