On its own, not only is sugar devoid of nutrients, protein, enzymes, and healthy fats, but it’s an incredibly addictive substance that raises the levels of serotonin and dopamine, the brain’s feel-good chemicals, leaving you always wanting more and never feeling satisfied no matter how much you consume. Some studies have even shown that sugar is eight times more addictive than cocaine.
This is one of the reasons America is suffering from an unprecedented obesity crisis, in people of all ages, leading to an enormous upswing not just in preventable conditions such as hypertension, metabolic syndrome, and fatty liver syndrome, but in life-threatening diseases like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and some cancers.
Bottom line: Sugar is toxic. Overconsumption of sugar can literally kill you. According to the American Heart Association, women should have no more than 100 calories and men no more than 150 calories every day from added sugar in their diet. That’s less than one can of soda!
Of all the sugars, two are particularly bad. Refined sugar, or sucrose, is made from beets or sugar cane, and includes white and brown sugars. It is a simple sugar made from glucose molecules. High-fructose corn syrup comes from corn, and is particularly dangerous as it contains fructose as well as glucose; fructose is metabolized directly by your liver, making it particularly unhealthy.
One more thing—replacing sugar-laden foods with artificially sweetened foods doesn’t work. When your body realizes something sweet has been ingested, it responds with an insulin release, even if it’s a fake sugar. This is why people who drink a lot of diet soda often have a very hard time losing weight.
Believe me, I know how hard it is to kick the sugar habit. It’s ingrained in us, right? We’re taught from that very first slice of our very first birthday cake at our very first birthday party that getting something sweet is a reward. Sugar was the dessert we could have only as a reward for eating our broccoli. Sugar was our reward at any celebration.
So in order to cut down on sugar, you need to change your reward system, and stop associating dessert or candy with a present you give your sweet tooth. If you’re a sugar addict, don’t try to go cold turkey. Slowly cut back. Have a lot more fruit on hand at first. I know it’s hard to believe, but once you stop eating so much sugar, you will lose your taste for it, and what you once ate mindlessly will suddenly strike you as completely unpalatable.
You can also try to eat like the French. They rarely have a sweet dessert—instead, they’ll have salad and then a few very small pieces of cheese with, perhaps, a pear or an apple after their main course. They know that eating something extremely pungent and flavorful cleanses their palate and kills the cravings for sweets. In addition, the typical French breakfast of a tartine—a piece of fresh baguette with butter and jam—along with a yogurt and a café au lait is like having dessert for breakfast.
SG TRUTH No wonder I used sugar so much when I got sober—it became my new crack. It also explains why I was twenty pounds heavier!
WHAT TO DO WHEN CRAVINGS HIT
It happens to all of us. Maybe you go for sweets like candy, or maybe you go for savory like potato chips or mashed potatoes—but whatever your craving food, it’s awfully hard to resist, especially if you’ve had a rotten day and need something that you know always makes you feel better in the moment (even if it makes you feel awful after you’ve eaten it!).
BEWARE OF HIDDEN SUGARS
Beware of hidden sugars—it’s amazing how many packaged food items are laden with totally unnecessary sugars to make them taste better. Do you really need sugar in your peanut butter? Or pasta sauce? Or ketchup? Or frozen microwave meal? Of course not.
Be a smart consumer and scour food labels before you buy anything. A package might say “organic raw cane sugar,” but guess what? It’s still sugar. Take a good look at this list—it’s shocking how many different types of sugars there are:
Agave
Barley malt
Beet sugar
Brown rice syrup
Brown sugar
Cane sugar
Coconut nectar
Coconut palm sugar
Corn syrup
Date sugar
Dextrose
Fructose
Fruit sugars
Glucose
Glucose polymers
High-fructose
corn syrup
Honey
Invert sugar
Lactose
Maltitol
Maltodextrin
Maltose
Malt sugar
Mannitol
Maple sugar
(Blackstrap) molasses
Monk fruit
Sorbitol
Stevia
Sucanat
Turbinado sugar
Yacon syrup
Xylitol
That’s when you’re most at risk for a Snack Attack.
