My Addictions Nearly Killed Me
The Enemy: Sugar
Look at how sick and bloated I looked on the left.
I was clueless.
On my way home from work I had just gobbled down a HUGE bag of Skittles and started on a giant Tootsie Roll…
I thought to myself, “Well, I could just workout a little longer tomorrow, or I’ll just eat better later.”
Who was I kidding…
Myself, I guess. But not for long… My chronic pain had me busted up so bad, I couldn’t concentrate, couldn’t move without hurting, which made me crave sugar even more.
My brain and body craved sugar as much as the prescription pain killers I was on. I guess it was just to sugar spike my endorphins for a few moments to momentarily take the edge off my pain.
With so much inflammation and at the time, I don’t know why I rejected the idea that sugar was the worst thing I could of eaten.
The sugar was catching up with me fast, and not just around my waistline. It was setting up my body for disease.
What Was I Doing?
What an idiot I was, as I look back on it, I let my severe sweet-tooth dictate and worsen the sickened state of my body without even realizing!
I was ignoring the truth that high sugar intake was detrimental to my health as it causes cells and organs to become acidic which is a breeding ground for disease like inflammation, cancer, diabetes and heart disease.
But my addictions were hard core.
I had a massive sugar addiction along with decade of prescription pain killers. The problem was, that I continued to have severe pain even with the dangerous pain killers at high doses.
Not fun when you can’t stop massive pain even with heavy narcotics.
So what, what’s the big deal anyway about taking in a lot of sugar?
Well, you won’t achieve a lean body while consuming a lot of sugar.
Period.
So if you choose to indulge in sugar then forget about strutting your stuff on the beach this year.
Cancer and Obesity
There is an indirect link between cancer risk and sugar. Eating lots of sugar over time can cause you to gain weight, and robust scientific evidence shows that being overweight or obese increases the risk of 13 different types of cancer. In fact, obesity is the single biggest preventable cause of cancer after smoking.
So, we all know that guy or gal that you know who is always lean…
You can bet that their diet is extremely low in sugar.
A low sugar diet is the key to keeping lean and it’s not had by simply avoiding the high sugar items, like candy and cake, it’s had by avoiding items with even low amounts of added sugars.
Disease thrives in a sugar (acid) environment. And, I was feeding my body a ton of it.
So, I had a ton of pain too. Besides using powerful narcotics like oxycontin to lessen my pain, I was on muscle relaxers and nerve medications to try and stop the burning from my CRPS (Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome).
Now, whenever I want to eat sugar, I think of the massive amount of pain it brings me and how busted up I get from it. I literally get spasms so bad, I can’t move.
Because of that, I have eaten a lot less sugar now than I ever did in the past. Wow, is pain all it takes… TO STOP EATING IT?….
YES! Enough mental leverage to stop eating it is all it takes.
I still fight my daily pain warrior struggle with AS (Ankylosing Spondylitis). AS can cause fusing of the spine hips and neck along with severe pain from daily inflammation widespread.And now, I am in a lot less pain. Granted my CRPS / RSD is in remission, but that is another story.
My happy ending to this story is, I stopped ALL of my prescription pain killers after almost 10 years of fighting the crippling pain of Ankylosing Spondylitis and CRPS / RSD (which is described just bad as cancer pain).
It was not easy. That was over 3 years ago.
Now, I maintain my pain levels through a combination of light exercise and a huge change in my diet (very low sugar).
Pain Medicine Free
I am happy to say now, I take NO PAIN MEDICATION.
But what the heck was wrong with me, dang it…
I went on eating sugar up till a couple months ago, even though it hurt me so bad to eat it. That is how bad I love sugar..
Why did it take me until recently, to stop eating sugar, even though I knew it made me feel like garbage?
Heck, why do we as humans do things that screw us up?
