Tag Archives: Sugar Detox

The Perimenopause Chronicles: The Great Refined Sugar Moratorium of 2023

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My last menstrual cycle was EPIC:

  • June 15: Day One! My period arrived around noon. Great mood. I experienced three days of PMS beforehand, including one night of insomnia and lots of edginess.
  • June 19: Day Five – only faint traces of “residue.” Period ends.
  • Late June/Early July: We went on our annual summer trip to Vegas and Nebraska. I ate all the refined sugar and processed food, very little fruits and veggies. By end of trip, I was dying for a salad.
  • July 13: Day 29 – Lower back tight and achy.
  • July 14: Day 30 – Horrendous diarrhea – PMS?
  • July 15: Day 31 – Great mood, energy and sleep. No PMS.
  • July 16: Day 32 – Hormonal and edgy all day.
  • July 17:Day 33 – Hormonal, very short-tempered in the morning but hot yoga helped my mood.
  • July 18: Day 34 (Fuuuuuuck) – Jump and edgy. Also achy, especially in the morning.
  • July 19: Day 35 (Seriously?!) – Slept poorly night before. Exhausted. Felt broken by PMS. Decided to take a break from refined sugar.
  • July 20: Day 36 – Better energy and mood but a little edgy when I woke up.
  • July 21: Day 37 – My uterus was officially ghosting me. But better energy and mood than the past few days.
  • July 22: DAY ONE BITCHES.

So that was my last cycle. Thirty-seven days, which is abnormally long for me, and several days of PMS. I can handle diarrhea and even a little insomnia, but the days of feeling short-tempered and edgy inspired me to take a ninety day break from refined sugar.

I have not had refined sugar since July 18. Today is the twenty-second day of The Great Refined Sugar Moratorium. of 2023, and I don’t miss it.

Except yesterday I found myself craving something sweet and we didn’t have any good fruit in the house. Nathan bought me a pint of utterly divine Keto ice cream over the weekend but I had polished that off while watching trashy reality tv. But despite my craving for something sweet, I still didn’t want refined sugar. Right now, when I think about refined sugar, I think of July’s PMS and cringe. Ugh, it was like an emotional hangover that lasted for days, and I do not want to subject myself to that again.

Yesterday, when I was craving something sweet, I wondered if my period might be arriving, but it was only Day 18. Then, I felt teary in a hormonal way and watched some TikTok videos of military dads being reunited with their kids after deployment so I could cry out my feelings. (It helped!) Before bedtime, I noticed my breasts were tender. I was disappointed because I thought quitting refined sugar would help my PMS, but if my PMS was starting on Day 18, then sigh, my intuition on that front must have been work.

Then I went to bed and slept deeply.

I woke up this morning.

AND I HAD MY PERIOD.

That’s right, after an eighteen day cycle, today is Day One – woot woot! I experienced a few hours of PMS moodiness but nothing severe. I did actually sleep like shit on Day 15/16, so in hindsight, that must have been my PMS insomnia. Each cycle, I usual have one night of bad sleep. But still, this cycle was 100x better than my last.

I will definitely be continuing the Refined Sugar Moratorium of 2023 to see if I can accrue any more health benefits. As my body detoxes, perhaps I’ll experience less PMS!

And maybe, gulp, I’ll finally take the plunge and experiment with reducing/eliminating caffeine. If cutting refined sugar improves my wellbeing, how amazing will I feel if I quit refined sugar and caffeine? But one thing at a time. After all, I’m practicing slower living this summer, so that means sloooowly improving my health. (And I realize I’m just justifying the can of Coke Zero I just polished off. I know, I know. It’s poison, but it’s so freaking satisfying.)

The Trouble With Zoloft

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I started taking Zoloft in late July 2013 when I was first diagnosed with postpartum depression. It was a life saver. Four months postpartum, I was in a deep pit of despair. I needed Zoloft to give me my physiology a jumpstart so that I could build some momentum and claw my way out of depression.

I kept taking Zoloft until February 2015 when I learned I was pregnant with my son Julian. My psychiatrist at the time decided I should be on a different medication during pregnancy. (I have since read Pregnant on Prozac and feel like it would have been better to keep me on Zoloft during pregnancy but that’s not what I’m writing about today.) So I stayed off Zoloft during pregnancy but started taking it again about three days after giving birth to Julian in early November 2015.

I stayed on Zoloft for about a year and then started my long journey of weaning off Zoloft. Man, that was an adventure. It took about a year. I have now been officially off Zoloft for not quite fourteen months. Woot woot!

And man, I have learned a lot about myself since getting off Zoloft.

My first menstrual cycle after weaning off Zoloft was awful. I felt deranged. My mood swings were intense, my insomnia was intense. Apparently Zoloft had been keeping my PMS in check.

And before Zoloft? Before I had kids? Honestly, I don’t remember. Maybe I had bad PMS but it wasn’t an issue because I could give myself all the love and attention I needed. I could sleep in, exercise more, get a massage… Or maybe I’ve just gotten older and my body is now more deeply affected by my hormonal fluctuations. I don’t know. But I do know this: off Zoloft, my PMS was brutal.

That prompted me to get curious and pay attention to the way I was living my life. If I needed to take Zoloft to manage my PMS: okay. But if I could make other changes, stay off Zoloft, and still manage my PMS: better. Much, much better. I don’t want to take medications unless I actually need to take the medications.

Over the past year, I have been experimenting with my diet. Through trial and error, I learned that if I eat refined sugar, I experienced wicked PMS; if I abstain from cookies and ice cream, my PMS is minimal. I might get a little grumpy and feel a blip of PMS, but it’s completely manageable.

Giving up refined sugar has helped me lose weight. And I’m not talking about a few pounds here, folks. Since January 2018, I’m down 43 pounds! I have 57 more to lose, but let’s focus on the positive: I’m down 43 pounds! That’s a ton of weight. That’s a major improvement in my health. I have been struggling to lose weight for years. I thought I just needed better will power or the right diet, but actually, I needed to experience the pain of vile PMS.

So that brings me to the trouble with Zoloft. Zoloft gave me the boost I needed to start my recovery from postpartum depression. It kept me out of the darkness of a second round of depression when I had my second baby. But Zoloft also smoothed away the PMS; so I did not feel forced to examine my life; and I did not realize the connection between sugar and my moods.

Zoloft did so many good, amazing things for me. It literally saved my life. But in saving my life, it also made my life easier. I did not have to think about increasing my exercise or changing my diet because hey, Zoloft made everything feel okay.

I’m glad Zoloft was there to yank me out of depression, but now I’m grateful to be living Zoloft-free. I experience all my feelings and mood swings, and my feelings and mood swings have prompted me to make some of the most dramatic changes to my lifestyle.

Zoloft saved my life. But getting off Zoloft has helped me live the best life I possibly can.