One of my weaknesses is Hebrew National hot dogs with sauerkraut. I smell one and it is very hard to resist. Before scarfing it down, I have to ask myself: Am I really hungry for this snack? Or am I thirsty/bored/frustrated/stuck? Is my brain telling me to do something interesting so I can avoid dealing with what’s really going on, or am I legit hungry?
BEWARE OF HIDDEN SUGARS
WHAT SUGARS ARE HEALTHIER SUBSTITUTES?
Obviously, a life devoid of all sweet-tasting food isn’t feasible or realistic. If you’re going to have something sweet, enjoy every last morsel. Feeling guilty over eating something is a waste of time and energy. Just enjoy it! A small square of raw dark chocolate, for example, is loaded with antioxidants and phytonutrients, and it’s satisfying to both the body and soul.
The following sugars are better for you than white table sugar or, especially, high-fructose corn syrup. Try to buy organic sweeteners whenever possible, too:
Coconut nectar
Coconut palm sugar
Date sugar
Dates (whole, raw, unsulfured)
Figs (whole, raw, unsulfured)
Maple syrup (grade B, which is less processed)
Molasses (blackstrap only)
Monk fruit
Raw honey (be careful when selecting, as some of the cheaper honeys are really just sugar!)
Stevia (the powdered form is less processed, or liquid)
Yacon syrup (made from a root found in South America)
Xylitol
Also try using spices like cinnamon; on their own, they aren’t sweet, but your taste buds associate them with sweet things so they make you think they are. Even better, cinnamon also lowers your blood sugar.
SG TRUTH I usually have at least six over the summer months, so I figure six hot dogs out of 365 days is pretty good!
These tips will help you manage your cravings.
Before Reaching for Food
•Often, when you think you’re hungry, you’re really just thirsty. Sip water or tea. My favorite Urge Surfer is hot water with lemon. I drink it all day sometimes, even when it’s really hot outside. It detoxes your liver and makes me feel clean and fresh. You can get an electric kettle that heats water up very quickly, so you don’t have to stand around in the kitchen and wonder what to eat while waiting for the water to boil.
•If you’re the kind of person who likes to eat little pieces of things such as M&M’s or potato chips, training your mouth means training your fingers, too. These substitutions will help: chewing gum, sugarless hard candy, cough drops, mouthwash, or cut-up tiny pieces of veggies like celery or peppers. Frozen grapes are good, too, because you have to suck on them for a while to melt them so they’re soft enough to chew.
•Breathe! Taking three or four long, deep breaths calms the nervous system and allows you to take a pause before launching into the snacks.
•If you have the time and are at home, soak. An Epsom salt bath is loaded with magnesium and helps curb cravings. (You can also try my Spiritual Bath products, as they are amazing!) A shower can work, too.
•Check in with yourself. Ask, “What am I really craving r
ight now? Is it really food or something else? Am I wanting to eat because I’m bored or frustrated?”
•Give yourself a jolt. Do twenty jumping jacks. March around the room. Take the dog for a walk. Return the phone call you’ve been putting off.
When You Really Are Hungry
Be prepared! Have the following items available when cravings hit.
•Fresh green juice. Try carrot-apple if you don’t like greens. This will alkalinize your body, which in turn will cut cravings. Trust me—you will be amazed at the results!
•1 tablespoon truly raw honey. Local is best. Eat the honey very slowly. I also like manuka honey, which is found only in New Zealand and is more medicinal in nature as it has antiviral and antibacterial properties. (It is an acquired taste and is also very expensive.)
•Healthy fats. These are very filling and satisfying. My go-to food when I am really hungry and in need of a snack is half an avocado with a little fresh lemon juice and pepper. I only add a bit of sea salt if I have just worked out, and eat it out of the skin with a spoon. Or try 1 tablespoon raw organic coconut oil or coconut butter.
