and Hearty
Goal Post #16 follow up
This month's goal started a million times better than January's. No candy, cookie, sugary latte, hot chocolate, or otherwise happy thing crossed my lips for a week. Granted, at day seven it was too early to celebrate, but two things: 1- seven days into January's goal I was four days behind, and 2- it already felt like an eternity.
After passing the free girl scout cookie test, apparently there was more to come. Seven days in there were teeny tiny Heath bars mocking me from the break room. Teeny. Tiny. Heath bars. My second-favorite candy bar, rarely seen in tiny form, for free, right there, forbidden.
Twix are my absolute favorite. For those of you inclined to baking I created recipe that combines the best of both. First you make shortbread, cut into bars, and let cool. Then cover the shortbread with toffee and top with dark chocolate. Yes, this is tricky, expensive, messy and delectable. The toffee has to be just short of cracking candy consistency without being too gooey to be perfect. It's always good though.
That first weekend I was extremely edgy but didn't realize why until I remembered I was going through withdrawal. Yuck. Fortunately, it was over 60 degrees that Sunday so Nic and I went on a nice long bike ride to a brewery and back. Bliss.
All that exercise jump-started my daily plank and yoga habit. For the first time since December I felt like I was on an upward climb instead of a downward spiral. Still wanted those Heath bars though.
Halfway through the second full week I was doing better until birthday day happened at work. Blondies were sitting there in the break-room taunting me because... I've never tried blondies, of course. In an attempt to stem the overwhelming desire I looked up recipes on the internet for way too long. Feel free to feast on the fruits of my search results.
Predictably, this didn't work, so I cracked and ate a tiny (think an inch by a half inch) piece of blondie with a equal sized piece of brownie. They were both good but unfortunately not worth breaking my no-sugar streak so I got right back on that wagon.
Just past the halfway point I pretty much wanted to die. Who are those people who feel better without sugar? Remembering the last time I cut out sugar completely, I vaguely remember being one of those people at some point. So insufferable. To be fair, there were tons of other things we cut out for forty days besides sugar. My current struggle made me wonder if it was the lack of meat, dairy, caffeine or alcohol that had made my life so much better way back then. Fantasies about pie recipes and ice cream started plaguing my day. Then I started drinking more wine than usual which was not balancing the sugar deficit in a healthy way. How do people live without sugar? How?
Going into this last week I was really craving a coke. A nice cold sugary sweet coke. And I really don't like soda, my dentist can confirm this fact. Kind of makes me worry this month has damaged my brain. Making it until Friday better be worth the stress.
With only two days left I'm going to call this month's goal a win. A couple of caves and only one accidental ingestion of something super sweet (the wrong salad dressing, yuck). Lunch time Friday is 44 hours away and right now it's looking like the best day in the world to me. Making it through this month is an accomplishment but I hope my sweet tooth is back under control because I don't want to cut out sugar completely ever again.
This month's goal started a million times better than January's. No candy, cookie, sugary latte, hot chocolate, or otherwise happy thing crossed my lips for a week. Granted, at day seven it was too early to celebrate, but two things: 1- seven days into January's goal I was four days behind, and 2- it already felt like an eternity.
After passing the free girl scout cookie test, apparently there was more to come. Seven days in there were teeny tiny Heath bars mocking me from the break room. Teeny. Tiny. Heath bars. My second-favorite candy bar, rarely seen in tiny form, for free, right there, forbidden.
Twix are my absolute favorite. For those of you inclined to baking I created recipe that combines the best of both. First you make shortbread, cut into bars, and let cool. Then cover the shortbread with toffee and top with dark chocolate. Yes, this is tricky, expensive, messy and delectable. The toffee has to be just short of cracking candy consistency without being too gooey to be perfect. It's always good though.
That first weekend I was extremely edgy but didn't realize why until I remembered I was going through withdrawal. Yuck. Fortunately, it was over 60 degrees that Sunday so Nic and I went on a nice long bike ride to a brewery and back. Bliss.
All that exercise jump-started my daily plank and yoga habit. For the first time since December I felt like I was on an upward climb instead of a downward spiral. Still wanted those Heath bars though.
Halfway through the second full week I was doing better until birthday day happened at work. Blondies were sitting there in the break-room taunting me because... I've never tried blondies, of course. In an attempt to stem the overwhelming desire I looked up recipes on the internet for way too long. Feel free to feast on the fruits of my search results.
 |
| ooooh |
 |
| aaaah |
 |
| de-licious |
 |
| yum |
Predictably, this didn't work, so I cracked and ate a tiny (think an inch by a half inch) piece of blondie with a equal sized piece of brownie. They were both good but unfortunately not worth breaking my no-sugar streak so I got right back on that wagon.
Just past the halfway point I pretty much wanted to die. Who are those people who feel better without sugar? Remembering the last time I cut out sugar completely, I vaguely remember being one of those people at some point. So insufferable. To be fair, there were tons of other things we cut out for forty days besides sugar. My current struggle made me wonder if it was the lack of meat, dairy, caffeine or alcohol that had made my life so much better way back then. Fantasies about pie recipes and ice cream started plaguing my day. Then I started drinking more wine than usual which was not balancing the sugar deficit in a healthy way. How do people live without sugar? How?
Going into this last week I was really craving a coke. A nice cold sugary sweet coke. And I really don't like soda, my dentist can confirm this fact. Kind of makes me worry this month has damaged my brain. Making it until Friday better be worth the stress.
With only two days left I'm going to call this month's goal a win. A couple of caves and only one accidental ingestion of something super sweet (the wrong salad dressing, yuck). Lunch time Friday is 44 hours away and right now it's looking like the best day in the world to me. Making it through this month is an accomplishment but I hope my sweet tooth is back under control because I don't want to cut out sugar completely ever again.
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