Sugar Sensitivity & Addiction [Intro stuff but longwinded!]

[An Update: I've started a separate blog on this topic and how things go as I try and work my way through a better-for-me eating and exercise plan. Feel free to check it out at loveaffairwithfood@blogspot.com ].

Something new to me: Learning about Sugar Sensitivity and Sugar Addiction [the addiction is a symptom of the sensitivity].  There have been a few times where I've heard about Sugar Addiction from the 'diet' books in bookstores [like one diet about Sugar Busters].  As I've been going to the gym and working out a bit, I started thinking more about trying to eat healthier [I hate the word 'diet' and the negative connotations that go with it, since I've lost and gained hundreds of pounds throughout my life]. 

So a couple weeks ago, I did a google search about sugar addiction. And of course, there are different beliefs about this topic, especially since it's fairly new; many doctors, nutritionist, and other health professionals aren't fully up to speed with the finer points [like in just telling us to just stop eating sugar and/or white flour].

I then went to the library and pulled a few books and sat down and browsed through them. Granted, this is fairly new to me, thinking about sugar as a possible addiction [I've had vague thoughts about it in the past]. But with the health background that I have along with all of the issues with diet plans in the past, some of these plans either didn't make sense to me and/or the authors didn't go into details about WHY they stated what they did. And for me, at least, I need to know the whys' and wherefores about something before I can attempt to make changes in something that's meant to be a long-time thing.

One of the books I went through [Darn, I can't think of the author's last name or the complete book title that I looked at] was by an author that did go into these whys and wherefores. Her background includes coming from an alcoholic background [her father died of alcoholic complications when she was only 16], then going on to getting a bachelor and master degrees in this area. She counseled [and still does, I believe] alcoholics and in time, opened a clinic for alcoholics and for those with drug addictions [and stayed in counseling them].  

During these years, she realized how much sugar she consumed and became aware of similar withdrawal symptoms that her clients had. So knowing about those addictions, she experimented with what she ate and didn't eat and eventually came up with a program for herself where she was able to give up sugar altogether.

She then started questioning her clients about what they typically ate and found that many of them ate the same way that she had. So she had them try her food program and they had the same results that she had.  

Eventually, she got her PhD combining aspects of nutrition, addiction, and counseling with science thrown in.  As she refined the program, the long term success rate was great. People who go on more traditional weight loss programs, only 5% were able to keep the weight off over the long term, many of them gaining even more weight then was lost.  Her success rate was 95%.

I then went to the bookstore to get my own copy of this book but couldn't find the particular one that I had been looking at. But they did have the updated/revised edition of her previous book _Potatoes, Not Prozac_. [The first edition was written in '98, this library book in 2000, this update PNP just this year. [2008]]  

As I looked through this book, it was similar to the library book, though updated--so I brought it. In new stuff I'm reading, it really helps me out to highlight stuff, write comments or questions in the margins, etc.  There is a lot of detail about the whys of the sugar sensitivity that many of us have, how it meets the medical model of what addiction is, about the chemical imbalances in the brain, etc etc.  The first 5 chapters covers this info [but those that aren't interested in these kind of details or don't really understand it all, can just start with chapter 6] before she goes into her 7 step program.  

I'm not going to go into any more detail about it in this post, this had already been a long one, so I'll post more about it soon as I'm going to give this program a try [early in the book, she has a list of questions to see if we think we're addicted, and I matched on every single one except the one about if my parents are/were alcoholics]. 

She does have a website in case anyone that's read this far can go check out now bef0re my upcoming postings.  Check it out at: www.radiantrecovery.com .

Art Projects and Glue Books

Lately, I've been coming up with more and more ideas for art projects... [Who would've thought, way back when I was a kid, that I'd ever be interested in creating art on a regular basis? Sure, I always liked the craft projects in school, girl scouts, etc, but at that time, they were an end to themselves.]

I'm coming up with ideas from one of the online art groups that I participate in--and the swaps I've been involved with has really expanded my self-imposed limits. And I've recently got a quilting friend interested in creating artist trading cards [ATCs] after seeing some of mine. And even though she just started about a month or so ago, she is GOOD. I would've never had known that she was new to ATCs if I wasn't the one that got her started.  She's shown ME some new techniques in making this pieces of art by incorporating fabric into them [or only using fabric with added ribbon or fibers, sometimes beads or stamped quotes [frequently using light colored fabrics to stamp the quote onto].

I've been reading a number of different books about art journaling and I've gotten tons of ideas for art journals of my own. Who says that journals have to be text only? How often do we hear people say that they don't do the journal or diary thing because many times, they can't think of or know how to put their words onto paper?  We don't have to be good at drawing or coloring to make these things. Even stick figures, icons, or basic line drawings can work [using colored inks, crayons, markers, paint, whatever]. 

If that's still too difficult to start with start off with making a glue book.  What's a glue book? Glue books are pictures and/or words/phrases from magazines, newspapers, brochures, newspapers, junk mail, whatever, glued onto a page.  These can be glued down in a random order--side by side or overlapping, whatever you want. Or you can come up with a specific theme for your page. Or create a picture with your cut-out images.  Anything goes! Other things can be added-like ticket stubs, take-out menus, jar labels, stuff from boxes of food, etc etc.

You may use a journal for your glue book [and it's ok if you make a page that's smaller or bigger than the book page; glue it in anyway; it's ok to have stuff sticking out].  Or make your own journal book--for example, you can create your glue pages on an individual basis then take it to someplace like Kinko's and have them bind it for you. Or cut out similar/same sized card stock [different colors, if desired], have Kinko's bind it, then create.  Or use an old book and add stuff to the book pages themselves [if the pages are too thin, glue or staple a few of those pages together first, let dry, then use...].

Anyway, I need to finish cleaning/better-organize my art room so I can do more than just think about these projects.  Anyone with me?

Somewhere along the line, I'll start adding links to some cool websites so you can see what others have done...