•Make smart swaps. If you’re craving a burger, have one—with lettuce leaves instead of a bun. Have a veggie burger (some brands really do taste just like chicken, too, but be wary of the lesser brands that contain fillers, soy, and sugars).
•Berries. As I said already, we always keep small bowls of berries on a shelf in the fridge, next to bottles of water, so they’re all right there when I open the door and I can grab whatever I want. They’re also good frozen.
•If you want a bit of crunch, go for celery or carrot sticks or cucumber slices. They’re much better than crackers to dip into your avocado.
•Nuts in the shell. This is a great trick when you get the craving for crunch, as it not only makes the craving go away, but keeps your hands busy so you can’t eat anything else—I did this when I was trying to quit smoking (and it worked). Buy yourself a really nice handheld nutcracker. Keep your hard-shelled nuts in a lovely bowl. Then get cracking.
•A baked sweet potato. Add sea salt and a bit of lemon juice or spicy mustard.
•A small bowl of a fermented vegetable. Try sauerkraut, kimchi, or pickles. They are very flavorful and have almost no calories.
•A small square of raw chocolate. My favorite brand is called Sinless (it figures!).
•Chocolate tea. A brand called Numi makes an incredible Chocolate Pu-erh tea that makes you feel like you’re eating food when you’re drinking it.
If you do have a Snack Attack, don’t beat yourself up. As I’ve said already, enjoy what you’ve eaten. Work out harder the next day. Don’t tell yourself that you’re bad or hopeless. Change your reward system—one that tells you that your reward is giving your body the healthy eating it needs and deserves, especially if you’ve been exercising a lot or performing anything at a high level. That’s the best reward there is.
Then set your intentions and make different choices tomorrow. You can start over every time you blink your eyes. You don’t need to wait until the first of the month, a Monday, or a specific birthday. You can change your eating patterns now! Just make sure that once you decide to make the change, you give yourself an actual time frame to “eat clean.” Most of the time you do . . . sometimes you don’t . . . focus on the most of the time, and you’ll be fine.
HOW I EAT NOW
As with many people, life slowly became more complex and a whole lot busier as years went by. Between work, family, and social life, I became more and more exhausted—not something I was used to, as my energy level had always been high. I had become more reliant on comfort food, making bad choices when I was starving in the middle of the day from not having breakfast, teaching several classes, and running to meetings.
And then at night, when I was too tired to cook, there was the pitfall known to all New Yorkers: the takeout menu. With free delivery and endless specials. Then I would get bummed about my crummy eating habits, my body not looking its best despite all my daily physical exertion, my mind not as focused despite all my teaching, the bags under my eyes deepening because I wasn’t getting enough deep sleep, and my stomach rebelling from all the recommended supplements I was scarfing. My anemia, which I’ve been prone to all my life, got so extreme, my doctor had to put me on iron infusions.
Did I listen to my body? Did I consult a nutritionist? No, I did not. I did what nearly everyone else I knew did—I self-diagnosed my food issues. Was it middle age? Not enough sleep? Stress? Fried food? Contrary to what I knew was sound medical advice, I signed up for some of those all-too-popular juice cleanses. They worked at first, so I tried juicing until dinner and then eating a healthy meal. Both of these options left me irritable and insatiably hungry. You can guess what happened next. I went right back to my same bad eating habits and issues.
Something had to give, and that something became my diet.
Let me tell you how this all changed, almost overnight—and I wouldn’t believe it if I hadn’t lived through it. My girlfriend had a lot of the same symptoms that I did, and was searching for explanations and help as well. One night, she stumbled upon a community on Instagram that changed everything. It was called “The Healthy Foodies,” a healthy eating site devoted to sharing blogs, websites, recommendations, clean living, and recipes, compiled by an incredible woman named Sonia. And there I was, always trying to minimize my social media.
