About Fogdog's Weight Loss

Don't Focus on the Goal...

If you've followed this blog you know that I've struggled for many years with improving my health. I've finally reached a point where I've managed to maintain a small amount of success. Now it's time to take the next step, but I believe it requires a new way of thinking.

Instead of trying to get healthy, why not shift focus toward learning how to build healthy habits instead. Follow me as I try to teach myself how to Engineer healthy habits that will allow me to take my health to the next level. Let's see where this experiment goes!

Tuesday, August 1, 2017

Does Sugar Make Me Depressed?


I’m 45 years old and I can’t believe I’ve never noticed this before…

I’m starting to wonder if sugar (or carbohydrates in general) actually contributes to my depression.  Though I’ve never been diagnosed, I’m fairly confident that I have some level of depression.  When I was younger it never even dawned on me, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve been much more cognizant about how I feel.  Since the move to NC I’ve struggled a bit more and have actually considered talking to a doctor.  But then it goes away and all seems fine.
One other note; for quite some time I’ve been eating a fairly low carb diet.  I try to avoid sugar and all processed carbs like bread, rice, and pasta.  I’ve come to like this style of eating; I don’t go hard core low carb but at the same time I don’t waste time eating unnecessary carbs.
Anyway, this last weekend I was celebrating another great week and meeting my habit goal for the second straight week.  On Sunday we went on a 4.5 mile hike and afterward we stopped and I got a big orange slushy.  Later that night I also had a nice big bowl of ice cream.  Those two items were the only processed sugar I had over the last 2 weeks.

Monday came and I woke up miserable!  I was totally unproductive all day at work and my brain just felt really foggy.  I told my wife that I was severely depressed.  I got through the day and then on Tuesday morning I woke up still feeling depressed, but a little better.  By the end of the day I was back to my old self.

As I reflected on how I felt and how quickly I went from very bad to feeling much better It dawned on me that maybe my large quantity of sugar was what put me into a depressed state.  I started researching sugar and depression and found a surprising amount of articles linking the two.  Could sugar be making me depressed?  Is that why I go from high to low and back to high again so quickly? 

Of course there could be other factors, only time will tell, but it gives me a great idea for my next habit goal.  One more week to go on my current goal (changing into exercise clothes every day after work) and then we’ll see what I add next.

Stay Strong!

3 comments:

  1. I'm sitting here with my occasionally-aching knee really killing me, wondering if my joint pain is linked to a really high-carb, high-sugar day.

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  2. Sugar is not good ...perhaps best avoided if you can!

    All the best Jan

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