SUGARY HISTORY: “I was a fat kid and was constantly teased. My overeating patterns lasted over 40 years and consisted of constant dieting, alternating with bingeing and purging. I came to recognize my food addiction as my life started to crumble around me. My drugs of choice are sugary/fatty substances. Near the end of my overeating days, I was constantly screaming at my family, had almost lost my marriage and was impaired at work.”
FAMILY SUGAR STRUGGLES: “My sugar highs and lows threw me into mood swings. My anger outbursts were mainly directed at my husband and kids. I remember throwing my husband out of the house once in an unreasonable sugar rage. I even knew it was unreasonable, but I couldn’t stop myself.”
SUGAR-RELATED SYMPTOMS: “My concentration was suffering, and my memory was suffering. I couldn’t balance my checkbook anymore. I even thought that I had early Alzheimer’s disease.”
WORK WOES: “I wasn’t functioning fully at my job. Sometimes I would apologetically tell my boss that I needed to nap in the car for a half hour before I could start work because `I didn’t sleep well last night.’ I actually had been eating sweet things all morning before the 11 a.m. shift and was already in a sugar stupor.”
TURNING POINT: “The real turning point was when my brother died from complications of morbid obesity. I realized that I had the same disease that he had and that the disease was progressive and life-threatening. I wasn’t fat like he was; I just hid my disease to the world by throwing up and constant dieting. I finally hit bottom and dragged myself into a food addiction program where I have been free of sugar, bingeing and purging for more than two years.”
SUGARFREE BLISS: “Today, I am almost completely free of mood swings, and my concentration, memory and energy are great on most days. I am repairing the relationships that were tattered, and I am useful at my profession once again. I am free of physical cravings. I use the fellowship and tools of the food-addiction program to deal with the difficult life challenges that I used to eat over. There are no special food days for me. I lost that privilege after years of sugar abuse. I follow the same food plan – which is free of sugar and refined carbohydrates – on work days and holidays. This is what gives me freedom!”
– Jo, 48, San Francisco, California (Sugarfree since Jan. 4, 2001.)