Walking Away from Sugary Drinks

At 87.5 kg (193 lbs). (my ideal weight) a month
after walking away from drinks with refined sugar. 

So not too long ago, I was out getting down on my all-time favorite food (a Korean dish called Sam Gyup Sal) and whilst having conversation with the wifey, I made the unfortunate mistake of biting down on my lip... IN THREE PLACES AT ONCE. No idea how in the hell I did it... But I did. Now normally, this wouldn't be all that big of a deal, but since my bout with the EB Virus earlier this year, I have an immune system that is even now still in the recovery stages. What that means is that generally anytime I bite my lip, no matter how careful I am, it gets infected and turns into a cold sore. Not cool. And in this case, three punctures in the tissue = three seperate cold sores. Very not cool.

In any event, foreseeing the inevitable, I decided that I needed to take immediate action and start doing all those things that help to heal those damn things quickly (i.e. resting and sleeping a lot, applying topical medicine, taking vitamin C tablets and avoiding tomatoes or anything else with acidic fruit juice). Despite by best efforts though, the cold sores still appeared anyway (plus one more- apparently for good measure), so I decided to try something else that supposedly helps a lot- avoiding any and all sugary or carbonated drinks.

The fateful meal that changed the way I eat
(or drink ;) 

Sure enough, adding this into the equation turned the tide my way, and helped them to heal the fastest they ever have. The great thing was however, that it had another unexpected effect. After going 4 or 5 days without it, I didn't really crave sugary drinks anymore... It was like breaking an addiction. Beyond that, with no other changes in activity, exercise or diet, my body also started trimming off and burning fat just from my usual routine. (Keep in mind that it takes over an hour of walking to burn off just the calories from a can of coke- let alone the fact that you have to burn off the sugars first). A friend of mine who also stopped eating foods with refined sugar or corn syrup a few weeks before had actually told me the same thing happened to him, but I didn't really believe it until I tried it. Once you get it out of your system, you really don't feel like you need it anymore. The interesting thing however, was that the changes didn't stop there. In addition to the fact that I managed to trim off about 8 lbs of weight (that I put on while recovering from the EB Virus that I was never able to get rid of before), I felt a lot lighter on my feet, more alert and energized. Here was the kicker though- after the second week, I was really proud of myself for doing so well and decided to treat myself to a cola and some cake... But when I ate it, none of those cravings returned. Actually, quite the opposite...Drinking a coke felt like drinking maple syrup, and after I finished it, I wouldn't have wanted another one if someone offered it to me.

At my heaviest (Japan) weight: 91kg (201 lbs)

This was another thing I came to realize- eating a ton of refined sugar and especially artificial sugar dulls your taste buds. As such, the more of it you eat, the richer flavors (i.e. more fat and sugar) you need to enjoy your meal. When you don't eat much of it, you don't need much of it. This also explained why it is that Japanese people (who's diet consists of very little refined sugar, and virtually no sweet drinks), always manage manage to stay so trim with little to no exercise, and usually don't eat that kind of stuff even when they have the chance to. I've never really understood their feeling when they say "this cake or cookie is too rich", until I had the chance to experience it myself. At this point, it has been about twos month since that fateful day that I bit my lip, and I am happily at my ideal weight. While I have been here before, this is the first time I have been able to maintain it for this long because now I don't really have to workout like crazy to keep it up. I just do as I always do, and it stays off.

Beyond that, I still enjoy all of my meals, and more or less eat whatever I want. The only difference is that now I just don't have a sweet drink with them. I do still have a cake and ice cream every so often, (and of course a coke when I am having American classics like pizza or bacon cheeseburgers), and as long as it remains an occasional thing, usually by the next time I eat that way I have burned off the fat from the last time and returned to my "base weight" of about 88kg. For once, I am really damn glad I got the cold sore.