Insight with Chris Van Vliet - What I Learned From Not Eating Sugar For A Month... And It's Not What You Think

Episode Date: February 4, 2022

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! For more information about CVV and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests. Follow CVV on social media: Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All systems are going. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Blit! All right, welcome back to another audio adventure on Insight. I'm CVV, Chris Van Vleet. Thank you so much for allowing me into your ears for this episode and for a lot of you on every single episode. But if it's your first time here, so glad you joined us in a sea of literally millions of podcasts. And I certainly hope you stick around. Take a second to click follow or subscribe.

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I super appreciate you. So if you follow me on Instagram or Twitter, you might have seen that I just wrapped up No Sugar January. Yeah, an entire month, 31 days of not eating any 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. I mean, when I was working in TV every single day, the TV station was right across from a convenience store. So I would get those mid-afternoon crashes and I would conveniently walk across the street and buy a big bag of gummy bears or sour patch kids.

And that would tie me over for like an hour or so. I'd be feeling great until I absolutely crashed. and I've always been the type of person who goes to a restaurant and looks at the dessert menu first before figuring out what I'm going to get on the main course. Maybe you're with me on this one. And 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? Oh, it was over for me.

So all of this is to say I had a bit of a problem with show. So trust me. I know that not having, I know that sugar's not good, but that doesn't mean that doing no sugar January was easy just because I knew that. But there's a lot of things I learned this month from doing it. And if this is something that you're thinking of doing, I would so encourage you to try it. Maybe a month is too long, but try it for a few days or a week or two or And to be clear, this was no added sugars. I was still eating things like carbs and fruits, but I mentioned this to my dad.

And he was like, oh, I'd love to do that, but I don't think I'd last a day, which is, you know, it's pretty clear where I inherited my sweet tooth from DVV. Yeah. So I was posting updates when I started this on January 1st. And this wasn't like a New Year's resolution thing. This was just me wanting to do this for a long time

and figuring, you know what, let's start it right now. And the biggest question I kept getting was, man, how do you do it? And you've probably heard me say this before, and it's beginning to become a theme here. 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 days. And if I could do two days, then I could do a full week, you know, and so on and so on. Day one and two, let me tell you, 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. I mean, so much so that my girlfriend, Rachel, would be eating pints of ice cream or cookies next to me on the couch, and I would just be like, oh, it seems nice. I don't really care. But the biggest thing that I learned from doing this is it's a lot easier to not do something than it is to start doing something. It's easier to not, for example, drink soda than it is to start working out or to start reading every day. And 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 those little changes that make such a huge difference over time.

If you truly want to change your life, you have to change the things that you do every single day because we are the things that we consistently do. I love this quote from Brendan Burchard. He says, first it is an intention, then a behavior, then a habit,

then a practice, then second nature, then it is simply who you are. So the main point here is 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 could cut out or at least cut back on that would greatly improve the quality of your life? Maybe it's spending less time on social media. Perhaps it's not cracking that beer open as soon as you get home from work every day. Or maybe it's not hanging out with that person that makes you feel.

like absolute shit when it's over. You know what I'm talking about. For me, though, no sugar January was amazing. I extended it into February for a few days, and then I was like, you know what? That cookie is looking awfully good. And I had one earlier today, and then I got a headache like 20 minutes later.

This is the interesting thing about cutting out sugar for a whole month is sweet things now taste so. so sweet. It's almost like my body had been accustomed to like, oh, yeah, that thing is kind of sweet, I guess. But now, like, even just the littlest bit of sugar is like, whoa. So I don't think it's going to be no sugar, February, March, April, May on for me. But it's definitely going to be a lot less sugar. So for you, what's that thing? Right? What's that one thing you could cut out or cut back on that would greatly improve the quality of your life? instantly. Maybe try trading soda for water. You'll instantly lose a whole bunch of weight, trust me.

But it's up to you because if you keep doing the same things, you'll keep getting the same results. So I hope you enjoyed this. And if you did, please take a screenshot, share this with a friend and tag me on social media. I'm at Chris Famfleet. I love hanging out with you like this. We've got big plans for 2022 for the podcast. for the YouTube channel and beyond. And I'm so glad that you're on this ride with me. Head to my website, chrisfanfleet.com. And if you haven't yet, please sign up for our newsletter there. So you'll be able to keep in touch and also find out about all the things that we have going on.

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