After releasing “Sugar Shock!: How Sweets and Simple Carbs Can Derail Your Life — and How You Can Get Back on Track” in 2007, Connie Bennett went from a self-proclaimed “sugar- and carbs-addicted journalist” to a public speaker, health coach and author.
But as she watched her mother die from cancer just over a decade ago, Bennett’s clean eating went down a rabbit hole of “ultra-processed” carbohydrates.
Feeling like she “did not walk her clean carbs talk,” Bennett confronted her own struggles and found inspiration for a new book.
“After I moved to La Jolla and my mom had ed away, I began to look at ‘What happened? Why did I just completely fall off the clean eating wagon?’” Bennett said.
That question is explored in detail in Bennett’s latest book, “I Blew My Diet! Now What?: The Easy, Proven, 21-Day Plan to Drop Pounds & Bounce Back Boldly.” It is available for order ahead of its release Tuesday, May 20, in both physical and digital formats.
“I Blew My Diet! Now What?” will be released Tuesday, May 20. (Pete Garceau)“I Blew My Diet! Now What?” follows Bennett’s personal health journey while offering research-based tools for people to overcome their own dietary downfalls.
The book features a combination of personal anecdotes, research, “blood-sugar balanced recipes” from chefs Lizette and Geoff Marx and cartoons by artist Isabella Bannerman.
“I think my tone in this book is different from the other books,” said Bennett, who in 2012 released “Beyond Sugar Shock: The 6-Week Plan to Break Free of Your Sugar Addiction & Get Slimmer, Sexier & Sweeter.”
“However, it’s heavy duty. It has tons and tons of research, but I try to present it in such a way that it is still palatable.”
Bennett lived in La Jolla for over a decade at the suggestion of author Arielle Ford before moving to Pacific Beach last year. She met with a psychologist to help her manage symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and connected with Cassy DaSilva of Coreshape in La Jolla for Pilates sessions. She also got to work on several creative projects.
Hearing waves in the distance as she wrote and walking the coast to reflect made for a healing experience that was conducive to creativity, she said.
Pieces of what became “I Blew My Diet! Now What?” had been ruminating for a decade, but in 2018 the book came into focus.
“It kind of took me 10 years,” Bennett said. “When you share something that shows you’re vulnerable and you have not been following the advice that you have been giving others for years, you need to reach a point where you have a comfortable distance from it.”
Bennett’s revamped health journey started years earlier after she was diagnosed with reactive hypoglycemia, a condition in which blood sugar drops too low, typically two to four hours after a meal. Though researchers don’t know the exact cause, they believe it happens due to a sudden spike and then fall in blood sugar after eating certain foods, especially those high in carbohydrates and sugar.
As she dealt with ailments including headaches, mood swings and heart palpitations, a doctor told her that she needed to drop sugar and processed carbs to feel better. In changing her diet, she found a new focus and a new career, she said.
“It’s exhilarating to look back and see how far I’ve come,” Bennett said. “If I did it, you can do it, too.”
To promote her newest work, Bennett will have a book g event at La Jolla’s Warwick’s bookstore — what she calls her “hands-down absolute favorite bookstore in the world” — at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 22, two days after the book’s release. It is her only planned book g so far.
“I’ve been talking to them for years, going ‘One of these days, I’ll have the book come out,’” Bennett said. “It’s like I’ve been waiting a decade for this to happen.”
To learn more or order a copy of the book, visit connieb.com. ♦
