Inspiration

I checked my friend's blog today (lizlikes - see it in my links) and fell in love with another blog (hence the inspiration) that she had posted on her blog. Wow, I am just in love with blogs. Dunno why, I suppose I just love that people can share so much incredible information about themselves and this world and all you have to do is click a few buttons to gain access. So, the new site I just added to my links list is goop.com and is written by Gwyneth Paltrow. I'm very much in like with this blog. Instead of boring you with why, I will let you explore it and discover for yourself. Besides, I really needed to leave to go running about 10 minutes ago and can't spare time. :)

Just a quick note about sugar-free me; MY BODY FEELS GOOD! I feel cleaner inside. I still have a mental addiction to the blessed substance and I am not sure yet what to do with it. I am planning on breaking the sugar fast this Saturday. Yes, it has been a month now. I haven't yet decided how to go about this. The emotional part of me wants to binge to make up for lost time. The more sensible parts of my brain are saying "Take your time, Christi" and I am trying to plan so that I succumb to the sensibility and NOT the emotion. We shall see. I may tack on extra days since my girlfriends started after me. I really want to end my sugar fast with them.

Silence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

No post since Monday!?!? No pictures?!?! What the heck? Well, this has been a busy week. I'm trying to keep myself together. My in-laws are in town. Originally they were coming to visit, then they weren't, then they were arriving on Sunday, then the plans changed again and I found out Thursday night that they were to arrive on Saturday. Had to work Friday. Needed to clean. What to do? So, yes, life has been crazy this week. I am also trying to get into school for a Math class in July... there's more, but I don't want to bore you with details.

Sugar? Today is day 23. I am almost finished with this blasted sugar fast. Yes, I said BLASTED! It is a holiday weekend and the temptation is definitely presenting itself more than I like to admit. Oh, and I did unintentionally eat cereal this week that had sugar in it. It was a Kashi cereal. Oops. :( Oh well, there wasn't much in it, so I don't feel all that guilty. I have learned something new about myself this week. I crave sugary food not when I'm feeling down (then I don't eat at all), but when I am stressed! Hello? That's when I do my mindless eating. Interesting info. :)

Quickie Update

Still sugar free, still doing okay. Today is day 17. At this point I feel differently about sugar and my ability to control my consumption. I will add sugar back into my diet at the end of this crazy fast, but I feel (right now, anyway) that I won't be needing dessert on a daily basis and I feel like I will have better control over my cravings. Going without is DEFINITELY only as bad as you make it.

Ahhh!!! I Ate A Cupcake!

Ha! I feel no guilt. It was totally sugar-free! My sweet hubby and Jason Warr made a Mother's Day dinner for myself and Monica Warr (they are our Illinois pal-buddies). The boys made us cedar-plank grilled salmon and asparagus. Yum! Then they ended our dinner with a sugar-free treat. They bought and made a Sweet-N-Low cupcake mix and topped off our cakes with chocolate icing. Now, it really wasn't the same as a treat made with real sugar, but I was grateful for the thought and the welcome break from plain-tasting food. Love my boy!

Just an aside: I may venture to purchase a new cookbook for when I end this sugar-fast. It is called "babycakes." It is a cookbook written by a girl who runs the babycakes restaurant in NY. She uses organic alternative products for baking such as: agave nectar, rice milk, coconut oil, gluten free baking flour, etc. Sounds interesting to me, we'll see how eager I am at the end of the month. :)

Chocolate

I just heard something about chocolate. We all know that dark chocolate is good for you, right. Well, (and I've been wondering about this) apparently the chocolate should be at least 70% cocoa. Now you know. By the way, I will not be eating chocolate this month because of the fact. I'm sticking to my guns!

Just an aside here: I baked cookies last night with my hubby for a friend who has a birthday this week. Not easy keeping my hands out of the cookie dough.

