A surfeit of sugar & a solution

I didn't know what the word, "surfeit" meant until I came across it in a book that I read this month and looked it up. I thought it was perfect to use for alliteration purposes (and obviously because it was appropriate). "Surfeit" means too much of something. 

By the end of December, I realized that I was eating too much sugar. Like, way too much. Candy, cookies, cheesecake and Cherry Coke were all some of my pre- Christmas, Christmas Day and post Christmas indulgences. In excess. Since sugar is so unhealthy, I began to feel convicted that I needed to cut back as a way of treating my temple (the body that God gave me) better. (Tangentially, my pants were getting rrrreal tight...). Since I have tendencies towards being an all or nothing kind of person, I decided to cut sugar out of  my diet for a month. 

I have cut sugar out of my diet before-  for six weeks prior to the last two marathons that I ran, I stopped eating sugar as one component in eating healthy before the big run. But that was several years ago. In the years since, I have cut back on sugar intake after periods of indulgences but it had been a while since I cut sugar/ desserts out completely.

January sounded like the right time to go sugar free- new year, new resolutions (albeit this one was not for the entire year), and those pesky tight pants. Since I was embarking on this all on my own just because (not because of a sudden allergy or anything like that), I was free to make up my own parameters. Here is what they were:

1. I started January 2nd, not the first because I had family coming over on January 1st and I wanted to eat the cheesecake and cookies that I had for our meal together. My targeted end day was February 2nd, though if sugar didn't sound AMAZING on the 2nd, I would try to continue sugar free. 

2. My diet was not 100% sugar free- I did not read labels and eschew anything with sugar or high fructose corn syrup, rather I didn't eat any cookies, candy, donuts, cake- anything dessert or eaten to assuage a sweet tooth. So, for example, I made my favorite homemade salad dressing for a pasta salad and added the 1/3 cup of sugar the recipe called for without feeling guilty when I ate the pasta salad.

3. I was curious if I would lose weight and I was sure hoping that I would lose weight in my sugar free(ish) month. However, I didn't want to become beholden to the scale so I told myself that I would weight myself just twice- once in the beginning of the challenge and once at the end. 

4. I didn't change any other aspect of my diet- this was not an attempt to go low carb to get into ketosis.  I ate everything that I normally ate except for sugary, desserty type foods.

5. Alyssa's birthday is in late January- her SWEET 16th. When I started this, I made the decision to make a decision about her birthday celebration closer to her birthday. In other words, I would maybe indulge in sweets with her on birthday to take part in the celebration. If I decided to eat a dessert on her birthday, I would extend the date of my sugar free challenge to February 3rd and I would not feel bad about it!!

I took notes during the month to see how my month without sugary sweets went.

First week- beginning January 2nd,  I weighed myself in the beginning of the week. The number was high for me. I was not overweight but the weight where my clothes fit better me better is definitely at a weight less than what I was. I didn't miss eating desserts or sugary things at all. This was likely due to having just indulged so much and the newness of the challenge. 

Second week- All right, I broke one of my rules. Towards the beginning of the second week, I weighed myself. I did this because I could tell I was losing weight. My pants fit better. I thought if I weighed myself and saw the number go down, that would give me motivation if I became tempted to eat sugar later in the month So, I stepped on the scale and was not surprised that the number was lower than eight days before, but  I was surprised that it was four pounds lower than before. Yah! Throughout the week, again, I didn't feel tempted to indulge in desserts.

Third week- blogger ate my update! I wrote something but it didn't save and when I came back, it was gone. If I remember correctly, this week was much like week two.  This was the week of Alyssa's birthday and I did not eat a dessert on her birthday because Alyssa herself didn't care to eat any dessert on her birthday; she was content to wait until we celebrated her birthday in February.

Fourth week- much like the last two weeks. No real sugar cravings but I was glad that the end was in sight! I "broke" my sugar fast on Sunday, January 30th. That was the day that we had people over to watch the Bengals game. I didn't want to restrict my eating so I had a cookie and a small piece of cheesecake. The cookie tasted crazy sweet. I did not want another one. Due to breaking the fast on the 30th, I extended the day on which the entire sugar fast ended and ended it on February 3rd. 

So here is how the month went overall:

Weight- I didn't end up weighing myself at the end. I knew I had lost some weight and I was content with that. I don't want to get hung up on numbers. If I don't have to go up a size up in my clothes and my clothes are not ill fitting due to being too small for me, the number on the scale is inconsequential. 

Feel- I didn't feel any better for having given up sugar (or at least going from vast consumption to a much smaller amount). I wasn't feeling poorly before but I thought maybe I would have more energy or something... Maybe I would have had to give it up longer. I don't know.

Cravings- I was shocked at how little I craved sugar. I know it wasn't really for that long a time period that I gave it up and I knew I planned on eating it again so maybe that made me crave it less? Who knows but I was glad that I didn't feel cravings. I did occasionally desire something sweet (though I wouldn't call it a craving). 

Successful- Definitely! I am proud that I did it. I was hoping to stay sugar free longer than January 3rd. But January 3rd was the first day of our "snow in" from the snow storm. It was the perfect day to be inside... and eat whatever I wanted which included cheesecake and left over Christmas candy. Maybe I'll try to do a longer sugar fast soon.

Speaking of Christmas candy, here is what I bought in December. Some of it was for our candy dishes and some was for the kids'' stockings. But it is safe to say that I consumed most of it during the month of December. Yikes!

Speaking of candy dishes, two of ours sat on the "sweets" table in the dining room. I loved this little table and its sweet offerings including hot chocolate mix, cookies, marshmallows and candy.

Speaking of candy and drinks, not all of the sugary items I consumed were bought by me. I received some "sweet" gifts from students for Christmas from my kids in my long term sub job.

Speaking of kids, I got the information for where to buy these adorable cookies (for our cookie jar) from middle school youth group where I volunteer once a week. These cookies were part of the youth group's sugar spread one week in December. I asked the youth group leader where he got them from and he told me Kroger so I went out and bought these. So festive! So sugary! So fun! 

Speaking of Kroger, Donnie found this adorable pint of Graeter's ice cream in a flavor called "Boldly Bearacat" and picked it up for me to eat when UC when played in the college football play off game on December 31. The problem was that he bought it a few days before the 31st... the ice cream did not make it to the 31st. I ate it well before then.

Speaking of the 31st, we have a tradition of eating lunch or dinner on New Years Eve at Cheesecake Factory. This year was no different. We ate at CF earlier due to the UC game. I brought back this piece of cheesecake to eat at home.

So much sugar for one month! You can see why a sugar/ dessert fast was a good idea :).