Hello everyone!
March 1st was my one-year anniversary of an experiment where I gave up sugar and flour for a month.  My goal was simply to see if I had the willpower to walk away from foods that were such an important part of my life.  Trust me when I say that I was more addicted to pizza, cookies, and cereal than the average person, along with the countless other delicious items that I could run out and buy whenever I wanted.  I decided to see if I could survive a month and I did.  What I didn’t realize was how large of an impact it would have on my mind after that month ended.

Now I’m not going to detail my journey over the past year, simply because I’ve written extensively in this blog about it during the previous year and you can scroll back to get the full effect.  Instead I want to take a moment to reflect and explore how this one-month experiment morphed into a life-changing year, how it’s worked for me, and how I believe it can work for you.

Before we begin, here’s a special disclaimer for you.  You see, there isn’t anything special about me compared to you in regards to motivation, desire to be healthy, or determination.  I say this because we tend to see the results of others with their health and immediately try to figure out something special about that person that we can never do.  I used to be that same way, watching the Youtube videos of people being healthier over a year and saying I could never be as motivated, resilient, or focused as they were, so why should I bother.  So, even though I’d like to say I’m special, the truth is that the “me” in January of 2016 is likely the exact same person as the “you” of right now.

Here are some of my main learnings from my experience this year.
1.      Set a timeframe goal!  You’ve already heard speeches and read books about goal setting, so I’m not going regurgitate a bunch of stuff here that you’ve gotten somewhere else already.  Short version is that you need to set some sort of timeframe for your “experiment” and stick to it.  I recommend a minimum of two weeks and a maximum of a month because two weeks without sugar, flour, and processed foods lets you get most everything out of your system and begin feeling the benefits.  One month gives you the mental clarity to realize the haze you’ve lived in all your life and you’ll likely want to keep going.  Besides, how can you say no to a two-week experiment?  What do you have to lose?  I can tell you what you will gain, the ability to realize that it’s possible and you can do it, then a month seems possible at that point.
2.      Tell people what you’re doing!  Now I’m not saying you need to go grab strangers and tell them you’ve reached a point so low in your life that you’re trying something crazy to see what happens.  And I don’t recommend posting on social media that you’re starting a new “crazy diet” and people should express their condolences.  Make it more about the experiment and testing of your personal willpower than the eating.  You’ll find that people will start encouraging you more and become involved in your success each day for the timeframe you set.
3.      Don’t make it about the eating!  People seem to always get hung up on their diet and what they are going without.  In my past, I would focus so much on what I could and couldn’t eat, that it ended up consuming me.  I made the “diet” into an evil creature that was to blame for making me go without the foods I loved.  This would cause you to hear multiple statements like: “I’d love a piece of pizza, but my diet won’t allow it.” Or “That’s not something I can eat because of my diet.”  People started to pity me because of this evil “diet” that was ruining my life and making me sad.  In fact, once I started to cheat, my brain didn’t see it as a bad thing, but instead that I was escaping the clutches of the diet overlords and finally tasting freedom after a long imprisonment.
4.      Finally, I must put a plug in for planning. Let’s be realistic and agree that you can’t completely change your eating habits, unless you do some planning and prep on the front end, and some regular planning throughout.

Beyond these four points, I’ve realized that my experiment was built on three simple things that fed into each other.  Commitment, Results, and Motivation.

My commitment to the initial experiment equaled great results.  The results I felt then contributed to my motivation to continue with the experiment for a longer time.  This longer timeframe of showing success then helped me continually renew my commitment, which started the entire cycle over again.

I can honestly tell you that if you have the commitment to try the same experiment I did, you will be amazed after just a few weeks.  This is true even if you have little motivation to give up the sweet foods you’re addicted to and even if you don’t believe the results will be the same as mine.  Start with commitment and the rest will follow behind, whether you like it or not.