Sugarbaby No Mo'

Ha! Today is Monday May 4th. This no sugar thing is totally do-able. I really am not suffering very much at all. The hardest part is controlling reflexes. I was at a friend's house for about an hour on Saturday and there was a bowl of M&M's sitting on a side table. I stood up to grab a handful and had a quick, twitchy convulsion of a moment when I realized how thoughtless some of my sugar consumption can be. I got a funny look. Friend says "Oh, go ahead, have some." I had to say no thanks. I was sad all of 2 seconds. This is so liberating!!!

I'm really getting excited because I now have 2 friends that have decided to join in with me!!! Thanks Jana and Monica! Yay! I love that other people want to join in. How fun is that?

Sugar, sugar.... Ahhh, honey, honey...

Jenny McCarthy is doing a 30-day fast from sugar and is blogging about it on Oprah's website. You can go to this link to read her first entry or, hey, I'll post it here so you can just read it now.

http://www.oprah.com/bi/jenny-mccarthy

May 01, 2009 5:10 AM (archive)

Let's Give It Up!!!!

Woo-hoo! I'm so excited to get started. I wanted to do this "give it up before summer" blog because I would always complain to my friends that I wish there were AA meetings for chocoholics. A couple of my friends said they needed help giving up caffeine, and other friends wanted to give up lying or gossiping. So I said, "Let's start a 30-day blog with Oprah.com to come together every day to bitch and moan about how well or horrible we are doing." There are no rules to this. It's simply choosing something you have been wanting to give up and making it happen this month. The good news is I'm not asking you to give it up forever...just 30 freaking days! I'm a sugar addict, so I'm going to clear out my hidden drawers of chocolate bars and throw away the nightly chocolate crispy cereal that I would have before bed. I'm also going to stop eating after 7 p.m. I'm a late-night eater and would like to put the kibosh on that! Call your friends; tell them to join you in this. It's a lot more fun having support and cheering each other on. Woo-hoo! Let's do it.

... In Christi's world on 5/1/09...
OH MY GOODNESS!!! I can't believe it! I am so dang excited about this! OK, let me calm myself (deep breath in).
So, I just had a conversation with my husband & it went something like this:
Me: "Sooo... honey?, if I decided to give up sugar for a whole month (he sighs) would you maybe do it with me?"
Hubby: "Ummm... huh, probably not. Sorry." (I can almost hear him smiling apologetically. What a stinker.)

I will tell you why I am excited. I am excited to do this with other people, even if they are completely invisible to me. I have a love-hate relationship with sugar, well, mostly chocolate and baked goods. I wish, wish, wish I could eat it in more moderation. I consider moderation just a few times per week, tops. I eat it EVERY DAY! It wouldn't be such an issue except that I daily think about when I am going to get my next "fix"! Yikes, I can't believe I'm saying this (sort of) out loud. I do not drink alcohol, coffee, tea, soft drinks or use tobacco products (not to mention illegal drugs or prescription drugs)... i.e. I have no addictions... OR DO I? Another facet of this sugar issue is my weight loss. I exercise multiple days during the week, and hard. I stay the same weight! Yuck. I'm pretty sure it is the sugar. Just extra, empty calories waiting (and I mean waiting anxiously) to permanently plaster themselves to my curvy body. Darn that sugar, it IS my achilles heel!
So, once again, I am excited to have some support (sans hubby)and not the kind where people stand on the sidelines and cheer you on, but the kind where others are participating together. I'm TOTALLY IN! Today, May 1st 2009 is my last day of sugar for 30 days! Thanks Oprah and Jenny! Halleluah-er!

I Probably Owe You Some Pictures, BUT...

Sorry, I have none for you at this time. Skot dropped our camera while snowboarding (or landed on it, or smashed it or something) and it no longer shows a picture on the LCD screen on the back. It is very difficult to take pictures when you cannot see your subject through the camera's eye. Anyhoo, my next post is about SUGAR! Check it out. OK, you probably already did seeing that it is posted above this post. Whatever.