I ended my toxic relationship with sugar and it changed my life

It’s been one year now since I broke up with sugar and I am thrilled to have this toxic relationship out of my reality.

All my life, I have been addicted to sugar. My mornings started with sugar in my coffee - two cups, and sometimes three.

Throughout the day, I always snacked on sugary treats like snickers bars and magnum ice cream bars. I had a fridge full of condiments containing sugar and I ate desserts with dinner on a regular basis.

I had a healthy diet outside of my sweet tooth, combined with my yoga practice and a lot of walking… so it never really showed up in my skin or body until a year and a half ago after moving from Haad Tien to Srithanu on Koh Phangan and was driving my scooter regularly instead of walking everywhere.

It wasn’t long until I started to put on a lot of body weight.

My skin was also looking dull, saggy, and lifeless. Combine this with the stresses of the pandemic… I felt like I was on a downward spiral health-wise.

I decided to make a change, got a gym pass and started doing a lot of cardio to lose the weight… but nothing was happening. All my old tricks from when I was younger were not working anymore.

When talking to a friend, she asked how much sugar I was eating, and I confessed my sins. And it’s quite embarrassing because I’ve been a teaching yoga in detox resorts for over ten years and beauty therapist who does skin consultations for over twenty.

I also offer chi nei tsang to people on detox programs and I was not living what I was preaching.

I had a serious closet addiction to the sugar drug.

After that conversation, I decided to try something new and make some small changes in my diet, like changing my morning coffee sugar to stevia. And within a week I started to notice my waist slimming down.

I realized I was onto something and I went through my fridge and threw out everything containing sugar. I just found alternatives such as sweet chili sauce, ketchup, and stir-fry sauce sweetened with stevia and monk-fruit. The Keto diet was a great resource as it's a sugar-free diet plan. I don't follow the diet, but any sauces that are 'Keto Friendly' means contains no sugar and usually healthy ingredients.

And I started to research the effects of sugar in YouTube videos. I knew it was bad… but i never looked at the science and what I found really isn’t pleasant. Sugar basically candy-coats your cells and attacks collagen and elastin and makes your skin sag. It is also one of the biggest causes for acne and breakouts.

It’s really gross actually. And totally not worth the momentary satisfaction it provides on the lips.

Watch the video below outlining the process the skin goes through when eating sugar

So I made health choices dropped the sugar almost entirely and as a result, my body weight no longer fluctuates - like it has my entire life with 10 kilos or so - depending on my exercise routine and/or yoga practice. I feel much healthier and my skin has never looked brighter.

And what’s great, is I no longer crave sugar.

Now, I am not anti-sugar and will still eat birthday cake on special occasions, but I can only handle a few bites… whereas before I could devour the entire cake and still want more.

Breaking up with sugar has also been a great asset to my helping clients with their skin in my consultations and I feel so much more equipped to help my clients help them achieve glowing, radiant skin.

And I sometimes feel like a priest in a confession booth listening to how they sneak sugar throughout the day… and I can relate because I did it my entire life. And my story inspires them that they too can kick the sugar drug, if only they will try.

I was trained to sell beauty products

When I went to beauty school at Aveda, i was trained to sell products in my consultations - And I love Aveda products... that isn't the issue here. But what I wasn't trained in is how to give a proper health consultation and how to recognize the effects of a bad diet what kinds of foods and supplements clients should be they should be taking.

I was like a doctor prescribing medicine without asking about diet and exercise. All the luxury spas I have worked in have paid me a healthy commission to sell products that go with facials. And i did very well with this.

For every skin issue, there is a product that can help. And this is true to some extent, but even amazing, organic products can only do so much.

I feel like it has taken me twenty years of being a beauty therapist to really learn this and my offerings keep evolving to beauty therapy with a detox yoga & health approach.

I am now offering facials combined with chi nei tsang as well as detox yoga sessions with specific postures and pranayama for beauty & health. A calm mind from a devoted yoga practice also helps the skin to radiate.

Detox Yoga Session for Health & Beauty

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More and more, I am calling in clients who are ready and willing to look at their health to achieve better skin and less and less I am interested in clients who just want my facials and think I can wave a magic wand or prescribe a magic potion to heal their skin issues without doing the real work themselves.

True beauty is a lifestyle! It is the foods you eat, the yoga you practice and how kindly you speak to yourself. And you gotta be willing to make some changes if you want to see results.

Nola Bloom

Listen to the meditation below to get you into the yogi mindset of practicing self-care