Better Days, Longer Life
I am relatively new convert to “health.” My parents were wonderful and loving, but our family stayed well within the mainstream of the Standard American Diet. I ate Pop-Tarts for breakfast every day until I was 20. I drank soda most days. I thought I felt fine. I could do just as much as most other people and had no reason to think I needed to make any changes.
Seven years of medical education didn’t move me very far out of the habits of my youth. I scavenged free food whenever it was available. I fueled myself with caffeine from sodas. I slept the minimum amount I could get away with.
I owe my departure from the mainstream in large part to my wife. Rachel has a doctorate in public health, but maybe more importantly is incredibly intuitive in the way she approaches food and exercise. Unfortunately for me, because she wasn’t part of the medical establishment I didn’t give much credit to that intuition for over a decade. I’m a late bloomer. As I’ve explained elsewhere, I was drawn out of the the mainstream of medicine during COVID and the concurrent transition out of being young and invincible. I always assumed that giving up guilty pleasures would require short-term pain for long-term gain.
I knew that if I were going to make recommendations to my patients I would have much more “street cred” by being able to share personal experience. It was only January 2022 when I embarked on a short experiment that would change my life. Enter: Whole30. The Whole30 was developed as an elimination diet, to identify potential food intolerances or allergies. It is very restrictive (no sweeteners/grains/dairy/preservatives/and more!) and can be difficult to implement, and I didn’t have a suspicion of food triggers or allergies for myself - so I didn’t have high expectations at the start.
Ultimately, this experiment laid bare my addiction to sugar. And with a long enough period abstinence gave me the time to break free from it. With my newfound clarity I could see how much my day-to-day life was oriented around getting my next sugar hit - not unlike somebody addicted to narcotics or other hard drugs. I also realized how my attachment to that lifestyle led me to insulate myself from considering it possible to live an enjoyable life without sweets. That may sound overly dramatic, but it is true.
Now I still eat sweets, usually a couple of times a week. But I don’t eat anything that I’m not excited to eat: essentially that means something homemade or from StickBoy. If I go a week or two without something sweet I don’t get cravings or headaches (sugar withdrawal symptoms). When I have dessert I rarely gorge myself. My eating is usually thoughtful, and no less enjoyable. My day-to-day life is better, and I know I am sowing into a healthier and longer life.
