Sugar Free

In an effort to rein in my bad habits and finally lose some weight, I have declared myself sugar free for 30 days, beginning on May 6. I know it would have made sense to begin on May 1, but I didn't think of it until May 5. (And besides, I was busy during that first weekend in May, self-indulging in Spokane.)

I don't really think I eat a lot of sweets, but with all the candy and goodies that had begun to accumulate at the office, it was a rare day when I didn't treat myself to one thing or another. Or two. Or three. And it made a lot more sense to stop eating sugar and see how that helps, before cutting out oatmeal, or yoghurt.

So here are my rules. No sugar, honey, maple syrup, etc., or any foods containing a significant amount of sugar products. I'm not going so far as to scrutinize the ingredients of healthy non-sweet foods. For example, my favorite Double Fiber English muffins (110 calories and eight grams of fiber each) have brown sugar and honey in the ingredient list, but I'm still going to eat them. I am, however, giving up the South Beach granola bars, Fiber One bars, Erin Baker Breakfast cookies, and other genuinely reasonably healthy goodies which not only contain some sugar, but might as well be (low calorie) candy bars to me. They make me want more.

I am not, however, giving up artificial sweeteners. Not giving up Diet Coke. Not giving up Dannon Light & Fit yoghurt. Neither of those have been a trigger food for me, anyway.

So today is Day 4. So far, so good. I haven't slipped, and I suppose it will get easier after a few days. There's nothing to make you want something so much as depriving yourself of it (which doesn't mean that having some will make me want it less). Nothing worse, that is, than having cake and candy in front of your face and not eating it. On Wednesday I heard that there was a big cake at the office... so I boycotted the office all day (just stayed at court). I had to stop by to pick up a bottle of water, and I'll tell you, it's like an addict looking at a tableful of crack. The sight, the smell, of a big frosted cake... well, I just got out of there as fast as I could.

I also decided to start tracking my food, just to be more mindful of what I was eating. The first couple of days I just wrote everything down on a piece of paper. Today, just for kicks, I signed up for The Daily Plate from LiveStrong, and have been wasting a fair amount of time logging everything I've eaten. I picked this program because there's an application for BlackBerry, which I just downloaded a bit ago. Now, if you can believe this, I'm not hungry (anymore) but I kind of want to eat something so I can log it in! Yes, I am truly mentally ill.

Oh, and by the way, I am supposed to be working on a big housecleaning project, so that may be another reason why I have been busy downloading programs and blogging! Procrastination, you are not my friend!