TOP 5 lessons from 10 day EATING sweets challenge:

There is much more behind just ‘’having something sweet’’

In June 2019 I completely stopped eating sweets and sugar. The sweetest thing I ate for an entire year was fresh fruit.

So, that year I had no chocolate, no cakes, no candies, no chai latte, no fizzy drinks, no sweet pastries, no dried fruit, and nothing that was sweetened artificially.

I read all the ingredients when I bought something, and asked the waiters at the restaurant if the food had any sugar in it and if there was any sugar in it, I didn’t have it.

As a sweet thing, I had an apple a day, or a banana or an orange or some strawberries, whatever fruit was fresh and I liked it.

That entire year was the best year ever until that point in my life.

It was the best year ever till that point in my life because:

• Emotionally I was balanced consistently
• My mind was sharp and creative like never before
• Physically I had lots of energy every day
• Spiritually I felt connected to my inner self

In June 2020, I wanted to have some sweets again to see if they will affect me in any way.

So for 10 days, I ate whatever sweets I felt like eating, chocolate, pastries, cakes, and so on. All those 10 days I took notes throughout the day, writing down what I ate and how I felt.

This is what I learned from those 10 days of eating sweets again:

1. I don’t need to eat sweets to feel good, as I thought some years ago.

2. It is too expensive in terms of time, money, and mental and emotional energy to have a habit of eating sweets or a sugar addiction.

3. Once you feel good about yourself, you rely less on external things to feel good.

Relying on external things to feel good, can be dangerous because we have to keep consuming that substance to feel good over and over again. And over time it can be damaging. That is what happens with every addiction, a person relies more and more on the external.

Good feelings can come from the internal world, they last longer and they are fulfilling.

I don’t say that we don’t need any external things to feel good, I am saying that we can feel good with fewer external things just by learning how to do the things that fulfil us. And many times fulfilment comes from stopping to rely on external substances.

4. Fear + Scarcity = Craving — a definition for craving

These 10 days I felt the fear of I can’t have it later, or I won’t have it ever again, and because of that I just wanted them even more. In a way, I wanted to get rid of those fears by feeding the craving, but by feeding the craving I just strengthened it even more.

Mentally I found it damaging to eat sweets because it ‘’shorted’’ my vision of my future goals. I didn’t ‘’see’’ far into my future goals as I used to do before. The feeling of impatience in the things I did, increased. I just felt that I wanted that instant gratification and I wanted it NOW.

I started to think more short-term and to think more about when will I get the next sugar kick.

I got one craving after another and with them, my clarity about what I wanted to do in life started vanishing.

The craving triggered a scarcity of: there are not enough sweets, and I won’t get enough of them so I must have it now and as much as possible.

But none of them was true, that scarcity was only in my mind. The shops have tons of sweets on their shelves, but my mind focused only on scarcity, making me feel that the shelves were empty.

This is all because of our thinking. We forgot that there is no real scarcity. Because you can go to the shop and if you have enough money you can buy 1000’s chocolates and take them home with you. So, fear and scarcity are only in the mind and in the emotions, not in the shops.

5. Confusion was a significant part of the experience.

Once I started to eat sweets confusion and doubt kicked in. Even though I was aware that the confusion wasn’t real because some days before I felt really certain about things, the confusion still took over my mind.

Now don’t imagine that I became totally lost and I couldn’t make a decision anymore. It was more that, the mind lost its sharpness that it had before.

Even though I knew that it was only a 10-day experiment, the confusion was so strong that I wasn’t too sure how will I get out of those 10 days and how I will I say NO again to sweets.

I started doubting myself whether I can take control again of my sweets intake.

A craving tended to rush me: I want it now, NOW!

And I put lots of focus to get to the shop and smash a sweet. But this is not only with sugar, but this is also with all addictions, it is the same with smoking, drinking, overeating, gambling, drugs, coffee and so on.

We don’t think anymore, we lose control and we just react.

To summarize:

Every human is different and everyone will have a different relationship with sweets & sugar. But these days we see more and more people’s relationship with sweets and sugar transformed into an addiction.

Many times when we eat sweets, we do it (consciously or subconsciously) because we seek connection, there is an internal feeling that something is missing. But by eating sweets actually, we get even more disconnected and lonely.

Even a mild sugar addiction can lead to confusion, craving, doubt, emotional peaks and valleys, withdrawals, loneliness, disconnection, lack of motivation …

And it is just sugar…it is available everywhere and it is cheap… But if it’s cheap and available everywhere… so it should be ok, isn’t it?

Take a moment and ask yourself:

How is my relationship with sugar, is it making my life better or it makes it worse?

How do I feel daily in my mind and emotions? Do I feel balanced, do I feel confused, do I have cravings?

When it comes to sugar addiction, the difference between a craving and feeling hungry is that a craving most of the time is for something specific, intense, compulsive and repetitive: I want that bar of chocolate NOW!

And hunger has a wider perspective: I could eat something tasty and nourishing.

So, anytime you crave something sweet ask yourself before buying it or going the open the cupboard in the kitchen:

1. Why do I want to eat this? Is this craving or am I hungry?

2. Do I really need this?

3. If I keep eating like this for the next 5 -10 years will my life be?

After reading this, you might think that I’m 100% against eating sugar and sweets. Every person is different and every person responds differently to sugar intake.

So, I’m not against it actually these days every now and then I might have something sweet.

For me, it works if I have something sweet once a or maximum twice a week and then I’m having a cake and maybe with a hot chocolate. But nothing more than that, at least for this time being.

As I write this I have 35 days of not eating sweets at all, and I don’t miss them.

I’m sure that in the future I will have some sweets again, but for now, I almost forgot that I ever ate any.

The craving for sweets disappeared after about 20 days and they never came back.

Thank you for reading! :)

Never wish life was easier, wish you were better — Jim Rohn