I have been pretty health conscious for about 25 years. And eat pretty good. But I have always had a thing for sugar. And it seems the health field really skims past the detriments of sugar. But a friend of mine was home recently and shes a health nut. At 56 she doesnt have a gray hair on her head and is in better shape, has more energy than most kids. She shared how she had given up all refined sugars (white sugar, dextrose, corn sweetner, fructose, honey...all) 11 years ago and how much it helped her brain chemistry and overall health. It didnt take much to convince me. I knew what she was saying made alot of sense soooooo I went off all sugar and bread...all starches like rice, potatoes, etc 6 weeks ago. I felt great....and my head started to clear, not spacey...and my chemistry started to just stay very even. After about 10 days, I did give in to one dip of vanilla ice cream...wow it was so good, but next day I was sooooo nervous! Couldn't do the simpliest of errands. Everything seemed bigger than I could handle. I kept thinking I was getting my period because I can often feel like that right before....but my period never came and the next day I went back to feeling very calm and even. I knew it had to be the ice cream! So that was it...no more sugar and I think the no bread has just added to it. The past couple weeks I have been so even in my moods and chemistry....not spacey, not up and down in my emotions...I feel like I'm just hummmming along. Which has given me an extra edge in doing the tapes...plus just life in general.

BUT.........last night I went to a Bible study and ended up sitting right next to a table full of goodies....2 inches away from a whole plate of chocolate chip cookies! Evenings, especially after 8 seem to be when I want something sweet...but since I have nothing in the house with sugar, I opt for fruit or something and that habit is deminishing.....BUT last night just about 8:00, right in the middle of our study....those bugger cookies started calling to me!!! And I began to entertain thoughts like, "I have been so good, why not have one. What can one cookie do?" So I snuck one, then 2, 3, 4!! After the study we had a little baby shower for one of the girls there...and I had some cake with super rich icing.......15 minutes later I was so dizzy and irritable and ANXIOUS! I felt on edge immediately! The dizzy, spacey thing really was interesting. By the time I got home I felt like I had a cantalope in the back of my head. Just a real heaviness all along the back and like someone was pinching the top of my head. Need I say that stinkin sugar went right to my head literally! I was getting shivers like when you're cold because sugar really hits the adrenals hard. Now its "the morning after" and I feel absolutely hung over...honest. Maybe I am allergic to sugar. I am blown away at how bad I feel. But I am so thankful because it AGAIN convinces me how much certain foods and substances can effect me and I will gladly return to my NO SUGAR plan. A good book and site is Nancy Appletons...."Lick the Sugar Habit" is excellent(NancyAppleton.com) and I am hearing good stuff about "Sugar Busters". I'm going for every advantage I can to beat this anxiety thing and if giving up sugar helps......then I'm done with it.......and I AM DONE WITH IT!
Blessings,
Peaches

Peaches -- thanks for sharing!

I gave up sugar about a year and a half ago. I also "snuck" a few sweets here and there in the beginning -- and felt awful afterwards. Now I don't even crave those sweets -- a part of it is classical conditioning, I think. Who wants to eat something that makes them sick?

Now I crave big salads with lots of fresh veggies. It really does make a different with your health.

Great job in giving up the sugar -- keep it up!

Peaches and Emily,
I understand everything you are saying about sugar, BUT....I could never give up sugar!!
I had a hot fudge sundae earlier, as well as a Snickers bar....mmmmm
I don't care if it makes me a nervous wreck.....I gotta have it!!
Seriously, I would hate to go through life never being able to have a piece of birthday cake, or an ice cream cone!! Cmon!!
And pizza, and bread....and Pepsi!!
I love sugar!! LOL

I have been on a diet....counting calories. I have gone off for the past week, but even when I count calories, I still eat an occasional ice cream.
I went on the Adkins diet for one day. I could never live like that.
Sugar.....gotta have it!!!!

Thief,
I hear ya! 3 summers ago as my sister-in-law and I were eating ice cream cones and loving it, but also commenting how we shouldn't be eating them...she said to me, "Some things are just good for your soul, like ice cream". Boy, I thought she's right.....this may not be the best for me, but it just feeds that old SOUL of mine! Well I went with that for the next 2 years! And justified every stinkin ice cream cone that it was "good for my soul!" And watched 20 pounds creep in and a whole host of other bad foods! And suddenly my soul was again surrounded with anxiety! Getting back off sugar was a hard thing...took a year. I had to get that SOUL thing out of my head and get a new script! I was also entertaining another phrase..."Life is too short to not have sweets!" LIFE IS TOO SHORT TO BE LIMITED WITH PANIC DISORDER! Thats my new mantra! And to not have that emotional roller coaster and spacey feeling is well worth giving up my soul-food. But we all have our choices to make. My mother-in-law continues to drink her diet Pepsi with Nutrasweet and slowly she's losing her entire eyesight (many studies have linked Nutrasweet to blindness, plus other stuff). Will she give it up? Nope. She'll forfeit her sight instead of a soda. And we watch her vision deminshing....sad. So we make our choices. The Bible says that we have choices...blessings and curses....life or death....choose life! Deuteronomy 29. What we eat and drink will either bless us and give us life or curse us and bring us "death"......bad health, bad nerves, bad thoughts.......Thief choose life! Foods that promote life! You're sweet enough without all those sweets..LOL!
Love to you,
Peaches

peaches
i can totally understand the sugar problem. this weekend, i went to a cottage with some friends, i know that alcohol is terrible for the anxious mind, so i drank little in that sense, but i drank alot of fruit juice, i have felt horrible ever since, very "jittery" and shaky and just feeling like "shite", headache, shaky, nasty. I guess i learned my lesson...i'll drink water from now on.