SG TRUTH I do love cleansing in a pinch to lose three to six pounds, especially if I have a photo shoot, an event, or feel the need to kick-start something.
She started following some of the Instagram accounts and their blogs, fascinated by all the stories of life-changing healthy diets she was reading about. They were written by real women, discussing vegan, vegetarian, Paleo and non-Paleo, and just healthy lifestyles and eating habits. This was the missing link. I’ve always said what you eat is the gas that fuels your motor. But I didn’t realize just how critical this link is.
So we completely changed our eating habits. We don’t label our eating into any specific category, but pull from many. We no longer order in, choosing to cook most of our meals instead. I think one of the most important notes from our new way of eating is, don’t let cooking intimidate you. The unknown can seem overwhelming, but like anything else . . . if I can rise to the challenge, so can you!
Take a week or two, or three, and get comfortable with your kitchen, tools, appliances, and new ingredients. Make shopping lists, and use them. Plan ahead, even if it’s only by one day. I was astonished when I saw how little time it actually took my girlfriend to make what became some of my favorite recipes, and leftovers can taste even better than a dish did the first time. Have some friends over when you’re cooking new recipes for the first time, and make it an impromptu party.
SG TRUTH I don’t do any of the cooking. I sit in a chair by the kitchen door with the dogs and watch my love pivot from side to side, cooking up a storm. We enjoy this time so much together; it’s become a bonding experience, and one of the favorite moments of my day.
Get creative and experiment. Make it your own—and have fun. You’re not only going to watch your food bills go way down, but you’re going to be making a sound investment in your body’s health and strength.
Remember—food is power. You need it to think, perform, love, breathe, sleep, and exist. You truly are what you eat!
What I Typically Eat During the Day
I teach twenty classes a week and am in perpetual motion. I need to keep eating and drinking (and napping!) in order to be the best possible teacher. This is what fuels me on a typical day.
Breakfast
I am not a breakfast person and usually don’t eat it unless we’re on vacation (in which case I’ll go for a fruit bowl). When I’m teaching, I usually have a large bottle of water and a banana.
My students often ask me how I can have so much energy early in the morning, especially when I’m not into breakfast, and I tell them it’s because I had
a good dinner the night before and a really good night’s sleep. If you’re like me and truly not hungry in the morning, don’t force yourself to eat breakfast just because many experts say it’s the most important meal of the day. For a lot of people, it is. If so, go for it. If you have blood sugar issues, it is especially important to eat when you get up, particularly a meal with a lot of fiber, complex carbs, protein, and some fat.
Try a bowl of steel-cut oats or quinoa with a small slice of cheese on top for some extra protein, or Greek yogurt on the side. Or a slice of whole-grain toast with peanut butter or real butter and slices of banana. Or loaded avocado toast. What you should never eat is a bagel with a schmear, or a bowl of sweetened cereal, or anything sweet and/or junk food. That will send your blood sugar shooting out into the stratosphere, and you’ll crash a short time later as your brain screams for more fuel.
Lunch
I teach until eleven thirty A.M., and for lunch will usually have a protein shake with kale and apple.
Dinner
I’ll have a home-cooked meal with a balance of protein and carbs. I love white fish baked in parchment paper on a bed of jasmine rice with tomato. Mmm!
Snacks
I try to avoid snacks, sometimes unsuccessfully, but I try. Instead of eating, I’ll have lots of fresh Vitamixed juices and water all day. I tend to have walnuts handy, but don’t eat too many as they are hard for me to digest.
A Sample Week of Our Healthy Eating
*Recipe included
Monday
BREAKFAST
Overnight Oats* (this can also be an early lunch if you’re not a big breakfast eater)
LUNCH OR SNACK
Stacey Smoothie* (make extra and put in freezer in ice pop molds)
SNACK (if you didn’t eat lunch)
Two Turns from Zero Page 17