Sugar Free for One Week (so far...)

Has it really only been 1 week since Ash Wednesday. Seriously? Aah! I was feeling pretty good about my decision to let go of sugar when I noticed I'm not even halfway through my timeline!

Yes, you heard me right. I decided that this year for Lent I was going to spend that time sugar-free. (Not to be confused with Splenda, equal and sweet-and-low substituted sugarfree which I don't believe are any better.) Natural sweeteners like maple syrup, honey and agave are all fair game in moderation. So at home since I can go to the trouble of making a healthy dessert I haven't really struggled with it.

And then there was 3 days ago when our Girl Scout cookies came. Punch to the stomach. Or that amazing looking coffee cake at a church meeting yesterday morning. Punch and a kick. It's been tough, but I've found that I'm rather black-and-white, so it's easier for me to have the will-power to get through this season with no sugar than to decide to get my sugar addiction under control by limiting my intake. For example, the amazing girl next to me at the meeting yesterday asked for a small piece of cake. Now that takes will-power!

I'm not Catholic, but I love that our God is bigger than religion. That allows me to partake in any kind of religious tradition that I find brings me closer to Him. Sacrificing something in the name of Jesus, especially something as dear to me as Cadbury Cream Eggs, Samoas and coffee cake, is quite the growing experience. I like to divert my temptations to prayer. And since I think about sugar often I'm allowed much more opportunities than what is ordinary to approach the feet of Jesus throughout my day.

What has this meant for me physically? Well, since I dropped sugar I've been motivated to make sure every bite counts. Sugar really is my sore point, so if I can't get empty calories from sugar then there really isn't anything else I'd rather get them from. I've been eating-to-live instead of living-to-eat. This is something that comes to mind frequently when I make choices about what to put in my mouth. Sure, sometimes we want to enjoy food. And most of the time we can and still know what we're eating is healthy. But the times that we are living to eat should be exceptions. For me the "exceptions" were not far between enough. Naptime, for example, was as good a celebration for a cookie as anything. I've even been eating things I don't enjoy just so that I can get my meal checked off and get through the day. I don't suggest that, but my kids eat some things I don't love and sometimes it's just easier to choke it down than make something different for myself.

My goal in this is partly to shed some pounds gained after getting married to Mr. Super Metabolism and having 2 kids within a small time period, but also to come out of this less dependent on sugary snacks. I will eat sugar again but I'd like to keep it out of the house. Especially once those Samoas are gone!

I'll leave you with some food for thought about refined sugar in your life. Did you know that sugar going through your system depresses you for 6 hours following? So if you've had a hard morning and for a comfort cookie, you've blown half of your day! But if you do decide you're going to cheat in this area you're better off doing it all in a one-hour period. Good to know, right?