Sugar....

Its not like I really need to do research on sugar to know its not good for me. I am going on a Sugar Strike. I'll blog more as I get details on how I plan to accomplish eliminating sugar (processed, artificial- not natural carbs). I will share my experiences- some of which I don't expect to be pleasant. I'm quite sure I'll be detoxing.
So for now I leave you with a list I found from My Sugar Free Life


Not Enough Reasons?
146 Reasons Why Sugar Is Ruining Your Health

By Nancy Appleton, Ph.D.

1. Sugar can suppress the immune system.
2. Sugar upsets the mineral relationships in the body.
3. Sugar can cause hyperactivity, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, and crankiness in children.
4. Sugar can produce a significant rise in triglycerides.
5. Sugar contributes to the reduction in defense against bacterial infection (infectious diseases).
6. Sugar causes a loss of tissue elasticity and function, the more sugar you eat the more elasticity and function you loose.
7. Sugar reduces high density lipoproteins.
8. Sugar leads to chromium deficiency.
9 Sugar leads to cancer of the ovaries.
10. Sugar can increase fasting levels of glucose.
11. Sugar causes copper deficiency.
12. Sugar interferes with absorption of calcium and magnesium.
13. Sugar can weaken eyesight.
14. Sugar raises the level of a neurotransmitters: dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine.
15. Sugar can cause hypoglycemia.
16. Sugar can produce an acidic digestive tract.
17. Sugar can cause a rapid rise of adrenaline levels in children.
18. Sugar malabsorption is frequent in patients with functional bowel disease.
19. Sugar can cause premature aging.
20. Sugar can lead to alcoholism.
21. Sugar can cause tooth decay.
22. Sugar contributes to obesity
23. High intake of sugar increases the risk of Crohn's disease, and ulcerative colitis.
24. Sugar can cause changes frequently found in person with gastric or duodenal ulcers.
25. Sugar can cause arthritis.
26. Sugar can cause asthma.
27. Sugar greatly assists the uncontrolled growth of Candida Albicans (yeast infections).
28. Sugar can cause gallstones.
29. Sugar can cause heart disease.
30. Sugar can cause appendicitis.
31. Sugar can cause multiple sclerosis.
32. Sugar can cause hemorrhoids.
33. Sugar can cause varicose veins.
34. Sugar can elevate glucose and insulin responses in oral contraceptive users.
35. Sugar can lead to periodontal disease.
36. Sugar can contribute to osteoporosis.
37. Sugar contributes to saliva acidity.
38. Sugar can cause a decrease in insulin sensitivity.
39. Sugar can lower the amount of Vitamin E (alpha-Tocopherol in the blood.
40. Sugar can decrease growth hormone.
41. Sugar can increase cholesterol.
42. Sugar can increase the systolic blood pressure.
43. Sugar can cause drowsiness and decreased activity in children.
44. High sugar intake increases advanced glycation end products (AGEs)(Sugar bound non-enzymatically to protein)
45. Sugar can interfere with the absorption of protein.
46. Sugar causes food allergies.
47. Sugar can contribute to diabetes.
48. Sugar can cause toxemia during pregnancy.
49. Sugar can contribute to eczema in children.
50. Sugar can cause cardiovascular disease.
51. Sugar can impair the structure of DNA
52. Sugar can change the structure of protein.
53. Sugar can make our skin age by changing the structure of collagen.
54. Sugar can cause cataracts.
55. Sugar can cause emphysema.
56. Sugar can cause atherosclerosis.
57. Sugar can promote an elevation of low density lipoproteins (LDL).
58. High sugar intake can impair the physiological homeostasis of many systems in the body.
59. Sugar lowers the enzymes ability to function.
60. Sugar intake is higher in people with Parkinson’s disease.
61. Sugar can cause a permanent altering the way the proteins act in the body.
62. Sugar can increase the size of the liver by making the liver cells divide.
63. Sugar can increase the amount of liver fat.
64. Sugar can increase kidney size and produce pathological changes in the kidney.
65. Sugar can damage the pancreas.
66. Sugar can increase the body's fluid retention.
67. Sugar is enemy #1 of the bowel movement.
68. Sugar can cause myopia (nearsightedness).
69. Sugar can compromise the lining of the capillaries.
70. Sugar can make the tendons more brittle.
71. Sugar can cause headaches, including migraine.
72. Sugar plays a role in pancreatic cancer in women.
73. Sugar can adversely affect school children's grades and cause learning disorders..
74. Sugar can cause an increase in delta, alpha, and theta brain waves.
75. Sugar can cause depression.
76. Sugar increases the risk of gastric cancer.
77. Sugar and cause dyspepsia (indigestion).
78. Sugar can increase your risk of getting gout.
