All natural

I’m not a fan of extremes. Having claimed the book Nutrition as my only guide to food in the last couple of years, I tend to be sceptical at the least when hearing about diets that exclude one or more of our five basic food groups. Having that said, I am a fan of dietary schemes that seem smart and different to what I’ve already read and discarded as ludicrous. So when my friend Lana picked up a copy of Sarah Wilson’s I Quit Sugar, I was fascinated. Here was a woman who had finally got it right, I thought, scanning through the 8-week program of giving up sugar in its entirety. I would have bought the book hadn’t it been for money, and went home feeling like this was something I definitely would think of trying. When I told Ariz about the length to which Wilson quits sugar, however, he reminded me of my utter disbelief in extremes, and I remembered that while quitting sugar may seem smart, quitting fruit and honey along with it does not. 

So I started reading my Nutrition guide again, realising that fruit is one of the five basic food groups, with a small disappointed sigh. Just as I had put Sarah Wilson’s marvellous ideas in the back of my mind, however, Ariz presented me with a brilliant compromise.

“I think I want to try out this quitting sugar thing,” he said at the gym on Monday morning.

I was flabbergasted.

“But you just said, like two days ago -”

“Yeah, I’m not quitting fruit. I’m thinking, like, refined sugar. So anything that has “sugar” on its ingredient list, I’ll quit. Want to do it with me?”

Now, those of you who know me well, know that this is a difficult proposition for me to consider. I love sugar. I love ice cream, chocolate, baked goods, candy, and the list goes on into the ridiculous. But I decided that he was right; sugar is bad for you, there is no doubt about it. It certainly isn’t included in any of the five basic food groups, and nutritionists reiterate time and time again that our body actually doesn’t need it. Sitting on a bench at the gym between sets, I said yes. 

And it was incredibly difficult - for the first couple of days. For the first two days, I really was in agony; the sugar cravings were of a ferocity I’d never experienced before. But then, it stopped. And I know this is a total cliché, but since about two days ago, I don’t even feel like the stuff anymore. Once I’ve had my chock-full-of nutrition dinner, all I really crave are some raspberries in a bit of honey or a mandarin. The effects on my well-being are extraordinary. For one, I have never felt this calm and energetic at the same time in my entire life. The amount of energy my body manages to harvest and make accessible to me is surprising to say the least. I have energy to go to the gym every day, and still pack down our entire house with a smile; heck, I’m even writing a premature blog when I could have been sleeping. And that’s another thing; I fall asleep when I’m tired, and wake up when I’m rested. It feels like my entire body is coming into some sort of balance I wasn’t aware existed, and it feels absolutely incredible. Perhaps I have at last found a training and eating program that I thoroughly enjoy in its entirety, even without chocolate snacks on a Saturday night. Still, one thing’s for sure: this will be an unbelievably challenging lifestyle to maintain in my new home city of Sulaimaniyah. Stay tuned for future struggles.