Wow I was just reading this post and found it very helpful (Because I didn't know about potatoes and I have so been pigging out on fries and wondering why I felt so awful!! I totally agree that if giving up the sugar makes me feel like a normal functioning person then I want to give it up for good but yesterday I ate a krispy kreme donut and a banana muffin and felt like -I wont say it --- you guys are right it is tuff giving up the sweets but I have had enough of this anxiety. Peaches- rice too??? what did you subsitute with anything?

Trixie,
I havent been substituting anything for the past 2 months. I feel too good to not stick to this plan. I eat only lean meats (beef, turkey, pork and a little chicken...no fish, it fires the adrenals), eggs, veggies, fruit, nuts and lots of water. No dairy, no wheat, no salt, no sugar...and no potatoes or rice...they are high in sugar for carbs. And there are certain fruits and veggies to stay away from that are high histamine and high sugar....tomatoes, corn, bananas, strawberries, citrus, grapes. I eat alot of apples, pears, melon, kiwi, peaches, plums, prunes, apricots........and certain veggies. It is not the easiest diet, but I am beginning to eat to live, not live to eat! Its just food. I know food can bring alot of comfort...especially ice cream........yummmm....but from what I've experienced, it can bring alot of discomfort and ANXIETY! Thoughts or no thoughts......chemistry plays a big part and our chemistry is highly influenced by what we feed it. A car runs quite nicely on gas......and not at all on water. I want to run well and smooth...without all the pings and knocks! LOL. So food is key as is exercise and prayer and relaxation and using positive dialog and learning to float......use it all. God has given us many tools to be healthy. Fill your toolbox up with them!
Blessings,
Peaches

I used to follow almost an idenical diet, but it seemed crazy to me not to be eating some of the fruita and vegetables that God intended for our bodies and wheat too. So I found this book at Barnes and Nobles one day called "God's Diet" you eat whatever God made nothing else. All Meats, all fruits, all vegetables, eggs, butter, whole wheat, ect. You eat nothing else. Nothing processed. I have only been able to fing 1 type of bread that I can eat, but it's really good. I have lost a ton of weight on this diet and I feel totally different. It's amazing. Try it.
Isa

Isabelle,
I have heard of that diet and book.......great approach! Someday in Heaven (or maybe by some miracle here on Earth) I will be able to eat all the different foods God has made. Unfortuantely because we (I) live in a fallen world, I have this fallen or faulty chemistry and certain good foods turn out bad for me. I love tomatoes and corn.....hey I'm a Jersey girl.......best corn and tomatoes ever! But they ellivate my histamine (as does wheat and rice) and when that is high I crave sugar and sweets not to mention become really spacey and dizzy. Over the years I have learned what I can eat and what does me in.

I have this joke with my kids that when I die I want them to think of me approaching the pearly gates and rather than Jesus saying "Welcome good and faithful servant" I want Him to be holding the biggest pizza ever and say "This ones for you!" Sick, I know! Rather than streets of gold I am praying for streets of Reeses Peanut Butter Cups! They think I am quite silly....but oh how I miss pizza....and peanut butter cups! But pizza really spaces me out.

But that diet sounds fabulous! Great conversation starter too! Food, health...GOD!

Blessings and continued good health to you!
Peaches

During my path of natural alternatives I went to a nutritional dr for my anx/dep and that was the first thing he did, take me off sugars,carbs. Helped quite a bit. I also cherish the times of walking along the beach with an ice cream cone or the holiday sweets so I haven't cut them out completely but I have cut down and really make a concious effort to think before I eat. I wanted to pass along something I got from my dr I take to this day that really helps me sleep great. He gave it to me to sleep during the night (and helps all around) besides the health benefits and that is liquid (or pills I guess) Calcium with Mag & Vitamin D. It relaxes you (hense warm milk before you go to bed?). I don't know if it will work for all but he gives it to all his female patients with pms, depression, anxiety,etc. Really works great! So now, if I've not eaten so well especially at night, I make sure to take this before bedtime and it helps with the middle of the night jitters from sugar and carbs. I by the brand "Natures Life" and it's Calcium, Magnesium and Phosphorus with Vitamin D.

Just thought I'd pass that along.
Brigitte

This is a cool topic.

I have noticed through exercise and diet, I have felt a little better emotionally. There is no way I can go off sugar completely, but I started to eliminate it, and I admit I have felt better because of it. I will treat myself to something small once a day--hey, I have a huge sweet tooth! But the fact that I can treat myself to some sugar thing a day seems to help me with the cravings and keeps away some of those really negative, jittery feelings I used to get when I would really pig out on sugar on the weekends!
Good luck to everyone!