I've been abstaining from sugar for 23 days. The first 3 days sucked. The next week was "meh.." Then my energy levels rebounded and since then, I've been having increased mood, stronger discipline, and significantly less urges than usual in this part of the reboot process. I realise that I am just one guy, so I would like to gather your experiences on this matter. Has quitting sugar helped you? Please share your experiences, comments and any relevant information. Thank you.
I didn't take out sugar completely, but I significantly reduced it one year ago, well before doing nofap, and I noticed no differences in my arousal.
When I started combining the gym with NoFap I started eating alot healthier and heavily reduced my sugar intake, I was also one of those people who drank those garbage energy drinks either daily or weekly, I definitely cut those out first. I noticed feeling more "wholesome" and less groggy on my way to work in the mornings.
I've cut back on sugar, and significantly dropped caffeine. Cutting sugar and eating healthy definitely gives me more sustained energy through the day. I think the lack of a rush may affect urges, but I can't tell. I can say that it makes my skin break out less, and I feel better without it. Dropping caffeine may be affecting my flatline, and I've noticed that my mood doesn't swing from as happy to as sad, I'm just a little more permanently glum. I've had very few urges thus far (19 days in) and I think you are on to something regarding diet, but I'm not sure if it's just sugar or the fact that you are taking control of more positive things, which makes turning to the addiction less appealing. Best of luck on your journey!
Thank you for your replies, everyone! Please keep them coming Yes, it's probably a combination. Psychologically, giving in to one temptation will make it harder to resist another. This probably also is reflected and reinforced biologically in the dopamine balance. But I'm not sure of the science here at all...
I think it did, but I'm not completely sure so I'm gonna say yes. I used to eat a lot of sugar back then, I couldn't resist 7-14 days urges. But recently, with a better diet and daily exercice, I reduced sugar take and I only relapse every 20+ days (except chaser effect).
This is merely a post to talk about my experience I had regarding a challenge I did, I wouldn't encourage anyone to do it as it could raise some health issues. I'll be going a bit off topic, but it has relation to the topic. A while ago I went on a, you can call it a challenge. I was on a 2 week NoFap streak, I remember clearly on day 15 I was thinking if it's possible if I could restrict myself to only drinking water, and only eating the plate of food served at dinner for a week. Nothing else, no sweet stuff, no chips, no drinks, no alcohol no nothing (you get the idea). It was hard as s***, for the first few days I was shaking and had a constant headache and dizziness throughout the day. After about 6 days, my body adjusted. My energy levels spiked, my mind was clear, I felt much more relaxed and I started dreaming almost everyday for the first time in years (as weird as that sounds), albeit I had some urges but not a lot. I was in my prime. After about 2 and a half weeks, I was forced to stop due to excessive weight loss. I was on my longest NoFap streak during that time, so surely that had an influence too, how much is hard to say. During that time I felt like I was on top of the world (doing NoFap and this challenge) soon after that I had a few small P relapses and eventually gave into PMO. What I still find curious to this day, is the amount of energy and focus I had during that time. Logically it should've been the exact opposite.
Thanks for sharing this idea, this something I definitely wanted to try for a while, mostly from a health perspective. Seeing that it can also help with PMO addiction makes eventually starting it even easier. What I mean by quitting: complete elimination of the sugar from Tea/Coffee as well as resigning from soft drinks full of sugar and regular so-called "sweets". Naturally, I am okay with fruits and I would not really worry about reading labels of every product just to avoid it completely. Just to focus mostly on main sources of it. I'll try to report any benefits when I finally try this for longer period of time.
Thank you for your responses and votes! More, please, more! Thank you for your reply. Your experience is very like mine. Yes, I am on very strict diet as well, and I've experienced some weight loss as well. But this is okay to me, I feel lean and mean