Sugary Treats

Well, it's day 31 of my attempt to lose my sugar addiction. I decided to focus on my addiction to sugary treats and I banned them from my life. I didn't worry about gluten, white flour, fruit, dried fruit, hidden sugar in my breakfast cereal, milk, carrots, celery, or any other thing you are about to bring up that totally ruined my chances of getting rid of weight or my addiction so don't even go there! I decided I could only handle one bad habit at a time and I wasn't willing to eat nothing but Kale for the next 20 years of my life...not to mention, I get hungry and when I'm hungry I want carbs...not another beet greens and spinach "shake." So I just gave up sugary treats.

In the interest of honesty you should know that I did eat 1/2 the dessert at Alex's holiday party, 2 bites of Maia's Pinkberry, and 4 bites of Ikeda's Pie. Yes, I admit, I wasn't perfect so for those of you who bask in the righteousness of your gluten-free, all fiber, no flavor, "I'm so virtuous I must be going to heaven" "lifestyles"...mea culpa...I am not in your league. But to be honest, I didn't do this so I could be holier than thou in my food choices. I did it because I read that balancing your blood sugar better will help with that crazy dip in energy that happens in the late afternoon. And I wanted to see if it was true.

 So far I have learned a few things:

 1) I miss sugar in my coffee...all day...every day...every time I smell coffee, every time I think about coffee, every time I wonder what I want to drink...I miss sugar in my coffee!!! (Wait...did you just say you think maybe it's the sugar I'm craving and not the coffee...that's just crazy talk!)

 2) I lost 4 pounds and I did it without being hungry all the time and without thinking of food day and night.

 3) 4 pounds is NOT enough to get you into your skinny pants but it is enough to make your fat pants fall off...which is just plain irritating!

 4) I don't crave sugary treats as often as I used to...but the cravings are still pretty strong...I gotta' say I get it why people need a 12-step program!

 5) Deciding to ban ALL sugary treats turned out to be easier than trying to "cut down" Apparently I am an all or nothing type of gal. Give me a few sugary treats and it is WAY harder for me to say no to the next few that come by. (Hmmm...I think I heard that somewhere before...oh yeah it was from that AA meeting I should have gone to in #4)

 6) I am more willing to give this another 30 days than I thought I would be at this point. And that's saying something.

 7) So far I still have the energy slump in the late afternoon...but it seems to be slightly less often and less severe when it does happen.

 And that's it so far. I'm thinking I will keep going with this for another little while...and if it ever gets easier (yeah right) then I'll think about another bad habit I want to break.