Establishing Peace with the Sugar Demon

I suspect one of these guys is the Sugar Demon

As paleo conversion stories go, mine is mundane. I don’t have a dramatic eating or health history that led me to the paleo diet.  There was no breakthrough moment and I don’t have before/after pictures.  I simply slowly realized I feel better when I eat this way.

However, if there was one part of adopting a paleo lifestyle that was dramatic for me, it was reducing the amount of chocolate I ate.  Until a few years ago, it would have been hard to overstate the importance of chocolate in my life.

My sister reminded me last weekend that for years I advocated – and practiced – having dessert after each meal, including breakfast.  And by “dessert”, I always meant chocolate dessert.  Besides my husband and my dress, the element of my wedding I was most excited about was my wedding cake, which was chocolate.

With chocolate, usually comes sugar.  As a dedicated chocolate lover, I have eaten unsweetened chocolate and thought it tasted not so terrible.  But there’s a reason why 85% cocoa bars are a lot more popular than 100% unsweetened chocolate bars – and it’s the sugar.

Undoubtedly, reducing the amount of sugar I ate was the most difficult change I made when moving towards eating more consistently paleo.  But, today, I feel like I am in a good place with my sugar cravings.  

If you are interested in reading more about how I got there, click HERE to head over to my guest post on the blog at expandoutdoors.com.  Today I have written an article, “A No-Sugar Challenge”,  about why, after many failed attempts, I was finally able to establish peace with the sugar demon.

While you are on the Expand Outdoors blog, I really encourage you to read some other posts by the blog’s author and owner of Expand Outdoors, Amy.  I recently met Amy at an event and was totally charmed.  I adore her writing style, which is personal and vulnerable but full of universal truths and opportunity for reflection.   Grab a cup of coffee — and totally don’t grab a cookie — and enjoy some of her wisdom as well.