Why?

A year without sugar? Does that sound totally mad? I've been through it all in my head but the arguments to give a year without sugar a go have won out. 

I realised recently that my sugar intake is ridiculous. I eat chocolate most days; ice cream, jam, biscuits or cake once or twice a week; I use sweet chilli sauce and mirin in cooking; and I don't even think about saying no to lollies if they are offered to me. 

In the last 6 months I have put on somewhere between 8 and 10 kilos, have been suffering depression and anxiety on and off, not sleeping as solidly as I used to, the most pimply that I have been since I was a teenager and been feeling generally sluggish. I lay some of the blame for the emotional changes on having trouble finding work over the last six months, and also moving around living with friends or my partner, or house-sitting until I could afford to have my own place again.

Now I have found both a great job and a sweet little apartment and both will be mine two weeks into January 2011. Yet, even with those in the bag I still feel flat and sluggish and there is the issue of the weight to shift. The job is a bit of a dream job and I want to kill it. But I also want to have enough energy to give to my partner after work and to be able to socialise and exercise. I think that going into the year sans sugar might make the load a bit more manageable. Or at least I want to see if it does.

As time goes on I will elaborate more on why sugar is no good for us, and why I am doing this. I will chart my progress. I don’t even know if I will last. Let’s see how it goes.