79. Sugar can increase the levels of glucose in an oral glucose tolerance test over the ingestion of complex carbohydrates.
80. Sugar can increase the insulin responses in humans consuming high-sugar diets compared to low sugar diets.
81 High refined sugar diet reduces learning capacity.
82. Sugar can cause less effective functioning of two blood proteins, albumin, and lipoproteins, which may reduce the body’s ability to handle fat and cholesterol.
83. Sugar can contribute to Alzheimer’s disease.
84. Sugar can cause platelet adhesiveness.
85. Sugar can cause hormonal imbalance; some hormones become underactive and others become overactive.
86. Sugar can lead to the formation of kidney stones.
87. Sugar can lead to the hypothalamus to become highly sensitive to a large variety of stimuli.
88. Sugar can lead to dizziness.
89. Diets high in sugar can cause free radicals and oxidative stress.
90. High sucrose diets of subjects with peripheral vascular disease significantly increases platelet adhesion.
91. High sugar diet can lead to biliary tract cancer.
92. Sugar feeds cancer.
93. High sugar consumption of pregnant adolescents is associated with a twofold increased risk for delivering a small-for-gestational-age (SGA) infant.
94. High sugar consumption can lead to substantial decrease in gestation duration among adolescents.
95. Sugar slows food's travel time through the gastrointestinal tract.
96. Sugar increases the concentration of bile acids in stools and bacterial enzymes in the colon. This can modify bile to produce cancer-causing compounds and colon cancer.
97. Sugar increases estradiol (the most potent form of naturally occurring estrogen) in men.
98. Sugar combines and destroys phosphatase, an enzyme, which makes the process of digestion more difficult.
99. Sugar can be a risk factor of gallbladder cancer.
100. Sugar is an addictive substance.
101. Sugar can be intoxicating, similar to alcohol.
102. Sugar can exacerbate PMS.
103. Sugar given to premature babies can affect the amount of carbon dioxide they produce.
104. Decrease in sugar intake can increase emotional stability.
105. The body changes sugar into 2 to 5 times more fat in the bloodstream than it does starch.
106. The rapid absorption of sugar promotes excessive food intake in obese subjects.
107. Sugar can worsen the symptoms of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
108. Sugar adversely affects urinary electrolyte composition.
109. Sugar can slow down the ability of the adrenal glands to function.
110. Sugar has the potential of inducing abnormal metabolic processes in a normal healthy individual and to promote chronic degenerative diseases.
111.. I.Vs (intravenous feedings) of sugar water can cut off oxygen to the brain.
112. High sucrose intake could be an important risk factor in lung cancer.
113. Sugar increases the risk of polio.
114. High sugar intake can cause epileptic seizures.
115. Sugar causes high blood pressure in obese people.
116. In Intensive Care Units, limiting sugar saves lives.
117. Sugar may induce cell death.
118. Sugar can increase the amount of food that you eat.
119. In juvenile rehabilitation camps, when children were put on a low sugar diet, there was a 44% drop in antisocial behavior.
120. Sugar can lead to prostrate cancer.
121. Sugar dehydrates newborns.
122. Sugar increases the estradiol in young men.
123. Sugar can cause low birth weight babies.
124. Greater consumption of refined sugar is associated with a worse outcome of schizophrenia
125. Sugar can raise homocysteine levels in the blood stream.
126. Sweet food items increase the risk of breast cancer.
127. Sugar is a risk factor in cancer of the small intestine.
128. Sugar may cause laryngeal cancer.
129. Sugar induces salt and water retention.
130. Sugar may contribute to mild memory loss.
131. As sugar increases in the diet of 10 years olds, there is a linear decrease in the intake of many essential nutrients.
132. Sugar can increase the total amount of food consumed.
133. Exposing a newborn to sugar results in a heightened preference for sucrose relative to water at 6 months and 2 years of age.
134. Sugar causes constipation.
135. Sugar causes varicous veins.
136. Sugar can cause brain decay in prediabetic and diabetic women.
137. Sugar can increase the risk of stomach cancer.
138. Sugar can cause metabolic syndrome.
139. Sugar ingestion by pregnant women increases neural tube defects in embryos.
140. Sugar can be a factor in asthma.
141. The higher the sugar consumption the more chances of getting irritable bowel syndrome.
142. Sugar could affect central reward systems.
143. Sugar can cause cancer of the rectum.
144. Sugar can cause endometrial cancer.
145. Sugar can cause renal (kidney) cell carcinoma.
146. Sugar can cause liver tumors.

Love this prescription for the scale....

