What I Learned From Not Eating Sugar For A Month... And It's Not What You Think

I just wrapped up No Sugar January, which is exactly what it sounds like: an entire month with no added sugar. While I started it for the obvious health benefits of not having sugar in my diet, I found there was A TON of benefits to my mental health as well. I learned very quickly it's a lot easier to NOT to something than it is to START doing something. And that's a lesson that seems applicable to so many areas of our lives. What's something you could cut out, or at least cut back on, that would improve the quality of your life instantly? Because if you keep the same things, you'll keep getting the same results. Let me know on social media what you thought of this and what you'd like to hear on our next solo episode!

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I just wrapped up No Sugar January, which is exactly what it sounds like: an entire month with no added sugar. While I started it for the obvious health benefits of not having sugar in my diet, I found there was A TON of benefits to my mental health as well. I learned very quickly it's a lot easier to NOT to something than it is to START doing something. And that's a lesson that seems applicable to so many areas of our lives. What's something you could cut out, or at least cut back on, that would improve the quality of your life instantly? Because if you keep the same things, you'll keep getting the same results. Let me know on social media what you thought of this and what you'd like to hear on our next solo episode!

Why I did No Sugar January:

If you follow me on Instagram on Twitter, you might have seen that I just wrapped up No Sugar January. This was an entire month, 31 days, of not eating any added sugar. Now I don’t think I need to tell you why sugar is bad for you, especially when you have way too much of it, Which was me for a long time.

When I was working at the TV station every day, it was right across from a convenience store. I would get those mid-afternoon crashes, and would CONVENIENTLY buy a big bag of Gummy Bears or Sour Patch Kids and that would tie me over for about an hour or so and I was feeling great until I absolutely CRASHED!

I have also always been the person who goes to a restaurant and looks at a dessert menu first, before figuring out what I'm going to order for the main course. Maybe you are with me on this one! By the way, if they had one of those cookie skillet desserts, you know the one where it's a fresh baked cookie in a skillet topped with ice cream? It was over! Let's just say that I had a bit of a problem with sugar, so trust me when I say that even though I know sugar is not good, that doesn’t mean that doing No Sugar January was easy at all.

What I learned:

There are a lot of things I learned this month from doing it. If this is something that you’ve ever thought about doing I would encourage you to try it. Maybe a month is too long, but I would encourage you to try this for a week, two weeks, three weeks... To be clear, this was no added sugars. I was still eating things like carbs and fruits.

I mentioned it to my dad and he was like "I'd love to do that, but I don't know if I'd last a day." I think it's clear where I got my sweet tooth from!
So when I was doing this, I was posting updates all along the way. It wasn't a New Years Resolution thing, it was me wanting to do this for a long time, so let's start it now! The biggest question I kept getting was "How did you do it?"

How I accomplished No Sugar January:

You've probably heard me say this before, and it's becoming a theme here, but just start! Instead of thinking of the month as a whole, I broke it down into weeks and then into days. I figured if I could do one day, then I could do two. Then if I could do two days, I could do a whole week and so on.
Let me tell you, day 1 and 2 the cravings were bad. Especially when I would eat something salty, I would instantly want something sweet afterwards. But a few days in those cravings went away completely. So much so that my girlfriend Rachel would eat pints of ice cream or cookies next to me on the couch and I wouldn't even care.

The biggest thing I learned from doing this is that it’s a lot easier to NOT do something then it is to START doing something. It's easier to not, for example drink soda, than it is to start working out or start reading every day. It's those little changes like James Clear talks about in Atomic Habits which is one of my favorite books of all time, it's the little changes that make a huge difference.
If you truly want to change your life you have to change the things that you do every single day because you are the things that you consistently do.
As Brendan Burchard says:

"First, it is an intention. Then a behavior, Then a habit, Then a practice, Then a second nature, Then it is simply who you are.",

Over to you:

So it doesn't necessarily have to be cutting out sugar for a whole month, but I would ask you, what's the one thing you can cut out, or at least cut back on, that would greatly improve the quality of your life instantly? Maybe it's spending less time on social media? Perhaps it's not cracking that beer as soon as you get home from work every day? Or maybe it's not hanging out with that person who always makes you feel like crap! For me, No Sugar January was amazing! I extended it into February for a few days, but then that cookie looked so good! I had one earlier today, and I got a headache 20 minutes later. The thing now is that sweet things now taste so sweet.

You tell me! It's up to you. If you keep doing the same things, you'll keep getting the same results.

Hope you enjoyed this one. If you did, please share it with a friend. And take a screenshot and tag me, I am @Chris Van Vliet.
We've got big plans for 2022, and I'm so glad that you're on this ride with me.

Be great, be grateful and we'll see you on the next one for some more Insight!