I am currently reading Made to Crave, by Lysa Terkeurst, and I love it. I’ll talk more about the book at a later date, but for now I just want to share one of Lysa’s suggestions for today’s make-a-change.
Lysa explains we are made to crave. God designed our bodies to crave, but more importantly, he designed our soul to crave…Him. When we sacrifice something our body craves and replace that physical craving with a spiritual craving, we grow closer to God. It’s really that simple.
But denying ourselves our physical cravings is not simple at all. It requires will power and prayer.
On Saturday I shared with you what sugar does to your brain—how it affects your emotions. Today I want to share just one thing sugar does to your body that will help motivate you even more:
When you eat sugar, your pancreas produces insulin to break it down. When your blood sugar is low, on the other hand, your pancreas produces glucagon to find something in your body it can break down to use for energy. The only time your body produces glucagon is when your blood sugar is low. Here’s the kicker…the glucagon targets fat in your body, especially around the belly area, to break down into glucose for your body and brain to use.
I know it gets confusing and takes a little backward thinking, so think of it like this:
The less sugar you give your body, the more fat your body will break down to use as energy.
Giving up sugar is tough, but the less we eat it, the less we crave it.
So today’s make-a-change is to give up sugar, or at least cut back. Word of warning though, don’t switch to “diet” drinks and “artificially sweetened” products. And if it says “sugar free,” make sure it doesn’t have the artificial sweeteners either. I’ll talk more about artificial sweeteners soon, but for now, know that the only sweeteners you should use in substitute for sugar are Xylitol and Stevia.
So when you want that Pepsi—40 grams of sugar— at the movies, say a quick prayer, and choose water instead. (And save a few bucks!)
…And you may just get in a few more—or a lot more—conversations with God throughout your day!
From my heart,
Celeste
P.S. For ways to decrease the sugar in your diet, check out my delicious stack of helpful articles with lots of tips and hints; but beware of those artificial sweeteners. There are still many believers in Nutrasweet and the like…