Reprinted from another thread, but here is Dr. Char's prescription for banishing the scale-weight blues:

1. Eat large meal of clean food for energy. E/C stack optional.

2. Take scale and toss (through window) onto front lawn.

3. Fall to knees; beat scale with tire iron. Attempt to set PR for invective. Ignore staring neighbors.

4. Put scale into trunk of car; drive at high speed to nearest large garbage dump.

5. Take scale out of trunk; hurl into putrid pit of rotting food and coffee grinds.

6. Pay sweaty fat man with "CAT" cap to run his front-loader over scale several dozen times.

7. Take molotov cocktail (prepared earlier) from glove compartment; light and hurl onto remains of scale.

8. Dance mad jig around resulting bonfire. Insane cackling and kettlebells for additional GPP work optional.

9. Drive back to home at more sedate speed. Try for feeling that you have after really good sex.

10. Eat second clean meal. Between bites, chant "Free at last, free at last! Great god almighty, FREE AT LAST!!!!"

Really? An update?!? :P It's a DOOZIE. Plus pics!

SOOOO SORRY for being such a slacker!
February was a rough month mentally and physically. Got kicked down by an infection that just wouldn't die. Had to back to the doctor, got stabbed in the butt by Helga the Viking nurse and gained back some weight from the steroid shot. I dropped the weight back and lost more.

Split up with the husband Wednesday before the Arnold, went to the Arnold on Thursday and Friday- had a blast with the girls. THANK YOU for helping me stay sane! I am sad, but more relieved and happy since the split. It was such a tough thing to do- in fact the hardest thing I have ever done. It was the right decision though. It may not be a permanent separation, though it is starting to feel that way. I've been so happy and I have felt so free. One thing I did learn was that I definitely eat when angry. When anxious, I can't eat. I just gagged on food. This is a huge learning experience.
Since the Arnold, I have been on plan and happy. I started with Erik from Leanbodies and I'm looking forward to seeing where we go from here. I am feeling like I can be me. I feel at home in the gym now. I'm changing so much and learning so much about myself. I still feel sad at times, but the strength that I have been building up over these last 5 years is amazing and its carrying me through. Its amazing how you don't know what you are made of until you are tested. I'm stronger than I ever thought I was.

Watching the Pros at the Arnold made me realize a few things. First- you can't be afraid of the judges. Look at them, acknowledge them- work them! Second- the Pro's don't work so hard to pose. They just do it. They were all so graceful and they looked relaxed. They were all gorgeous and they just worked their poses like anyone else smiles, blinks or walks. They just did it. It looked SO natural. 

Here are my shots. :)

Calendar Update-- January Complete!

Well, I got 31 days under my belt before the most horrendous infection took over my body. I have been coughing for almost a week. I have sinus congestion so bad that I can't even get the neti pot to work. The water goes nowhere! I think I *might* be turning the corner... :) *crossing fingers*
Anyway, the sickness derailed me a bit. I haven't overeaten. I just had way more carbs than I'd like. I basically have lived off of soup and crackers. I haven't been hungry but I've tried to get some veggies in. I stayed mostly on plan today. Ended up with soup for dinner since my antibiotics and lunch didn't go well at all. These meds have torn my stomach up... I'll be glad when I am done with them AND this stupid infection. Apparently it is known to be a long one. I don't wish it on anyone.

I reached two goals in January. Well make that THREE.
1.- I fit into my wedding set again!
2- I dropped the 15lbs I was shooting to lose!
3- I ate clean for 31 days! NO artificial garbage, lots of veggies... It was truly an amazing experience to see how I changed. My mind is different!

I know that the next couple of months will have moments where I'll want junk. Social times do that. BUT I know I am stronger and healthier for eliminating the junk. The soup from this bout of sickness had NO MSG. I guess that's good. I just didn't have the energy or stomach for much of anything else. Tomorrow no soup. Back on plan 100%. That means I need to eat more meals. I barely got 3 in. I just didn't want to eat. I guess it could be my body working hard to fight off the infection. Digesting food takes away energy....

Anyway... here is my pretty calendar. Complete with stars galore! February's calendar has heart stickers!!

Great Inspiration

I knew a lot of this story from Julie, but I wanted to put up a link. Julie was so dedicated she shed the baby weight and even NURSED her son between rounds on stage! 

Meet Julie Lohre 

Tenacious Thursday!

Tenacious; adjective;
Definition: strong, unyielding
Synonyms: adamant, bound, clinging, coherent, cohesive, determined, dogged, fast, firm, forceful, inflexible, intransigent, iron, meaning business, mulish, obdurate, obstinate, persevering, persistent, persisting, pertinacious, possessive, purposeful, relentless, resolute, retentive, set, solid, spunky, stalwart, staunch, steadfast, stout, strong-willed, stubborn, sturdy, sure, tight, tough, true, unforgetful, unshakable, unswerving

Antonyms: surrendering, weak, yielding

Don't yield to your circumstances. BE TENACIOUS!!

Calendar Update

So this is what my calendar looks like so far. :)  SO happy with my progress and determination!