I’m one of those skinny bitches everyone despises. All my life I have eaten what I wanted, when I wanted, and never really had much adverse effect weight wise. The closest I’ve gotten to putting on weight consistently is when I was eating Maccas every morning for breakfast for a few weeks. Oh and when I was pregnant (derrr).

But you know what? Being like this isn’t what it is cracked up to be. Just because I am skinny doesn’t mean I am healthy. I have been terribly unhealthy for years. Not putting on weight hid the fact that I needed to face some pretty hard truths.

These were just some of my symptoms:

• Migraines
• Bouts of Depression
• Anxiety
• Tiredness
• Dizziness
• PMS
• Difficulty Concentrating
• Candida Infections
• *cough* Constipation
• Bloating

Then 2 weeks after I gave birth the big one hit. Breast thrush. If you follow my blog frequently you can see my many rants about it. And almost six months later, I am still battling it. It forced me to change my diet, and yadda yadda yadda – I no longer eat sugar.

I walked into the petrol station the other day, and while I was paying the cashier said, “would you like to try these new Cadbury chocolates, 2 for three dollars?” I said, “no thanks, I’ve quit sugar.” Felt like I was refusing cigarettes! Thats when I realised how much of an addiction sugar was to me.

I could polish of a whole block of Cadbury chocolate (the big suckers!) and want more. I would eat it all in one sitting. Not just the full milk one, but the ones filled with the flavoured sugary syrup in each square (shit they would be amazing).

And now is the part where I tell you about how I feel after my conversion. As much as I fondly think of that syrupy goop running down my chin as I shoved more than one row of chocolate into my mouth at once, I am much more fond of my current lifestyle.

• I have energy again! I can run and jump after my son! I don’t end up puffing after pushing the pram really fast down the carpark!!!
• My moods have stabilised. Not as much of a cranky bitch!
• It’s easier to get up in the mornings, even after my baby has fed every two hours during the night.
• I feel full after my meals. YES! FAT IS GOOD FOR YOU! (steer clear of the seed oils though, that is what was making me fat when eating Maccas everyday. Yeah, that whole “vegetable oil (seed oils like canola and sunflower) with high polyunsaturated fats is good for you”, yeah, they are actually really really bad for you.)
• I have so much bacon. Every day. And eggs.
• My skin is SO clear. And bright.
• *cough* Regularity
• I have lost weight. I didn’t need to lose weight. I was a comfortable size 12. Now I am a size 8. Skinny bitch strikes again… (Not sure if this is a good or bad thing.)
• My change has also forced my husband to have a diet change, and is now eating more bacon, and meats, and milk … and losing weight too! (Before my son was born he was over 130kg – done Weight Watchers, lost a little weight but hated counting, and going hungry, and being boring. Now it’s just a matter of self control over things that contain sugar, and the weight is coming off effortlessly).
• Diabetes (which runs in my family) is MUCH less of a worry. Also not as worried about dementia which is also tied to sugar consumption. And I’m not worried about cholesterol.

Now you are saying to yourself, “Maybe I should give up sugar too!”

Yeah right.

Oh, your’e still here? Good! Here are a couple of tips which helps me stay on track.

• Don’t let sugar in your house. (The closest thing I have is Manuka Honey which is used very very sparingly.) If there is no sugar in your house, there is no temptation.
• Plan ahead with your meals. I know its hard. With kids. Sometimes the last thing you want to do at the end of the day is make friggen dinner.
• If it is really too hard at dinner time, go to the supermarket and pick up one of the roast chooks they sell at the deli and some frozen veggies. The chooks are only sprinkled in spices (I know I used to be a deli girl). And its not hard to chuck some veggies in your microwave to steam them.
• Shop at fresh food markets or farmers markets instead of the supermarket. This can help avoid temptation. If those are not available, shop the perimeter of the supermarket. Even the health food aisle is coated in organic sugar.
• Oh, I should have said before, when I talk about sugar, I talk about the FRUCTOSE part – which has proven to be the fattening part. The emptiest calories you will ever eat. If eaten with fruit, the fruit fibre helps get rid of them. Even still, some people are sensitive to the fructose in fruit, and need to give up fruit to help shed those couple of extra kilos (its true). If you are worried about vitamin intake, eat more veggies! And if you are eating good quality meat (grass fed organic), it has a shit load of vitamins (more than veggies in some cases).
• Learn to have fun in the kitchen! The internet is a gold mine for recipes that don’t contain sugar. Xylitol and Stevia are my favourite sweeteners. After a bit of experimenting you get used to how to substitute with them.
• ADD BUTTER TO YOUR VEGGIES! Fat helps us absorb the vitamins in foods and also helps us feel full. It also makes them taste good. Butter is also cheaper than “I can’t believe it’s not butter” and “I can’t believe it’s not butter” margarine is bad for you. You know what, salt is awesome too. (I like Himalayan Rock Salt personally) but a good quality salt is packed full of essential minerals, so your food can taste even better!
• I also avoid white grains. They aggravate my candida and are more empty calories. It can be hard to find wholegrain breads in your supermarket, actually really hard, and they are expensive. So try your deli for a kamut sourdough or something of that ilk and keep it in the freezer, and use it sparingly. When you eat more protein, you don’t really need those extra carbs to attempt to fill you up.
• Eat bacon.
• If I get a massive sugar craving, I have a few sips of diet coke (yeah I know thats bad too, but for other reasons) or a sugar free chocolate bar (the only good thing in the health food aisle of the supermarket).
• Learn to say no.

So after all that. You may realise it is too much of a change to handle. Or you might be cowering in a corner somewhere crying because you spent too long reading my blog post and not eating chocolate. If you want to take on this lifestyle change (key word LIFESTYLE not DIET) go as slow or radical as you please. After some initial withdrawal symptoms, holy crap, you will feel AMAZING! And you will loose weight.

And there you go. I understand if you will never visit my blog again.