Here’s the thing – Today is April 1st. At least, it was when I wrote these words. When you read them, it will most likely be April 30th, or maybe May 1st. Or maybe later, since I’ve recently heard that procrastinating is good for you. That’s some solid confirmation bias right there. But I digress.
I’m starting this post a month in advance of publishing it because I’m going to attempt to cut sugar out of my diet for April, and I plan to jot down my thoughts on how it’s going each day. Hopefully this will make for a retrospectively entertaining read. Given that my sugar intake usually sits somewhere near that of Augustus Gloop, I expect to crash HARD. But I have to try. I’ve mentioned before, I’ve got a family history of diabetes, and a daughter who looks to me as a dietary role model. This is about health, not weight. Sure, sugar alone isn’t the key to good health, but foods high in added sugars often include high concentrations of other bad things too, and it’s my greatest weakness, so it seems like a good place to start. The plan is to cut it out cold for 30 days so I can get past withdrawal and major cravings, and then introduce it in more moderate amounts going forward.
The risk in writing down my daily thoughts is that I don’t know how it’s going to go. There is a possibility the last entry will be something along the lines of, “Day 11: Remember that time I stopped eating sugar? That was funny. **shoves fifth Girl Scout cookie into mouth**” You think I’m kidding, but there really are Girl Scout cookies in my house right now, and they really are worthy of eating five at a time. But my will power SHALL PREVAIL!!! And even if it doesn’t, I’m still going to publish this post at the end of the month so that I can be publicly ridiculed for my failure.
Oh, and you might be wondering why you likely haven’t heard anything about this sugar ban before now. I’m planning to be very quiet and subtle about my efforts because I really don’t want to be taunted with all my favourite foods for the next thirty days. Admit it, if you had known and were given the chance, you totally would have waved a cupcake in my face. Don’t feel bad, I’d do the same to you if the roles were reversed.
Game on:
Day 1: Easy-peasy, lemon-squeasy. Who needs sugar?
Day 2: I do. I need sugar. Luke is drinking a Creamy Chocolate Chill from Tim Horton’s right next to me. Resisting urge to rip it from his hands. Helped by the fact we are on the highway and the battle that would ensue, while epic, would be quite dangerous.
Day 3: I had popcorn today, I’m good.
Day 4: If you asked me right now, I’m pretty sure I could list every single sugary treat that is currently in my house, from memory. I want them all!
Day 5: There was a free lunch at work today. It involved cookies. There are two sitting on my desk right now that I intend to bring home to Luke. Must…not…eat……
Days 6-7: You know what I bet would make this cold go away? Chocolate.
Day 8: Went to a Ladies Night with Mum friends. It was a potluck. Not eating the brownies hurt my soul.
Day 9: Mmm, sushi. The trick to not missing sugar appears to be just eating all my other favourite foods.
Day 10: Miserable, teething baby up since 5 AM makes Mommy desperately want a fix.
Days 11-17: Okay, so I haven’t kept up with posting this for about a week. In my defence, Luke and I have both had strep throat and Thea has an ear infection. Yes, our household is three for three on antibiotics. The good news is I’m still sugar-free. It’s like the one thing in my life that is still going as planned, so I’m clinging to it. Even though trading Thea for a Terry’s chocolate orange or a Godiva dark chocolate milkshake has been pretty tempting at 4 AM.
Day 18: I went for gelato with an old friend and got a “No Sugar Vanilla”. Delicious. I also got a scoop of “Blueberry Yogurt” gelato, but I’m in denial about how much sugar was probably in that one. Shh!
Days 19-21: On the one hand, this has been much easier than I expected. On the other hand, I’ve spent more than a couple hours over the past 21 days thinking about what delectable sugary thing(s) I’m going to eat on May 1st.
Days 22-23: I think I know what it will be. The runners-up for post-April treat were “two scoops of gelato on a waffle cone” and “homemade brownies”. The current front runner is “both”.
Days 24-27: Studying for a final exam is a great distraction but I reserve the right to reward myself with “both” immediately after completing the final exam, even though that will be around noon on April 30th.
Days 28-29: I haven’t been able to decide if I should be proud of how well I’ve done, or if I was just completely wrong about how difficult this ought to have been.
Day 30: I DID IT!!! And you know what? I feel GREAT about it! I don’t miss sugar at all. In fact, I think I’ll keep it going – Sugar in May? NO WAY!
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HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Just kidding.
But in all seriousness, I am happy with the outcome and aside from the gorging that is sure to occur today and tomorrow, I am going to stick to moderate snacking with more fruits and veggies and fewer cakes and cookies.
PS: In case you didn’t notice, that picture at the top is me, not Thea.