Struggling with Sugar

Okay, so today I woke up and finally admitted to myself that I really am struggling to hold on to the lifestyle.  I have been pretending that it hasn't been happening, but in truth I have almost completely lost every aspect of my life as we have prepared to move across the country.  At this point, we don't really have any food in the house, which is fine, because we don't have anything to cook the food on.  We have been living with paper plates and plastic utensils for a week now.  I have been buying fruit, but really our options are getting fewer and fewer.  I have even stopped drinking as much water as I should (though I am still Coke free!)

Exercise wise, things are fine, though I admit I am getting a bit bored with the weight lifting.  Running has been fun, and I have been doing pretty well in terms of stamina and endurance.  I am convinced, though, that exercise has little to do with weight loss.  I really do believe that it is about 80 percent what you eat and 20 percent what you do. 

The real problem is that I have gotten completely hooked on sugar again, which is, of course, is just my stand-by addiction.  It could always be worse, I could be addicted to tobacco or alcohol or something else, but the irony is that while as a society we frown upon the misuse of tobacco and alcohol, we do not seem to do so to the same extent with sugar.  In an amazing article published in the New York Times back in April (AND WHICH I HIGHLY SUGGEST EVERYONE READ), Gary Taubes asks what I think is the ultimate question of our day:  Is Sugar Toxic?  The article evaluates the effect of sugar--whether refined white sugar or high fructose corn syrup (he argues they are the nutritionally the same thing)--on the body.  Although he "officially" makes no conclusions, it is clear that research seems to be pointing towards sugar being a leading cause of obesity (which we all already knew), diabetes (which, again, we all know), and cancer (what?).

The bizarre thing is that I read this article while chomping down on an "energy" bar with 20 grams of sugar.  This stuff is scary enough that I don't know why I ever eat sugar.  Have you ever read a nutrition label before?  Have you noticed how they give percentages of daily values (like 65% vitamin C or 20% carbohydrates).  Have you ever noticed that sugar doesn't have a daily value?  That is because there is no daily value since there is no known nutritional value for sugar.  Now, it may be a cause of cancer because of heightened insulin levels in the body. 

I know I don't want to believe it, but I am starting to think that sugar actually is toxic.  The question then becomes:  What am I going to do about it?  Based on Taubes article, the answer is pretty simple.  The thing is, even though I know the answer is to just cut it off, I still can't seem to do it.