In the ninth grade, I used to stand sideways and look in the mirror every night before I got in the shower. I saw this huge slope where my stomach sat, taunting me and making me think less of myself. I decided that action was necessary and I looked for the best possible routes with dieting and exercise. I began wrestling for my fitness, (which is a story in and of itself,) and looking for something to target in my diet.
I didn't know if there was a specific, but I kept thinking the majority of things in food were bad. I kept seeing all of these carb diets, fat diets, and enough other diets to fill up an article on their own. After doing some research on this one afternoon after practice, I walked downstairs and grabbed a Snicker's bar. They've always been my favorite, and it hit me in the face as I stood there eating it that this was the enemy that I needed to target.
Glucose is sugar. Your body needs some to function, and in the average person, that "some" is thirty-seven grams per day. It is actually pretty difficult to keep your daily sugar intake below that number due to the fact that just about everything we eat or drink has much more sugar than we realize. I ordered a smoothie recently and checked the nutrition facts afterward only to find out that it had eighty-eight grams of sugar. That is well over double what my body needed to take in. As you can imagine, I haven't been back for another.
Glucose can attack the waistline after being transferred to fat once you've taken in more than your daily allowance. Even worse, Fructose is non-existent in the natural environment, so your body doesn't know how to process it, turning all of it directly into fat. Possibly worse than all of the facts presented previously, sugar is quite possibly the least regulated addictive substance and is said to be more addictive than cocaine. So what did all of this mean to me?
I realized that I had to throw it out. The whole idea behind wrestling is to lose weight while retaining muscle so that you can wrestle in a lighter weight class while remaining strong. So, naturally, the victim in the purge of weight would have to be fat. I realized that all of my extra weight was coming from candy, soda, and other sweets, so I decided to go on a cleanse.
Only a week in, I began to notice the difference. I felt more alert, less sluggish, and better prepared to start my day and last throughout it. I didn't feel like I needed it, but the addictive qualities definitely echoed to me when I walked past a Recce's cup in the grocery store or a Coke down the soda aisle. It had a grip for sure, but I had it under control. I was dropping weight extremely quickly with the intensity of my workouts increasing and the strictness of my diet following with it, and I felt fantastic. I had lost almost forty pounds and was in the greatest shape of my life.
Why tell all of this?
Sometimes, we need help in realizing what the problem is. I wish I had found an article when I was in the eighth grade or seventh grade that really put into perspective how dangerous sugar was, but I didn't, and I began to show that I hadn't. I realized that I was in desperate need of a change, and while I still have a milkshake every now and again, I try and keep the anti-sugar regime at an all-time strong every day and constantly strive towards being better.
If you have yet to try breaking off sugar, do it. It makes a world of difference. It also takes time and patience, so don't expect to see results right away. The very famous Hugh Jackman says "seventy percent of the way you look is what you eat," and I believe there's more than truth to that statement. Find your enemy, cut it loose, and stick with your plan. You'll see results, and fast. Do it while you still can.
