Dieting can be lonely...

Does anyone else find that when you come across something that feels healthy and works for you, you just want to share it with the rest of the world and say, "Hey, look what I've done! If I can do it, you must be able to too!" But instead of blurting that out, I try to be more tactful and just explain my journey or what I ate daily to someone only to be faced with the reply of, "That's crazy! I could never do that!"

In my head I think: Why could you "never do that?!" You've given up even before who've looked into it and tried! I am no-one amazing. I have not accomplished much in my life that is praise worthy prior to this. What makes you think that you are that much less capable than me? 

I used to think those "Hippy" parents that fed their kids lentils and tofu and the like, were kind of cool in a weird kind of way for taking a stand with their children's health. But at the same time, I was so glad that I got to enjoy a more commercially influenced diet myself as I grew up. However, now I find myself being "ridiculed" you might say, for wanting to bring my child(/ren) up on a fairly rigid fructose-free diet. I don't mind that I'm "one of those mums." 

My sister asked me last night if I had seen the recent movie called "Parental Guidance" with Billy Crystal & Bette Midler. I have. This is the scene that she said she thinks my kids are going to be like :

http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=relmfu&v=NUFDjrxEKgg

 

I agree with her in a lot of ways. But my approach to my family going sugar free is to still let them have sweet treats, but they will be home made treats sweetened with Dextrose and Rice Malt Syrup and natural fruits. They will not live a cake free life!  I also know that my children will be fed real sugared food at grandparents and other friends and family members houses. I am completely ok with that. Going to your grandparents house is supposed to be special. You should get spoiled with things you don't get at home very often. My intention is to try have sweet things in my home as TREATS only and to teach my kids about the addictive nature of sugar and the health effects it can have.I just want to try and reduce their risk of becoming sugar addicts like their mum & dad are.

Have you ever known someone with a severe sugar addiction? I do. I may, in the past, have been able to hold my food and put away a whole family block of Cadbury chocolate in one short sitting or polish off a quarter of a cheesecake without much thought, but my addiction to sugar is nothing to the self-medicated use of sugar that my husband has had for years. His addiction is like I imagine a smoking addiction would be like. In his teen years, my husband would eat some sugar sprinkled with 12 Weetbix. He would seriously go through 2kgs of sugar a week on his Weetbix. I'm not saying that this was the cause of his addiction, but it sure didn't help him in the long run. Now it takes days of headaches, irritability and "blue" days for Trent to get off sugar each time he decides to try diet. But, if he just has one small serve of dessert while he is supposed to be sugar free, the cravings for more sugary food the next day are so severe that he often does a binge run up to Maccas or the local Service Station just to get relief supplies.

Having said that about my dear husband, I will say this: I have seen this man go off Sugar for months at a time. It is possible. I'm just hoping that his next serious attempt at quitting will be made easier with the relief of our new sugar replacements that's will be able to use to bake with so he doesn't have to completely be sweet free after his "detox" period.

I guess I say that dieting can be lonely because my particular diet really required me to be a bit self-absorbed and self focused to decline as many events based around food as possible so that I could weigh and prepare my allowed foods for each meal. Eating is such a social thing! It's hard not being able to just eat out with friends and family. It's hard going to social gatherings and eating my apple and drinking my water in stead of indulging I the gorgeous food available to eat there. It's hard going to family dinners and cooking up my own little diet meal to eat while the sight and aromas of a lovely roast fill the room. It is hard. It takes discipline. It is lonely. But it is not super human.