Hello, my name is Jen, and I am a sugarholic.

Those of you that have been reading this blog for a while now may have noticed that I am having a love affair with sugar. I talk a big game about eating healthy and trying to lose weight and all that jazz, and then the next day I'm posting a photo of the brownies I baked or the entire line of Betty Crocker Gluten Free mixes that I just had to try. My header even has mostly sugary photos and the name of the blog is A life of SUGAR and spice!! I didn't even realize how bad it was. I eat sugary foods on a daily basis. And not just once a day, multiple times. And I wonder why these extra 30 pounds are being so stubborn... But this isn't just another one of those posts where I profess that I'm going to start eating healthier and lose the weight! I posted recently about clean eating and I mentioned that I was having some trouble with acne all of a sudden. I thought it might be an issue after re-introducing gluten, but I'm not having any other symptoms. I feel quite good actually, except for when I eat diary, which is still very much a problem for me. I clearly did not stick to the clean eating lifestyle after I received shipments from Betty Crocker and coupons from Turtle Mountain. It was almost two months ago that I posted that article and the acne is still there, and worse, all over my chest, shoulders and face. It's awful! I've never had acne like this before! Especially during the summer where tank tops and bathing suits are a must. I feel like an awkard teenager. I knew in the back of my mind that it has to be diet related. There are so many theories about acne and what causes it. The biggest one being hormones, but not specifically how hormones cause it. I did a little research today and found a lot of info on sugar intake, liver reaction, hormone production, and the resulting acne. I thought to look into sugar because over a few days I barely ate any refined sugar and the acne started to clear up. Then I went back to my old habits and it reappeared. Coincidence? I think not! So now, for real this time, I'm going to cut out sugar for a while to see what happens. I've done this before and it's not as hard as it sounds, it's actually quite easy after the first few days. The cravings go away. I get horrible cravings when I'm eating sugar, but when I stop, the cravings go away. If there's one thing I've learned throughout this journey, it's that if you eat something and then are craving it again 5 minutes later, that's a bad thing! There's a difference between craving protein because you've been eating too many carbs, and craving sugar because your body is addicted to it. So here I go. Sugar free. I was going to post a "before" picture showing the outbreak on my chest and shoulders but I figured you all wouldn't want to see that... but maybe once I have a good "after" shot, I will!