No sugar for me...

Some of you are aware that I gave up sugar starting on New Year's Day.

Just to clear up some misconceptions, I'm going to post some of what I commented in allura629's journal, and expand on it a little bit.

My choice has less to do with my diet and more to do with preventing Early Spring Death Flu.

Per my Stepmother, my body has a hard time processing sugar in the wintertime. I *could* probably get away with it if I exercise more, but you and I both know that's unlikely to happen. :)
I'd rather get martian death flu than go to a gym on a regular basis, I'd rather give up the goodies than do so, also.
We discovered that this helps when I mentioned that I traditionally give up gratuitous sugar for Lent. This helped a bit, but she wanted me to begin the No Sugar thing in early December. BLEAH. I refuse to set myself up to fail. January first seems more... I don't know. New year, new eating... that sort of thing. Plus, I'm much more likely to get other people to quit offering me candy if I say, "I gave up sugar for the New Year" than if I do in on Dec. 1.

So, my definition is strange and is as follows:
Gratuitous sugar. I started out with the definition from my "No-Sugar Diet" experiment from my middle school days. We had to do an experiment and the No Sugar Diet was one of the options. I took that one out of curiosity rather than anything else. The definition for the project was: Sugar must not be one of the first five things on the ingredient list. (Hmm. I will have to re-evaluate the yogurt.)

This obviously means no cookies, candy, sugared drinks, honey, pancake syrup, ice cream, cake, etc.

I am having a hard time with the following and have assigned them a yes or no at this point. Feel free to jump in and discuss, everyone!

Yogurt: Tricky. Even the "lite" stuff seems to have sugar added to it. I'm going with "NO" for the time being, but will discuss with Step Mom.
Pancakes, waffles: No. Plenty of sugar in there, and besides they are NOTHING without syrup. :)
Fruit: I will never deny myself fruit. Nope, fruit is too good for me, and if I'm giving up the goodies I require fruit to prevent going on a rampage.
Dried Fruit: Also tricky. Depends on what's in it since most commercially dried fruit is also sugar-laden. Raisins are fine, though.
Jam/Jelly: Probably not, but if I can find some that's less a conveyance of Corn Syrup and more "Spreadable fruit" I might go for that. (PBJ, man!)
Milk and milk products: Are fine. No Ice Cream or Chocolate Milk, obviously, but milk, cream, cheese, etc. Mmm.
Booze: I know, I know. All of you are going to start in with the "Booze is sugar" or "Booze is worse than sugar" stuff. Yep. I'm not giving it up, but I will cheerfully give up sugar-laden mixers. No sour mix, for example.
Slim-fast and Instant Breakfasts: If I can find them made with Splenda I might consider it. Mostly, NO.
Breakfast Cereal: No way. Ever seen one with sugar as the fifth ingredient (or not at all?) Not even Cheerio's, man.
Whipped Cream: You know, despite the fact that it's almost all air, and that it has negligable enough sugars to qualify for the draconian "Atkins" diet... I can't do it. It's still a sugar-based product to me. Besides, I want more than a little dab anyway. I'll eat a whole can of that stuff if allowed...

The above has been put together from my various lents of sugar fasting. Sometimes people give me an odd look when I eat something loaded with fat but turn down the candy bar. Look, I'm not going on a diet, I'm not trying to change all of my nutrition, I'm not trying to lose weight.
(I realize that I probably WILL lose weight but that's a side effect, not a goal.)

I want to prevent the flu that used to kick me down every spring. Some of you might remember the year it hit me at work, and I had to have bradhicks give me a ride home (or rather to his house for nursing care). Rapid onset, every time it's slightly different but here's the usual round of fun: Some kind of upper respiratory ugliness, high fever, rapid onset, down for the count for at least two weeks. Bronchitis, Tonsillitis, Strep Throat, The Flu, all of these have been the thing which showed up in the middle of the day in my system and said, "OWNED, you are totally OWNED for the next two weeks!"
Usually hits around Valentine's Day.

Per my Step Mom, she tracked this to my body's difficulty processing sugar in the wintertime. She also noticed that my thyroid kind of takes a nap in the fall. This is true of my brothers and my father, as well. We're hibernating beasts, apparently. :)
This makes sense, since the wintertime is when I have the hardest time with motivation, it's the period during which it is hardest to get out of bed, get things done, etc. Ugh. It's a wonder I EVER did well in school. Once the cold weather hits, I'm all... "Nurrr... sleepy."
Probably some SAD in there, too, but there's a real physical reaction, a real physical issue that's treatable. Also, I bask in the OTT lights at work.

So, for the winter time, I give up the sugars. There will probably be more to this wellness-program later, too.

I think there's an orange in the fridge right now...