A Month Without Sugar

Leo Babauta says life felt just as sweet without sugar, and that giving it up was easier than he expected after months of cutting back. He links the challenge to a broader Year of Living Without and says his resistance is often stronger when he imagines losing something than when he actually goes without it.

Reading notes

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• Giving up sugar in October was fairly easy because he had already been mostly avoiding it for the previous four months.
• He says life was still fun, enjoyable, and lovely without sugar, and not as lifeless as he had expected.
• He thinks resistance shows up more in anticipation than in actual experience.
• Giving up coffee was easier than expected, and going without TV was mostly not missed.
• Not sitting for more than 30 minutes was hard because of physical tiredness, not because he missed sitting.
• Travel in Europe brought some temptation from vegan gelato and other vegan desserts, but most desserts were not vegan.
• Many days brought no sweet temptations because the available sweets were non-vegan.
• Staying home or going out only for exercise or tea reduced temptation.
• Vegan restaurants were a little harder because of vegan desserts, but the no-sugar challenge made it easier to refuse.
• Travel in China was also not very hard because many treats were things he could not eat.
• He says thinking about sugar harming his body makes it less appealing.
• Telling people about the no-sugar challenge helped him stick to it.
• Being busy reduced thoughts about sweets, while tiredness and hunger made temptation harder.
• For November, he plans to avoid computers and the internet before noon, except for writing.
• He will read a novel and write posts or work on his novel instead.
• He missed the first day because he forgot, and on the second day he wrote down things he wanted to look up later.