So there you go, my life-changing year in a nutshell.  My health has drastically improved, I’ve lost around 70lbs, and all my stats are better than they have been in a decade.  I have the self-confidence to keep challenging myself with new experiments around eating and exercise, and I obviously have no issue baring my soul to the world through a blog.  Even with the distance I’ve come this year, my journey started with a single step and when I took it, I was in the exact same place you might be right now.  Think about what’s holding you back from trying a “crazy” experiment in the coming months and weigh it against what you’ve done in the past.
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All the best!
John Graham
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I really wish I knew what to say in this blog or in person now to help people understand how my “food” life has changed in the last year.  In March when I started down this road, the last thing I imagined would be me still pursuing my healthy goals a year later and showing great success.  I also didn’t imagine that I would write a book about my experience that would turn out to be one of my best sellers so far.

Even though I feel great about the direction my health has taken this year, I also suffer from carrying the burden of knowledge about what I’ve done and what I know others can do.  For almost a year now I’ve tried to explain to others the mental clarity, the focus, and the feeling of actual weight loss you get when you cut out sugar and flour from your life.  I just figured that since I succeeded at something I could never have imagined doing, then it was something any average person could do.

But I realized quickly that the problem is that people don’t want to do it, no matter how you sell it or explain the benefits.  This scenario causes me not to push too hard because you don’t want to become that person who goes on and on about their healthy lifestyle and the great results, which makes others want to punch them in the face.  I find myself balancing a desire to not get punched, with the knowledge that if people just committed a month or two, then they could have a complete mindset change like I did.

Now, before I waste the entire blog on my personal healthy living pity-party, let me give a quick recap of my year so far.  As you remember, I did my initial no sugar / no flour experiment in March 2016 and blogged about it daily.  I was amazed by the end of the third week at how great I felt, so I kept going for a few more months after that.  The results were staggering, with weight loss, aches and pains going away, medical conditions clearing up, and gaining a more positive self-image.  As summer came and went, I still avoided sugar and flour most of the time, with sporadic breaks on special occasions or when I had no other choice.   This eating, along with some regular exercise, helped me achieve around 60 pounds of weight loss and completely eliminate the 3XL size from my wardrobe.

Let’s pause for a minute so I can help you understand that after the first month, I no longer felt like I was “going without” foods like you might imagine would be tough to live without.  You see, for the first time in my life, I found a healthy method of living that actually got easier the longer I did it.  The more time passed, the less emotionally connected I became to foods that once ruled my brain.  This is the hardest point to get across to others when it comes to the challenge of giving up sugar and flour because people just visualize endless days of cravings that can never be satisfied, so it must be impossible.  Truthfully it isn’t like that at all, and many of my cravings are just vague memories.

When December arrived, I decided to loosen things up a bit and enjoy the delightful foods that the holidays tend to bring.  While I still couldn’t bring myself to go completely over to the dark side again, (ice cream, cookie dough, and soda), I still over did it here and there causing a few pounds to creep back on which was enough to bring back the sick, lethargic feelings that I lived with for most of my life.  While I didn’t enjoy feeling like a failure that month, it was definitely eye opening for me to feel once again what my life was like when I was eating sugar and flour regularly.  So, I did what anyone would do as they begin to slip back into their old ways of eating, I published my book about my previous success and decided that February would be National no sugar / no flour month.  I was dedicated to going without once again to reclaim the amazing feeling I felt when my system had no sugar or flour in it.

Once January arrived, it was a bit strange because even though I had not eaten that healthy in December, much of my emotional connection with food was still gone.  I decided on the fourth of January that I would prep for February by just giving up sugar and flour the next day and on January 5th I just stopped eating it.  No fanfare, no big announcements, it was just like flipping a switch and I was back to eating the way my body wanted again, especially since the memory of my sugar free days were still fresh on my mind.  It didn’t take me that long to become addicted once again to how great I felt and I decided that I wanted to challenge myself even more for the month of February.

The first week of February has wrapped up and I’m shocked at how easy it is to go without sugar and flour, simply because I had done it before.  I even upped the ante on the challenge and gave up white potatoes and corn, two of my favorite items that fit the criteria of no sugar and no flour, but aren’t the best for you.  I expected the extra sacrifice to throw me off a bit, but again, once the emotional connection with food is severed, it completely changes your brain.  I’m actually looking forward to what the month brings me since this time around I gave myself an exercise goal of 14 trips to the gym during this month also.  We’ll see how it turns out.

