SALT LAKE CITY — As evidenced by some of my coworkers drinking a gallon of water every day for one month and jumping rope for 5 minutes a day for one month, KSL.com team members are not afraid of a challenge.

After hearing the complaints from my exhausted and well-hydrated coworkers, I figured it was my turn to subject myself to misery. Thus, I took a 30-day hiatus from treats.

Those who work alongside me can testify this is no easy feat, as we are offered treats regularly. When I brought up the topic of this particular challenge, no one was brave enough (or crazy enough) to join me. Instead of participating with any coworkers, I recruited the one person who vowed to stick by me during good times and bad: my husband.

From June 28 to July 28, my husband and I declined all things sweets, treats and sugary drinks. By no means can I call this a “no sugar” challenge, since I still included things like Life cereal in my diet. But the challenge was still pretty difficult.

Week one

The first day was rough. My coworker, Andy Larsen, brought in chocolate from France from his recent European adventure. European chocolate is a huge weakness of mine, so I actually saved the packaged treats for one month in my desk drawer. We were also offered peach cobbler that day, another favorite.

One of my biggest observations throughout the entire challenge was how many treats I am offered regularly. Since my first week doing the challenge included the Fourth of July weekend, I skipped out on a lot of treats including caramel apples, brownies, soda, taffy and Otter Pops. I didn’t notice a huge difference in my body that week, however I did feel pretty exhausted, so that may or may not have been related.

Week two

After successfully going a week without treats, including the Fourth of July weekend, I felt pretty victorious. It wasn’t quite as hard to resist some of the treats during week two, and I noticed a decrease in headaches. However, at the end of the week, I had a pretty rough time staying true to the challenge.

Overall, I noticed that when I had to resist treats I had anticipated, they were easier to pass by. However, when delicious treats I hadn’t anticipated were offered to me, I struggled. For example, toward the end of week two, my mom told me she was going to be making two better-than-whatever cakes in the coming week, which are one of my favorite desserts. On the plus side, knowing I had to write this article helped me absolutely commit to the challenge. I think it’s easier to make concrete goals, rather than vague ones, such as going off treats for an undetermined amount of time.

Week three

There were definitely a couple treats this week that were challenging to resist, especially considering the fact that I had an emotional and stressful week. It was hard not to “treat myself” during that time. Overall, I did feel healthier, but my acne was worse and I was really tired.

Week four

By week four, I started to notice a difference in my weight. I didn’t have a goal to lose much weight, but I had dropped 2 pounds by then. I can’t say for sure it was the sugar that helped me shed the pounds, but it definitely could be. During week four, my boss brought a box of Ruby Snap cookies to a meeting — one of my favorite treats — and I couldn’t have one. I think I deserve a medal for resisting Ruby Snap.

Conclusion

The challenge extended a couple of days beyond week four to make it a 30-day challenge, and on July 26, I weighed 3 pounds less than I did when the challenge started. However, I was back to my starting weight at the end of the challenge.

Overall, I didn’t feel like going off treats affected my body significantly. I felt more tired at times, though I can’t guarantee that was from the lack of sugar, my acne was worse, which seems contradictory to what it should have been and I weighed about the same. I did feel like it was good to challenge myself, and I think I felt healthier overall.

My husband’s perspective

My experience without sweets, desserts, and treats was not quite what I had expected. Shortly after graduating from high school, I took an extended hiatus from almost all sugars. It meant no treats or sweets, and I tried very hard to stay away from processed foods and sweetened foods as much as I could.

What I experienced then was quite different from what I experienced this past month. I believe this was mostly due to the short-term effects of trying to go “cold turkey” from a substance I realize now, I was what I will refer to as being fairly dependent upon, as “addicted” may be too strong a word to describe my relationship with sugar.

This past month, I discovered just how regularly I am offered or have access to sweets, treats and sugary goodness, and just how hard it is to go without those fantastic fatty foods. It may have had something to do with the fact that two holidays were celebrated in the time that I chose to go without sugar, but I have a strong hunch that my experience would have been about the same any time of the year.

My lack of sugar made me slightly irritable, my skin actually became less healthy, I felt more tired than normal, and it seemed like all I could think about in my downtime was those glorious goodies I was volunteering to go without. That’s not to say that going without sugar is a bad idea, because I strongly believe it is a very good idea, but my recommendation to cut the majority of processed sugars out of your diet comes with a warning: you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. But hey, once you can get over this ex-lover, I think you will find that you’re much better off without it.

Contributing: Caleb Christensen

Related topics