On Dieting
An unnecessary and unnatural scourge. There is no reason in the universe for a diet!
What’s dieting got to do with sailing?
Everything.
True, you can sail when you are overweight and out of shape. Same as you can play baseball or cricket or golf when you’re out of shape.
But you sail better when you are the right weight and in good shape. You move faster and with greater agility.
Fast and agile means fewer medical issues when you might not be close to a good doctor or hospital. And it means you’ll move faster when there’s a challenging situation on board (storm, gale, tight manoeuvre, extreme sea state, rescue situation, etc). It’s a fact.
I put the Can Opener on his no sugar diet about a year and a half ago. He’s lost fifteen pounds and looks great. He sleeps better. He never had to calorie count or think about what to eat while he was optimising his weight – he just followed the Golden Rule below.
And yes, indeed, he looks fine!
The Solution
The Golden Rule
If you need to lose weight, then …
DON’T. EAT. SUGAR. EVER.
(Or fat. Obviously.)
What other names can sugar masquerade as?
Sugar is sugar no matter what cute name it is disguised as. Just don’t eat it.
That means…
NO agave, corn syrup, any syrup, cane juice, dextrin, dextrose, fructose, glucose, invert sugar, lactose, maltodextrin, malt syrup, maltose, rice syrup, saccharose, sorghum, sucrose, xylose…
Read the label and if it lists it, don’t eat it. Simple.
But not easy.
How to avoid sugar…
Check every ingredients label, and if ANY of these sugar/fake sugar/sugar wannabes shows up on it (or anything else ending in -ose)… DON’T eat it.
By the way – don’t eat those other artificial sugars (eg saccharine) either. If it doesn’t exist in nature, you shouldn’t be eating it either. Captain Cat has spoken.
There is NO FREE LUNCH. Literally.
What’s that you say? No fructose?
Yes, fruit has fructose in it. But in an unrefined form. It takes longer (ie a normal length of time) for the body to break it down.
On the other hand if you read ‘fructose’ as an ingredient on a box, this is a refined form of sugar which is super-easily absorbed by the body. Not good. You want your body to at least burn a regular amount of calories whilst it works to break down your food.
Is it easy to stop eating sugar?
Nope.
The Can Opener complained bitterly. He was doubled over in pain the first month sometimes. When he looked really bad, I’d bung him a prune. Fortunately, that would perk him right up.
Sugar is supposed to be as addictive as cocaine . That means it’s a hard habit to kick.
And in the west, it is nearly impossible to avoid sugar in any processed or restaurant food. Start checking the ingredient labels and you’ll see what I mean.
Our local supermarket has twenty-six aisles. Twenty-four of them have products in them that contain sugar. Only two do not – these are:
- the vegetable aisle
- the shampoo and cleaners aisle.
How to survive sugar withdrawal symptoms?
Go eat a few dried fruit pieces instead. Or a piece of whole fruit. Or a salad with lemon on it. Loads of fun, right? No, not at first. But after a while, yes actually. Even the Can Opener thinks so now.
The sugar withdrawal symptoms may drive you insane, but if you can survive the first month, you will be okay. The next three months are hard, but not impossible.
After six months, sugared products actually become unpleasant. It is too much and too granular. You can taste the emptiness.
After a year, it is easy and you are fit, optimised and ready to sail in top form!
That’s it.
Follow my plan and you’ll have a six pack in no time.
And live longer with nice teeth.
–Captain Cat
(transcribed by the Can Opener)
Previously: Fitness on Boats
The Cruising Kitty 