As I try to eloquently wrap this up for you, I’ll only try once again to explain that going without sugar and flour becomes easier the longer you do it.  Take a moment and think about the last few days of your week.  How many times did your brain tell you that you “needed” a certain food?  How many moments did you feel forced to pick something up to eat that you “just had to have”?  In this world we live in, we have the ultimate power to get any food we want at a moment’s notice, so what would you give to not feel forced to buy something just because your body and brain “wanted” it. 
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At age 65 we will have spent 780 months on this planet, so why not try something crazy with one of them.
All the best!
John Graham

Hello Everyone!

I’m not coming up with a completely new concept here, so it shouldn’t come as a shock to you that planning your meals in advance is vitally important to your success in the challenge.  We live in a food culture that preys upon the person who doesn’t have a plan, loses track of time, and just needs to “grab something quick”.  Unfortunately, pretty much all of your “quick” options are either overly processed or filled with sugar and flour. 

Even if you aren’t a planner, I strongly recommend you sit down and map out your meals and snacks for the week.  Then take that information and incorporate it into your grocery shopping list so you have a focused approach to buying groceries.  This will allow you to get in and then get out of the store quick so you aren’t wandering in the land of temptation.

Below are a few suggestions to help you get started on your planning process.

• Stack the deck in your favor the first two weeks.
As you go through your list of foods that fit with the challenge and you enjoy, make a sub list of your favorite foods and the dishes they can be made into.  While you don’t want to rely on any one food too heavily during the challenge, you can still stack the deck in your favor with dishes you most enjoy and are willing to cook.  Put those meals into the rotation during the first two weeks and then integrate more variety during the remainder of the month.

• Plan for interruptions in your schedule. (Have an emergency backup plan)
Our lives are busy and it would be unrealistic to create a meal plan without taking into account potential interruptions during your day.  If you think you might be running late on a particular day, then have two potential meals on your list for dinner.  One that you can create with ample prep time and the other if you only have a few minutes because the meeting went long or traffic was bad.  If you don’t feel like having two options, then at least have a snack plan ready so you can eat some fruit or cold veggies while taking the time to prep your meal.  This will help take the edge off of the hunger and allow you to focus more on the meal you’re making.

I’ve found that temptation is a powerful thing and if you don’t create a backup plan for meals, then you might come home after a frustrating day, look at a pile of ingredients you have to whip up, and decide that you’d rather just eat a quick processed meal instead.  We all have challenges that make us want to “throw it all away” for just one meal, but with the proper plan and backup, you can avoid the pangs of regret from giving up after one small setback.

To be even more secure with your backup plan, find an option or two at your favorite restaurant that you can take advantage of at a moment’s notice.   Start looking at menus now for food choices that don’t involve flour and sugar and make a mental note of them.  If things get really rough and you’re running way behind, then swing by the restaurant or call for takeout.

• The Crockpot is your friend.
Trust me when I tell you that there are hundreds of crock pot meal recipes available in this world featuring your favorite foods in the challenge.  If you haven’t cooked with a crockpot yet in your life, let me just say that it is so simple that I can even do it, which is saying a lot.  In fact, since going through the challenge last year, I can tell you that there are a variety of ways to cook everything, so don’t feel like you can only cook your food through one method.  Mix it up a bit.

• Precook and store main dishes.
I’ve had people tell me that one of their biggest challenges is having to cook single portions just for them because they live alone.  The amount of prep for one meal just doesn’t seem worth all the effort, and I have to completely agree with them.  I want to recommend looking at the option of cooking for leftovers or making freezer meals that you can pull out whenever needed.

Another great method is recycling your dinners into lunches the next day, but shaking them up a bit.  We might cook up a seasoned pork tenderloin for dinner and serve with vegetables, but then I might just slice the leftover tenderloin and put it on a salad for lunch the next day.  This makes it so I don’t feel like I’m having dinner leftovers for lunch because it’s changed just enough, and I also don’t feel like I’m eating the same old salad day after day.
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Use the form available at the bottom of this blog to help you begin mapping out your meals for the week.  Feel free to create your own if you’d like, the key is that you use something.  I also recommend you keep your lists from week-to-week as an inventory of foods you've made.  Go the extra step and make notes on your sheet after having your meal and rate how much you enjoyed it and the prep time or difficulty.

Thanks for reading!
​John Graham

Hello everyone.

