Hi Martha - I can relate to your love of Coca-Cola - when I was pregnant with my daughter (she is going to turn 30 ...) I craved the sweetest possible Coca-Cola and would drive all over our area to get it. I also craved squishy white bread and simple lunchmeat, mayo, and that bread sandwiches. Not so much pickles!

I didn't give up sugar or processed foods all at once but I've been eliminating various foods for many years because I have IBS - and the first thing I did to improve it didn't last forever. I gave up tobacco smoking (finally) when I had a horrible IBS attack that was crippling me at Comic-Con in 2014. I never thought I'd give up smoking tobacco, I thought I'd die with a "cowboy coffin nail" in my hand. Being with Bruce helped, as he is a recovered alcoholic (29 years) and he had quit tobacco smoking about 10 years before me. So, I quit smoking cold turkey and for sugar? I went from limited amounts to as close to zero as I could get in November 2021.

I have been purposely working to improve my physical and mental health probably since late 2018. I was, like all of us, slowly gaining weight despite eating relatively well and being somewhat active. Bruce got me a small Fitbit and I wore it, and it began to give me metrics I could use to improve things. The first thing I worked on was improving my sleep quality and quantity. Then I worked on increasing the number of steps I took per day. I now take 11,000 steps a day and only don't do it if I'm genuinely sick. When I started with Fitbit, we were up in Monterey CA and I remember wearing it when I walked to and fro from the aquarium, and was astonished I racked up about 8,000 steps that day - and was sore and stiff. My resting heart rate at that time was 70: "average" - and I was also on the edge of being told to take high blood pressure meds, and I had "high triglicerides".

So, flash forward four years - I'm at least 30 pounds lighter (in between we moved to Florida which turbocharged all of this - it's just so much easier to be healthy here), I have ideal lab test results, low blood pressure (normal for me), and my resting heart rate is 48-49. I now use a Garmin, not a Fitbit because I've gotten more sophisticated and am participating in different sports/activities. These fitness trackers have really helped me.

Re: sugar, specifically, for a long time I was active enough that I felt entitled to my Reese's peanut butter cups. I also had a horrible tooth infection and had to have a tooth removed, shortly after eating what may have been the sweetest, most highly frosted cupcakes I ever ate. I finally started thinking, "You know, this stuff is specifically bad, and it's not just an occasional thing, you are gobbling Reese's every night ..."

So I did quit, cold turkey and it was dreadful for about 2-3 days, just like quitting smoking. But after that? Real fruit tastes SO GOOD, Martha. There is a tray of organic strawberries out on the kitchen island right now, they are absolutely perfect and delicious. I eat 2-3 servings of real whole fruit a day. Real fruit is healthy because it contains fiber which the body CAN handle and it changes how we metabolize the fruit sugar. This happens the opposite way with fruit juice, which lacks digestive fiber - that's why all those kids who are getting fruit snacks and juice are actually potentially getting fatter and unhealthier than those drinking sodas and eating candy. Fruit sugar with no fiber (i.e. juice or high-fructose corn syrup or regular fructose) seems to be even MORE harmful to the metabolism than sucrose/refined sugar.

So, "How I did it" was basically improving health over a course of time until I got to the point of "I do NOT want another toothache like that and I think I'm stuck at 160 because I'm gobbling Reese's every night and eating some processed foods."

Bruce and I eat ONLY whole foods (protein, veges, fruit, whole grains) - no bread, no processed foods, no elaborate condiments - olive oil and balsamic vinegar (no added sugar - some DO have it). It seems "Spartan" but actually, it feels like we eat like royalty - if you're not buying snacks and candy or soda, basic foods, even high quality fish and protein, add up to a lower grocery bill.

I have now lectured you long enough. I can see what a beautiful person you are and feel it in your writing. Giving up sugar is challenging because it is in EVERYTHING but the other big lesson I did learn is - do not substitute fruit juices, they are even worse than soda in their effect on the body. Here's my article specifically about sugar: https://medium.com/p/6bf0a25ae7f1