28 Days and No Dessert... The Results are In

I feel confident that I can tell you how Not So Sweet May went, even though I still have three more days left. Technically three days, three hours, and twenty eight minutes. But it will be less by the time I finish this post. Yay!

My May desserts.

 Quick little recap on what I did the last 28 (and next three) days:

*No refined sugar when I was aware of it. The side note is for things like eating other people's cooking. Some people add sugar to the weirdest things... like vegetables. I did my best to guess on my own, but who knows. A lot of time there is sugar in your own products that you don't think about, but I am an ingredient label reader anyway, so I already knew my bread, peanut butter, and jar pasta sauces were without sugar. 

*No processed sugar substitutes (equal, splenda, powdered stevia, etc). This was something I have been doing for a while.

*No "sugar free" products. See above.

*For the first half of the month I stayed away from dried fruits. They are a natural sugar, but they have a really high sugar content and I didn't want to feed my previous demons. 

*I also stayed away from raw honey & pure maple syrup, even though they are natural sugars. 

*I don't normally have any caffeine beyond a cup of tea once or twice a week. This is an always thing for me, not just May. Although before May most of my caffeine probably came from chocolate.

And that's about it. 

Here is what I really wanted to happen this month: 

NOTHING. That might sound weird, because this month was really hard for me. If I'm being honest with myself, I wanted to be able to say, "See, I can eat as much sugar as I was eating and everything is the exact same! Go for dessert!" 

Here is what actually happened this month:

1. I stopped feeling tired all of the time. 

I really didn't get it. Both my kids sleep 11-12 hours a night. Why was I so tired? Why couldn't I fall asleep at night? Even if I did fall asleep and get a good 8 hours, why did I still wake up feeling like my head was glued to my pillow? Apparently the answer to all of the above was: because I eat so much refined sugar.

2. More than not being tired I have energy to burn.

This happened about 7 days in. More energy to actually want to get out of the house and get things done. More energy to prep kid and family meals, be on time to places, to hop out of bed instead of dragging myself out. Of course, normal stress and tiredness happens. We were up a couple hours last night with the "super scary" thunderstorm and I was dragging all day. The new energy cannot defeat a thunderstorm. But it's great and things are getting done in and out of home. 

3. No more bloating.

There is really not a lot of explaining to do here. Even when I was full of fruits and veggies and felt like I should be bloated, I wasn't. Even when I felt bloated, I still wasn't. 

4. Real weight loss.

Not water weight, or crash diet weight. The last four weeks I have watched real pounds go away. I normally don't weigh myself, but I did to see if the no sugar made a difference. One week in my weight range was the same. Two weeks in it was two pounds less. Four weeks in and I'm five pounds down. At this point I can feel the difference in my clothes, which is a good feeling.

5. No more headaches, no more mystery upset stomach.

I don't know if anyone else has ever had this issue. Mid day headaches that come out of nowhere, random stomach upset that can't be traced to anything in particular. But that's been nonexistent the last 28 days. 

6. Setting an example.

My daughter used to think that meals outside of the home meant a cookie or dessert at the end. And that is what I taught her by always having dessert. Now she doesn't think that way anymore. After just the last few weeks. 

7. Food tastes better. 
Sugar covers up the natural sweetness and flavors of food. Things taste better now which makes it easier to eat those tasty sugar free foods.

So that's where we are. And where do we go from here? The tough news for me is that I can't go back. You know that annoying saying "nothing tastes as good as being skinny feels"? Sub out "skinny" for "healthy" and it makes more sense to me. After feeling this good and knowing all of the above, I can't go back to my old norm. 

In June I'm going to try one floating day a week. That way if there is a special occasion, a delectable treat, or a needed half pint of ice cream (a joke!).... I have the flexibility to take a day off. In the mean time, I am going to look for other ways to indulge my sweet tooth that use natural sweeteners. Raw honey, dried fruit, pure maple syrup, things like that.

I know that 31 days is a long time for some people, and it was for me. Especially with the amount of sugar I was regularly consuming and how much I REALLY enjoyed that consumption. If this is something you are interested in doing, I would love to help get you through it. 

Another option is the Fed Up Challenge. If you haven't heard of the movie Fed UP, you can check out the trailer HERE. After you watch the movie they encourage a 10 day challenge that eliminates all sugar and also honey, agave, and all flour products. But it's only ten days long and there is a ton of social media support - check out #fedupchallenge. For more on that, click HERE.

This one is getting a little long, so next post I'll talk about some foods and kitchen items that got me through the cravings. It really took me the last four weeks to see and feel all of the benefits. And outside of taking on this challenge, it has not been an easy or stress free month. I know that if I can do this, you can. Maybe you don't want to, and that's fine. I'm not a judger of the sugar loving people. I was just ready to feel better. 

Now I feel like I'm selling something. 

Buy it. 

To be continued.....

RT