Day 3

I was gonna call today's post If You Give A Pig A Pancake (after the children's book and because I had pancakes for breakfast yesterday), but I didn't want anyone to think that I was calling myself a pig.

I think it's getting easier...slightly. There are still parts of the day that are really hard. and I find myself wanting to eat a whole pan full of brownies. But I think it's getting easier to resist. If I learned anything from Day 3 it's that I crave sugar all day long. My sister once joked that she needed a treat after dinner so that her mouth knows it's time to stop eating. Honestly though I think that's how I feel sometimes. I made these delicious healthy pancakes with blueberries for breakfast and I don't know if it was the sugar withdrawl talking or what but they were about the best thing I've had to eat in a long time. Afterwards I was thinking about what most people eat for breakfast... pancakes or waffles or cereal or yogurt. Although the sugar content in these foods can vary quite a bit, they all have a sweet taste to them. I've tried to have eggs or something else for breakfast while I'm doing this so that I don't immediately start off the day with something sweet. But there's not a lot of American breakfast food out there that isn't full of sugar.

Thanks to everyone who's commented on the blog or on Facebook or sent me messages. My initial reason for doing this was to do a simple experiment (albeit not very scientific) and see what the results would be. I hadn't meant for this blog to turn into my therapy or anything, but I suppose that's bound to happen when writing about my weight. But I really appreciate all the encouragement and helpful thoughts people have been sharing.

Day 2: This visit to Walmart sponsored by type 2 diabetes

So tonight I had to go to Walmart to pick up a lamp. If you wonder why we have an obesity epidemic in our country, just head down to your local Walmart and the reason should be clear. Maybe the fact that I’m avoiding sugar has made me hypersensitive, but I couldn’t help but notice that about every 5 feet there was an endcap or a display pushing oreos, poptarts, candy bars, or some other sugary treat. Not to mention the fact that you have to walk through a tunnel of soda and cookie displays shortly after entering the store. I wasn’t really tempted at that point, but I just found is highly annoying. Those of us in Utah County, remember when that woman got upset because a t-shirt store had a suggestive picture in the window? Many of us get upset when something sexually suggestive is shoved in our faces. Why don't we get more upset when unhealthy food is shoved in our faces? Maybe that's going a bit far, but that's the way I felt as I was walking around.

Yesterday wasn’t awful, but the afternoon was hard again. I broke down and had a granola bar that had a whopping 6 grams of sugar in it. In my search for something to get me through the day, I found 2 kinds of granola bars in our pantry, both by the same company. I thought for sure that the peanut butter one would have less sugar than the one with a tiny amount of chocolate in it, but the peanut butter ones had 12 grams! Really?!? When we went to Costco last night, Joel made a point of stopping in the snack section to see if we could find something like that that was low sugar, but it looks like 6 grams is as good as I can do. I’m gonna try those sugar free jello cups today. Does anyone else have any suggestions?

May 2014

Well here’s a place I never thought I would be again: 203.8 pounds. I spent most of my teen and adult life being overweight. Then at age 27, I decided to make a change. I started eating healthy and exercising, and I lost weight. Over the next 10 years, my weight went up and down, but never reached what it had been. I was around 145 at my lowest and 180 at my heaviest. Then I had a baby and pretty much put all the weight back on. In the year since Andrew was born, I’ve lost about 10 pounds.

Andrew

As I think about the last year, my biggest problems have been my crazy busy schedule, my lack of motivation, and my love of sweets. I’ve considered giving up sweets but have hesitated because of the stress relief they provide. I’ve also read many articles about how bad sugar is for you and the effects it has on the body. So I started thinking: is sugar really what’s making me fat? And I decided to do an experiment. For the rest of August, I will give up sugar and see what happens. I won’t change anything else about my diet, just give up sugar and see what happens.

What’s out: all desserts, non-diet soda, chocolate in any form.

What’s ok but I will try to limit: anything with artificial sweeteners.

What’s definitely OK: all fruit, diet soda. As I told my husband, I can’t tackle my sugar and caffeine addiction in the same month.

During the month, I will blog everyday about my progress, about how I feel, or about anything else related to my experiment.

Day 1 – Sunday, August 3

I didn’t think today would be too hard. After all, the first day is always the easiest because you’re super motivated, right? Not exactly. As usually happens, afternoon was the hardest. I think that’s the time of day when my body feels like it needs a little pick me up and I head to the kitchen for a treat. I spent the afternoon at my sister’s, where I was offered Red Vines, Whoppers, and chocolate cake. But I held firm. Looking back, I’m glad I didn’t have any but it was hard. I suppose I should get on Pintrest and find all those pins about what to substitute for sugar cravings.

I also weighed myself this morning and was surprised to discover that I’ve maintained my weight from when my husband and I did the South Beach diet a few months ago. I was sure I’d put back on the 10 pounds I’d lost. I guess it just goes to show that I can’t trust what my eyes see about my body weight. I think I will probably always view myself as fat no matter how much I weigh. That’s a sad thought. But since I was probably 13, everyone has been telling me that I’m fat, including myself. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to view myself as a healthy weight. Even when I was in the 150’s and smaller than I’d ever been in my adult life, I always thought I needed to lose more. I suppose I could blame society for telling me that I’ll never be skinny enough, but I suppose I carry the bigger fault for believing it. I suppose it’s time to stop it.