This weekend has been absolutely amazing. Besides being in sunny California visiting my brother (who lives in LA), I also attended the Mega IIN Conference put on through my nutrition school (the Institute of Integrative Nutrition).
I’ve left feeling inspired and rejuvenated and, I gotta say, I learned a few things too.
What I was most looking forward to this weekend was connecting with some of my fellow IINers and, thanks to the magic of Twitter, I definitely did that. I met so many people, I wouldn’t even know where to start, but probably the best place is through the #MegaIIN conversation.
There were also a lot of speakers this weekend that imparted a lot of knowledge, wisdom and scientific evidence to back up their claims. Some of it honestly made my head spin, but I loved learning more about different ways of eating. The speakers on nutrition and health were:
- Mark Sisson, author of The Primal Blueprint
- Julia Ross, author of The Food Mood Cure (which I won in a Twitter contest! YAY!)
- Gary Taubes, author of Why We Get Fat
- Geneen Roth, author of Women Food and God
- David Wolfe, author of Superfoods: the Food and Medicine of the Future
- Paul Pitchford, author of Healing with Whole Foods
- John Robbins, author of Diet for a New America
We also had Joshua Rosenthal, the school’s founder, lots of inspirational stories and tips form others at the school (like Cora Poage), a session with Seane Corn, Vinyasa Flow Yoga instructor, and some business speakers. Eric Barron (who I heard speak at the Rock the Ripple Effect conference in November) and Stacey Morgenstern and Carey Peters (who I heard speak at the IIN Miami Conference last February).
But the absolutely best thing about the weekend, hands down, was learning what I now know is the #1 key to health and wellness. The tip, piece of advice and absolute warning that resonated from almost everyone that spoke at the conference was: sugar is the enemy.
Now, some of the speakers were more passionate about this than others. But they all talked about sugar as the first thing we need to give up when seeking a healthier life. Although I’ve learned to cut back on sugar as I became more impassioned to maintain my weight loss, I still will sometimes overindulge in my biggest weaknesses (soda and candy) or have too many sweets in one week or even add an extra teaspoon of brown sugar to my tea in the morning when I’m feeling really tired.
But they were all pretty adamant: LESS SUGAR. Julia Ross actually talked about how sugar is 4 times more addicting than cocaine and that, to truly be successful, we need to give up all forms of sugar (including chocolate). I don’t think there’s a realistic way to do that, though, so the best bet is to take measured steps to reduce the amount of sugar one is consuming.
The #1 thing to do is to cut out all processed, refined sugar. Period.
That was the worst enemy of them all. I’ve mostly cut it out but occasionally have still used it when nothing better was available. No more, though. The only time I’ll allow myself to have any is if I’m eating a dessert that I had no control over in making. And even then, I am going to cut way back both in times of consumption and in portion sizes.
Instead, I am going to switch to organic/unprocessed/raw brown sugar when baking (like for my Share Your Dessert Saturdays) and use honey in my teas. In fact, I am going to try to cut way back on adding any kind of sweetener to tea–even when it’s black tea. That will be difficult for me but I know I can do it. I was actually a fan of agave nectar but recently read that it contains twice the amount of fructose than sugar does, so I have to do a bit more research before I have any more of it. Instead, raw organic honey and even maple syrup seem to be the best options.
Either way, cutting back on sugar and sweetener is my mission right now. There was a lot of things that I learned and can incorporate this weekend but this was by far the most resounding message across the board. And I heard it loud and clear.
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