I obliterated sugar from my diet. You can, too.

Look, this isn’t even a humble brag. It’s just a straight brag.

I’ve made incredible strides in the past two months in getting sugar out of my diet.

But I brag about it for only one reason. If I—a sugar addict—kicked the cane to the curb, you can, too.

And you should.

That’s the point of of this non-humble brag.

Every meal I ate ended with processed sugar of some kind. And there was often Candy in between (Atomic Fireballs, anyone?).

How did I do it?

The catalyst: Eliminating long cardio sessions

Quitting running obliterated my sugar cravings. I don’t know why, exactly. But it happened. From there, I started adjusting my diet.

Simple substitutions

Cutting sugar isn’t just about eating less. It’s about swapping in lower-sugar choices. Here are some of mine.

Goodbye: sugared cereal

Hello: unsweetened Fiber One (small amount).

Eventually, cereal may go away completely. But I still like that crunch in milk. And Fiber One has a slightly sweet taste to it but has zero grams of sugar.

Goodbye: milk chocolate
Hello: dark chocolate (half a Ghiradelli square or less after dinner).

I’m eating dark chocolate with 86% cacao. It has no sugar. A pack of MnMs, in contrast, has 31 grams of sugar. The dark chocolate tastes bitter at first, but my taste buds adjusted. So will yours.

Goodbye: frozen yogurt

Hello: Green apple slices + Oikos greek yogurt. 
Yes, the green apple has some natural sugar. That’s ok. The goal isn’t zero. And when dipped in the zero-sugar Oikos yogurt, it tastes like a banana split.

Goodbye: white bread (always has sugar added) 

Hello: organic sourdough. This was easy. I love sourdough, and the brands I eat have no sugar added.

Now I routinely eat less than twenty grams of sugar per day. Sometimes less than ten.

This is a huge, huge life change.

And if I did it, you can, too.