Yesterday being Shrove/Fat Tuesday, a lot of my tweeps were discussing giving up things for Lent. This frankly came as a surprise to me, as I don’t think a single one of them is Christian – or even religious. Still, I suppose it’s the thought? Outside motivation?
They inspired me. Since reading about the so-called Primal Lifestyle, I’ve been trying to cut down my carb intake and focus on meat and veg, with some fruit. But if I’m honest, I haven’t been doing that well – I think I’m doing much better with not eating breads, pastas, etc.; but sugar, choc, cupcakes? Oh, help.
As Mark says, one of the best things to do is tell others about your goals so you have to meet their expectations and not just your own (out of which you can so easily wriggle). So here I am, publicly declaring my intention to cut out sugar for Lent (and hopefully beyond, once it’s out of my system). But let’s be specific – I have Rules:
- “Sugar” is being defined as “processed sugar” – cupcakes, granulated sugar, chocolate, etc.
- Fruit (and its natural, unaltered sugar) is allowed, in moderation – a handful of berries on my salad at lunch, for instance.
- If I’ve exercised, a glass of chocolate milk or heated white milk with drinking chocolate stirred in is an acceptable reward to replenish some of what I just lost in the workout and supply calcium and muscle-building protein. (I seriously crave chocolate milk after a run or a workout on the elliptical – it never tastes better than just after exercise.) The double-edge on this is the hope that I’ll exercise more to justify drinking the stuff.
Progress so far today:
- No sugar in this morning’s tea (that’s going to take getting used to).
- Berries on lunch salad.
- I’ve successfully passed by the candy on offer at one of the desks by the office door five times (and counting).
I’m also going to resume tracking my weight and see what effect cutting sugar has there. This could be an interesting experiment. Stay tuned. (And please cheer me on.)
The Refuge from Reality 
I’m cheering! I’ve given up dairy products to see if they provoke allergic symptoms. So far, “I ❤ soymilk", and "cheese? what cheese?" are working well, and I fel better.
Hmmm, sweets. I was considering wheat/gluten next. or wine. or sugar. or meat.
By tomorrow, I'll choose one.
Ta, Ven. You’re a sweetie. 🙂
Roger (who’s a celiac) has a food allergen test he recommends, if you’re interested. It’s well pricey, but at least then you’d know instead of doing trial-and-error guesswork: http://www.celiactravel.com/food-allergies/test.html
I lost 50 pounds following essentially the diet you are attempting (i.e., limiting starches and sugars, especially the processed variety). I got mono and gained it all back self-medicating with junk food . . . but the diet itself worked great and I didn’t have to starve myself. I know you can do it too, so keep it up, rah rah rah!!!
Thanks, Autumn! 😀 Just finished my lunch of hard-boiled eggs and veggies (we were out of lettuce, so I did a veg box instead of a “proper” salad). I’ll post some updates going forward, but I don’t want to turn people off the new blog by obsessing on that one thing. Thanks for visiting!!
Good luck w/cutting back on sugar. Let me know how that goes. You’ve inspired me to try cutting out diet coke.
Thanks! Good luck with cutting back on soda. 🙂 If you need some help, you might look at http://www.hypnosisdownloads.com/downloads/health/stop-soda.html