People have asked me why they should go through the trouble of giving up sugar and flour, when there are so many other ways you can lose a few pounds instead.  My initial response typically lets them know that giving up sugar and flour does have weight loss side effects, but there are many other benefits people just don’t think about.  Then I try to recap my experience below, which is coming up on its year anniversary.

In February of 2016 I put together a plan to eliminate sugar, flour, and processed foods from my diet for an entire month.  As March approached, even though it was my choice to do it, I still felt like a prisoner facing death row and actually made a list of my final meals before I started.  There were restaurants I felt I had to eat at one last time, desserts I wanted to say goodbye to, and drinks I thought I needed to enjoy once again before I started the month of March.  It’s pretty silly now that I look back on it, but I have no doubt that other people in their current preparation process might be feeling the same way.  My advice to you is that you don’t overdo your “last meals” since it might make things harder for you when you go cold turkey.

I started on March 1st and was completely focused on not wavering from my objective.  Yes, it was tough at times, but my intent was to show myself that I was better than food cravings and treats that I “wanted” versus “needed”.  When March ended, (and yes, I was counting the days), I realized that going without sugar and flour had such a profound effect on my health, mind, and body that I didn’t want to stop.  I decided to approach it week by week after that and see how long I could last.  Well, I made it through a couple additional months and the results were getting better with each passing day.  Clothing sizes were dropped quickly, my energy level was up and consistent, and my self-image was great.

I think it was around June that I decided to eat my first flour and sugar on a special occasion and while it was an enjoyable experience, it made me realize quickly that those foods didn’t have the emotional power over me like they used to.  In fact, after enjoying my meal out, I went back to no sugar and flour the next day, quickly moving on.  This mindset change was completely different than other “diets” I had tried in the past where I typically fell off the wagon, into a barrel of chocolate, which then rolled into a valley of candy.  I found that severing the emotion bond I had with food was the biggest change I ever experienced.

As the summer months progressed, I continued going without flour and sugar for a majority of the time.  Yes, I still indulged at special events and picnics, but I found myself having no interest in the sweets that I used to gorge myself on in the old days.  For me, indulging meant I might have a hamburger or some pizza, while still not being tempted by plates of cookies at a picnic.  A little flour took the place of the “lot of sugar” I used to enjoy, and trust me when I say that I used to “enjoy” sugar in the old days, especially at picnics where I could graze through the desserts without people realizing the quantity I was putting away.

When fall arrived, I found my weight loss results slowing down a bit, simply because I started to rely too much on the higher glycemic fruits, vegetables, and sauces for my weekly meals, while cutting back on the amount of exercise I was doing.  While plateauing is never a fun experience in a healthy lifestyle, something interesting did happen.  As the weather grew colder, my desire for sweets didn’t grow.  My mind was still able to override any sugary “wants” I had, looking at everything from a new point a view.  The wagon was still rolling and I was riding along just fine.

In October I realized something amazing.  For the first time in over a decade, I didn’t “need” to eat those tasty candy corn pumpkins that show up in piles at the grocery store.  Every year prior had me craving around three or four bags during October, which I would snack on throughout the month.  You might crave your Pumpkin Spice in the fall, but I was always a Mallocreme Pumpkin guy, that’s just the way I’ve always been.  This time, as I would go to the grocery store, I would look at the pumpkin bags and my mind would try to recall why I always needed them so much, but I no longer understood why.  The same thing hit me about Halloween candy in general, I just didn’t see the point in it any longer.  This initially struck me as odd because as an overweight guy with a sweet tooth, Halloween was typically my favorite time.  I went that month without eating any candy and I didn’t suffer or feel like I was giving anything up.

As fall continued I found myself eating flour more often, but still didn’t feel the pull of sweets like I used to.  It had to be a pretty special treat or occasion for me to eat a really unhealthy dessert because my mind still tried to recall why I loved it so much.  As we moved into December, the opportunities for special occasion snacking increased and while I didn’t fall off the wagon completely, I will admit that I was dragged behind it for a few weeks.  Interestingly, the more I ate, day after day, gave me a constant feeling like I was physically dragged behind a wagon too, especially since I could so clearly recall how good I felt every day just a month or so before.

