This challenge to avoid sugar for a month has been so educational. After about two weeks of fasting sugar, I noticed that not eating sweet things wasn't hard anymore. I didn't crave it insanely, and fruit seemed to satisfy my desire for something sweet. I still wanted sweet things, but I was content without them.
Then I invited a group of ladies over to my house for coffee.
One gal brought muffins to share. I thought it would be rude to not eat one, and I didn't wish to offend her. So, I ate half of a muffin. It had chocolate chips in it, and I tried to savor every bite. It was a store bought muffin and wasn't bad, but it wasn't as amazing as I expected it to be. Even though it wasn't fantastic, the other half of that muffin was so tempting to me! I looked at it and longed to eat it for a day. Finally I gave it to my kids so I wouldn't eat it.
After eating that half of a chocolate chip muffin, I felt like I was starting over on day one of my sugar fast.
I had terrible sugar cravings for about three days! My mind was screaming at me, "Give me sugar!!"
I was so surprised at how my body reacted to just that little treat. Thankfully, the feelings of insane craving have subsided and I'm once again content with my sugarless diet.
One thing that has helped me immensely is to find replacements for the foods I used to love. I've purchased all kinds of tea to replace my beloved Chai. When stress strikes, I get a cup of tea. When I'm craving a pastry type of sweet, I eat gluten free rice Chex. When I just want sweets, I have some kind of fruit. When I make peanut butter and honey sandwiches for my kids, I have a pb and banana sandwich. It's not bad! I've tried applesauce on my peanut butter sandwich too. That wasn't so great. By far, my favorite treat is home made fruit smoothies.
As I'm nearing the end of my fast, I'm wondering what I should do now about sugar. I don't want to avoid it for the rest of my life. But I also don't want to be a slave to it. I definitely don't want to go back to the sluggish, tired, pants feeling-too-tight living that I had before this challenge. I guess these thoughts will be explored further on my day 30 post.
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