Wine Country CrossFit

Marina is here to tell us all about sugar addiction!

Hi.  My name is Marina and I’m a sugar addict ( crowd replies ‘Hi Marina.’)  Or at least this is what I felt like this past week.  See….football season put a little damper on my clean paleo ways and I found myself indulging a little more often in dark chocolate, almond or coconut flour baked goods (sweetened with honey, of course!), and perhaps, the occasional mimosa (or 3…!!!)  With a trip to Hawaii on the horizon, I gave myself a pep talk and decided it was time to ‘clean up’- what perfect timing to have this challenge at the gym as well!

SO- since I figured I can’t be the only one who went hog wild over the 49ers rise to the *almost* top, it was worth talking about this nasty little thing called sugar, right here on the blog.  The sad truth of it is that sugar actually IS addicting.  And when you’re trying to get through those first 30 days, it’s gonna be BAD.  The kind of bad that makes you feel like a crazed drug addict…standing in your kitchen late at night, clad in pjs, and holding onto the bag of 70% dark chocolate chips- the paleo angel and processed-food devil on each side of your shoulders, duking it out to the point you put the bag back in the cabinet, then take it out, then put it back….no, just me?  Well, at any rate, I’m glad to say I persevered and stuck to my (bad ass crossfit) guns!  But each time you cave in (during those first 30) it’s basically the equivalent of drunk dialing your ex in the middle of the night…NOTHING GOOD IS GONNA COME OUT OF THE SITUATION!  Not only does it stand the chance to make you feel guilty, but it’ll also make the cravings even worse.

One of the things that makes sugar so tricky is that serotonin is released when we eat it.  Serotonin is our ‘feel good’ hormone- it’s not just the tasty factor that makes us want to gobble down a big bowl of 3tiwns- it’s the happy feeling we get as we sink into the blissful (but short lived) sugar rush.  We already know what sugar does to our body (not only from the insulin perspective, but providing all sorts of yummy ‘food’ for the bad bacteria in our gut to flourish on)…so the final question that needs to be asked is this: how do we get over the first hump?

If this were ‘easy’…we’d all already be doing it, right?  So to some degree, this really is hunkering down and powering through the cravings.  BUT, here are a few things I’ve been doing to help myself through this lovely adjustment: reminding myself of why I’m doing this.  I’ll think things like ‘you can’t out-exercise a bad diet’ or ‘nothing tastes as good as healthy feels’…cheesy? Yes, but helpful when I’m feeling weak.  I’ll also look for alternatives to satisfy my cravings- frozen blueberries or strawberries are easy ‘go to’ treats to give me a little sweet fix, or if I’m wanting something a little more toasty I’ll heat up some unsweetened chocolate almond milk and put in a bag of mint tea- *almost* like mint hot chocolate w/o the sugar!  And last, but not least, if I really just need to reason with myself I say ‘if I’m still craving this tomorrow, I’ll let myself have something…’ and 9 times out of 10 I forget about it by the next day.  I know…no magic bullet, no easy answer.  But I’m also pretty darn stubborn, and I don’t like the idea of something having this much power of me- so I’m ready to kick this sugar thing to the curb, and hopefully look good doing it!  Who’s with me? 😉

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Monday’s Benchmark WOD:

5 Rounds:
400M Run
30 Box Jumps (24/20)
30 Wall Ball (20/14)

Compare to: 6/7/11, 1/31/11, 10/17/11