40/40: #24 report

Random picture from my daughter's photoshoot. I just thought it was cool. My daughter is on the left.

So I made it. I wasn't perfect, but I was better than I've been in a LONG time. I was so used to having "a little something" after meals that I was having urges to have dessert after breakfast! Not healthy! It was also surprising how many of our quick "grab-and-go" snacks had sugar as their first or second ingredient. (My personal rule for the week was that if sugar was the first or second ingredient, I couldn't eat it.) Still, it was an interesting week. I was surprised by how hungry I felt all the time! I ate every couple of hours, balancing my carbs with some protein, and trying to eat raw if I could--usually fruits, to try to meet my sweet cravings. And I lost 2 pounds! All in all, I think it was a good thing, and something I want to try to continue. I liked feeling more in control of my body, and I felt less sluggish. So to sum up:

• I liked feeling hungry. I was so out-of-touch with my body's signals that it had been awhile since I felt really and truly hungry. I don't want to go hungry mind you, but it's nice to have those signals still work


• I needed to prepare better: I didn't really have much in the way of fresh vegetables in the house, and no real low-sugar/no-sugar alternatives for my favorite breakfast: cereal. I also ran out of cottage cheese and yogurt half-way through the week. I was eating cottage cheese with banana as a snack or breakfast, and putting the yogurt in smoothies. I also ran out of fresh fruit--everything but apples. Apples are tasty, but boring after awhile


• Dried fruit has a lot of sugar in it. At the beginning of my week, I was grabbing it as a substitute for what I really wanted: chocolate or cookies. By the end of the week, I couldn't really eat it because it tasted uncomfortably sweet to me, and I didn't like it.


• I grabbed a piece of gum after eating to signal the end of my meal and to retrain my body with that signal. Instead of heading for some chocolate to signal the end of the meal. I got a little tired of the gum, and might want to have more than one flavor around for variety. I also started tearing the gum into thirds--all of the strong mint was getting hard on the inside of my mouth. I knew that my retraining was working when I wanted something minty and fresh after my meals instead of chocolate. I also really began to enjoy fresh fruit as dessert.


• I definitely liked how I felt--far less sluggish, and far less "fuzzy-cotton-headed" feeling. I liked it so much that I really want to continue avoiding sugar in my daily life. I have a friend who can only have dessert-y type foods on Fridays (her choice). I'm thinking of following a similar plan.

Next on my list? I'm going to tackle cleaning off my desk and removing clutter from my room this week. I might even start going through my closets. (numbers 19, 32, and 18, respectively). I'm also reading a couple of non-fiction books (number 9). My daughter leaves for a week at a church youth camp and I'm not quite sure how the week will go without her help. She helps me a lot, and I'm grateful for it. I may throw things out the window and just go with the flow. Did I mention that my dryer is broken? Hubby thinks he can fix it, but that adds another wrinkle to my week. It's also the first week of summer vacation. Our equilibrium is going to re-adjust in the next couple of week as it is. Might be better to just go with the flow!