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Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Derek Olsen, I love watching AFV and COPS, and I believe that if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living. In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share what happened when I cut out sugar from my diet.
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What I Learned Yesterday:
I’ve been tired my whole adult life.
I thought feeling tired all the time was normal. It’s just how life goes and everyone must feel tired all the time.
I would sleep in frequently, like, way later than I’ll admit. I would take naps almost everyday. About once a week I would take 3 or 4 hour nap. It also seemed like every few month I would experience a 2 or 3 day bout of total exhaustion.
When I was in my late 20’s I started getting allergy injections. I was allergic to everything and wanted to do something about it. The injections worked for me. I felt better and to this day I am no longer allergic to lots of things I used to be allergic to. I do still get seasonal allergies, but it’s not nearly as bad as it used to be.
At first, the allergy shots seemed to hold some hope for my tiredness, but it never took care of the issue.
As the years went by I still felt tired all the time. I even had a sleep study to see if there was something wrong with my sleeping. They gave me a CPAP machine and I used it for a little while. It seemed to help a little and I did feel better. But I stopped using it.
And still, I continued to feel tired.
I wondered if I would always feel this way.
My feet even started hurting, actually, they had hurt for years. I couldn’t stay on my feet all day without paying for it. I thought about going to a foot doctor but never got around to it.
Then one day I saw a preview for the documentary Fed Up. It’s a movie about the sugar epidemic our country is facing. I went to the website and saw an info graphic that showed how much sugar a person is supposed to have each day.
I was shocked. I mean, I always kinda knew I ate too much sugar, but I didn’t realize just how much I was eating. I was eating 2 or 3 times the amount of sugar a person is supposed to have each day.
I immediately starting cutting sugar out of my diet. It was hard at first because I love sweets. I would often get something sugary when I go to the coffee shop to write. My sugar intake was way above where it should have been.
The website said that most people will lose their sugar cravings in 2 – 3 days. It took me about 5 days. But sure enough, after 5 days of a normal sugar intake, I stopped having those cravings.
So what happened as a result of cutting my sugar intake? You guessed it, I’m no longer tired all the time like I used to be! It’s incredible. I can wake up early and wake up easily. I don’t nap anymore. I can stay on my feet all day and they don’t hurt.
This was a surprise to me. I thought cutting my sugar intake would improve my health but I did not expect it to cure my exhaustion.
There are a lot of medical related benefits of eating an appropriate amount of sugar. Obviously diabetes is a very real possibility and weight gain too.
But the best part is not having those cravings anymore. I no longer crave sugar. And here’s why that’s the best part. It makes passing on sweets a million times easier when you just aren’t interested in them. My cravings used to be constant and intense. I would make a special trip to the grocery store at 10 PM just to get a pint of ice cream. Not anymore. Passing on dessert was nearly impossible for me. But not anymore. I’m just not interested in desserts and sweets anymore.
The reason why not having cravings is the best part is because it makes the struggle so much easier. I can’t imagine fighting those cravings everyday for years an years. Fighting the cravings battle would have been nearly impossible for me. But not having the cravings at all has been amazing. When the cravings stop, it sort of solves the problem all by itself.
I’d like to challenge you to take a look at how much sugar you are eating. Compare your sugar intake to what you are supposed to be consuming each day. Maybe you are okay. But maybe cutting your sugar intake could make a positive impact on your life.
I’m Derek Olsen and this has been stuff I learned yesterday.
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