Day 42… I am stoked because I have kept my word to myself for almost a month and a half… In fact, I’m so proud of myself, this afternoon after I finish up my challenge I think I’m going to sit down and have a few drinks… A couple of strong vodka and cranberries to celebrate my steadfastness…
Anything wrong with what I just wrote?
Changing your life is really hard… So, lots and lots of experts recommend that you cheat… When you are “good” for a long time, then it’s okay to be “bad” for a meal or a day and sometimes, according to some diets, for an entire week… Then, right back to being “good” again… I, uh, I’m going to call bullshit on this one…
Going backwards is not psychologically healthy and in fact, in my personal experience and my involvement in the life change efforts of myself and others, it doesn’t work… Again, this is my experience only and the handful of people that I have interacted with who have tried to change their bad habits into good habits… Exercise for a few days, oh wow, I should take a day off… Fail… Eat right for a few weeks, oh wow; I’m going to get a giant frosted chocolate chip cookie because it’s my birthday… Fail… I haven’t smoked for a week, I can certainly control myself with just this one… Fail…
Just one… Just a little… Just for a second…
Yep, I will let you argue and say “well, sugar isn’t heroin…” You are absolutely right, sugar isn’t heroin, it’s sugar… However, according to science, sugar activates the exact same part of the brain as heroin, sugar is addictive like heroin and sugar destroys your body… Just. Like. Heroin. Researchers at Princeton University studying bingeing and dependency in rats have found that when the animals ingest large amounts of sugar, their brains undergo changes similar to the changes in the brains of people who abuse illegal drugs like cocaine and heroin. Heroin is also linked to tooth decay and diabetes... See any similarities? Just a fun fact, sugar cravings can be reduced with Naloxone, you know, that drug they give to opiate overdose victims…
Damn it, I hate facts as much as anyone, especially when they point out that I am not being intelligent about my health…
So why do we tell everyone that eating a piece of cake once in a while will be just fine but once you kick almost any other habit, you can never return? I guess feeling like shit from something you buy at your local grocery store is way better than feeling like shit from something you buy in the alley behind your local grocery store?
Take it from a former sugar junkie… In high school, my buddy Darren and I used to go to the Foodland and buy a quart of chocolate milk and a box of Little Debbie Cakes and sit on the curb and eat them for our lunch… When my son was a teenager, he and I would kill a 24 pack of Dr. Pepper together sometimes in a single day, depending on how hot it was… Thirsty? Dr. Pepper… Meal time? Dr. Pepper… This binging was standard for me all throughout my life up until about 6 years ago… My wife and I would go to the store on a Saturday afternoon and buy two one pound boxes of candy and binge eat them while watching a movie on Saturday night…
No, that doesn’t sound like addiction…
Now you might not go to extremes like this but listen… A pack of cigarettes throughout a day or a chain smoking a pack in 4 hours is the same thing… Because you do a slow burn on sugar all day, I will challenge you to remove your “functional addiction” and tell me how you feel at three o’clock in the afternoon and there is a sheet cake in the break room because Cindy had a birthday… Binge and purge or slow burn, an addict is an addict… Own it…
So when I decided to stop, it was a fucking nightmare ride that lasted three full years and then a rollercoaster of start/stop/start/stop until I finally beat it a couple of years ago… Way worse than cigarettes, way worse than my 35+ years tobacco habit and I can now say that beating alcohol compared to sugar was like fighting a 500 pound, angry silverback gorilla versus taking on an elderly man… Alcohol was a couple of weeks and then I saw the light… Sugar was a months longs battle that turned into a multi-year war… I can finally say that I don’t want sugar anymore and my consumption of it is maybe two to three tablespoons a day of a combined fruit sugar, raw palm sugar and maple syrup… I NEVER eat white processed sugar because that shit is satanically, epically evil… I have it in my house for one reason; I have two hummingbird feeders and I mix my own food for them… Other than that, fuck white sugar…
Wow... I didn’t realize just how much I hate that stuff… Sorry for the rant… Yikes…
Back to my point… You can do whatever you want; it’s your life, your body and your prerogative… Nonetheless, I challenge you to go the next 24 hours without sugar… Look at every can, every bag, and every meal and realize just how much sugar you are ingesting…
That’s my challenge to you… Get some Tylenol because you will have a headache, body aches, upset stomach, dizzy, weak, tired and a general feeling of malaise and all you’re going to think about is a bump of sugar all afternoon… Now that doesn’t sound like addiction… Does it?
Good habits are difficult to form and easy to live with. Bad habits are easy to form and difficult to live with. I’m sorry but that’s just the way it is… Pay attention. Be aware… Or better yet… Beware…
Before I go, let me let you in on a little secret… A week isn’t going to solve your issues or change your life in any significant way other than build your self confidence a little… Cheat after a week, erase that self confidence and go back to day one… A month is improvement but listen to me, cheat day after a month and you again, erase your growing self confidence and take yourself back to square one… At two months, here is where things begin to change… You’re still going to want to cheat but this is the pivot point for most everyone. Your neural network has begun to use different avenues more often and you are carving new grooves in your brain… You will notice that you go longer and longer periods with a craving… Cheating at this point becomes a decision based on massive progress and just how proud of yourself you are now… At three months, you have new and deep grooves carved into your brain and while the old habit avenues are still open, they are much less likely to cause you to stumble…
If you can hang on for sixty days to your recovery, your exercise program, your new habit of writing every day, your new habit of practicing a musical instrument, the choice to cheat starts to look like a non-choice and more like idiocy… Hang on for three months and I swear to you that you will see the world through new eyes, one with good habits, less addictive behaviors and fewer instances throughout the day to fall into self destructive behaviors…
That’s the good news… Now for even better…
Once you beat something big… Your life will change dramatically… All it takes is one victory and you will get this wonderful epiphany that you are so much more powerful than you realized and a world of infinite possibilities will open for you… Opportunities for self improvement, better life, health and confidence will present themselves every day and you will need to write them down to keep track of all of them…
90 days…
Get started, a better, happier, healthier and confident you is 90 days away…
Have a wonderful day and smile at someone, even if you’re being intelligent and wearing a mask, they can still see it in your eyes…
Love you to death, why else would I bother?
Life Change Challenge update… Today was kind of cool day where a lot of rest coincided… No Murph today, just like all Sundays and my V-Crunch Challenge is also a day off… P90X3 was just stretching so I’m really left to rest and do the things I love doing every day… Meditation, writing, guitar… The rest is a given… As I mentioned in a previous blog, I finally completed all 14 aspects of my challenge for seven straight days… I made my goal of 100%and now my new goal is doing it for two weeks straight because what do you do when you get to the top of your mountain? Easy, you look around for a higher one…
Get to work…
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