January has arrived and I begin my prep for tackling the month of February completely without sugar and flour again.  My hope is to experience the month along with others this time so I can compare my journey to theirs.  Strangely enough, a few of days ago I decided my prep for February was to just give up sugar and flour early and I did it without much thought.  Unlike my first time, there was no fanfare or “last meals” I had to have, but just a quick decision that from January 6th on, I wouldn’t be eating those things.  This has helped reinforce the idea in my brain that my emotional ties to food have pretty much disappeared.

If I had to summarize going without sugar and flour for you based on my experience this past year, I would simply say that it gives you an idea of what your body is like without all of the garbage and chemicals.  Sure there are lots of programs and prepackaged foods out there that you can spend hundreds of dollars on, but they don’t allow you to experience what your body is like once you get everything out of your system.  I don’t want you to feel like you’re signing up to go without sugar and flour for the rest of your life because that isn’t my intent with these blogs, the book, and by talking about it.  I just want you to feel after one month what life is like without all of the interference, and then make a decision for yourself.  I know the dramatic effect it had on my life and I was one of the most sugar and flour addicted people I knew of, so you should have no problem.
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Thank you for taking this journey with me.
John Graham
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Hello everyone.  Welcome to today's blog.

The sugar summit is one of the most important aspects of your preplanning for your month without sugar and flour.  Sure, you may be determined to go without sugar and flour for a month, but odds are that other people in your life might be skeptical of the whole idea.  For me, it was my children, who made it very clear from the first mention of my experiment, that going without sugar and flour would be classified as child abuse. 

I can’t say that I blame them for thinking that way and I can’t blame any of your friends or family for thinking you might have lost your mind too, especially since our culture has a foundation built on sugar.  The key here isn’t to sway them over to your thinking and have them join you, instead, the Sugar Summit is an opportunity for all of you to determine the best means of support for your success.  In the end, it’s just for a month, so you can explain that their lives won’t be altered forever, so they should be a little open minded.

Now, before you stop reading because you don’t have kids, or you are a single person who doesn’t hang out with other people, I promise you will still need the Summit paperwork to some degree.  You might use it as a tool at work to help explain what you are doing and maybe get them on board with some fruit to go along with the boxes of donuts every so often.  Possibly you can sit down with your friends who you go out with and explain that certain late night eating establishments might need to be skipped for a month so you can find more options.  Maybe even bring the paper to a book club or quilting group you attend regularly and help them understand that offering you sugary snacks during the month would not be the best thing.

This form is easy to complete and is built to help everyone understand the foods that can be readily available through the month, which ones should be minimized, and which ones would be best not to have around, especially the first couple of weeks when temptation is at its highest point.  Feel free to print multiple copies for all the different groups in your life.

Worksheet Overview:  (The worksheet is broken into three separate parts for your convenience.)

·         Foods that fit in the program: 
These are fruits, vegetables, and meats or cheeses that everyone in your summit group enjoys.  Assure them that these will be readily available for all to snack on, which should lessen the blow of having to give some things up later on in the meeting.

·         Foods that don’t fit in the program, but you don’t like: 
The key here is to identify things that would never tempt you in a moment of weakness.  If you think a particular cracker or chip is repulsive, but your coworker loves them, then encourage them to have those in their desk drawer instead of something you love.  If a family member has to have cereal every morning, then seek out one they like and you don’t.  No chance of a late night craving there.

·         Foods that don’t fit with the program and you like:
Unfortunately, the foods on this list have to be phased out during the initial portion of the program implementation due to their tempting nature.  Are your family and friends going to be a little disappointed that will have to go a couple of weeks without waving your favorite foods under your nose?  Probably because it’s their favorite food too, but it’s more than likely they will support you since it’s just temporary.  They should also understand that just because you are following the no sugar/no flour program, it doesn’t mean you’ll be following them around all day judging them for eating a roll, cookie, or drinking a soda.
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**Secret note:  You might find that after you phase out some of the foods from your home, your family members will get used to not having them around and you will actually make them a little healthier in this process.  My youngest son is obsessed with natural applesauce as a treat, something we never really stocked regularly because we always bought crackers or chips for him to snack on. 
 
Download the sheet at the bottom of this blog and schedule your “Sugar Summit” today with your family, friends, and coworkers.
All the best!
John Graham