It’s no secret that I love sweets. Cupcakes, candy, cookies, ice cream. You name it, I will devour it. That was up until a month ago. I decided to challenge myself and cut out sweets from my diet for 30 days. Let me state that I still allowed myself to eat yogurt, a few flavors of Lara Bars, different flavored gum, and coffee creamer.
I will be the first one to tell you that I didn’t think it was possible for me to not eat sweets. Many people asked me why I was cutting sweets out of my diet. I explained over and over that my body started to feel overloaded with crap. I was eating dessert most nights of the week, my joints were hurting, I couldn’t say no as much as I tried, I felt as if I was gaining unnecessary weight, and my GI issues were not getting any better. To be honest, I have been addicted to sugar for most of my life and I just wanted to see what my body would feel like without sugar for 30 days.
Over the 30 days I struggled EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. I thought about sweets, dreamed about sweets, salivated over sweets as I watched others eat them. Oh, let me tell you, it got real. But, I did NOT give in.
On the other side of things, my body felt great! I did not have my mid-afternoon crash every day at work, my joints were feeling much better (especially working out), I felt like I had some respite from my GI problems, and in general felt awesome about being able to kick a bad habit.
Come Halloween, day 31, I was going to ease back into the sweets and have a fantastic day. I started off with mini chocolate chips in my yogurt for breakfast, followed by a homemade cinnamon roll and a Twix, 4 cookies, 2 homemade rocky road bars, a cupcake, a Frankenstein rice crispy treat, and I was slamming candy like a kid on Christmas. All day I was MISERABLE! I felt like complete and utter crap. I was bloated, my stomach was killing me, and I felt as if I could throw up any minute. That day goes down as one of the most awful food experiences of my life.
Needless to say, even though I thought it could never happen, this 30 day challenge has changed my life. I have decided to stay off sweets. I have gone from challenge to choice. Although I will still allow myself a small piece of dessert on special occasions such as Thanksgiving and Christmas. I’ve realized that I feel better overall, physically and mentally, when dessert is not a regular part of my diet.
I’m not the only one that has decided to make a change. One of the other coaches at CFABQ, Jacy, has also jumped on the wagon. Here is what she has to say on the topic!
So, Gavin and I started the Whole 30 3 weeks ago, I should note this is not the first time we have done the Whole 30 but we haven’t done it in at least 1.5 years. This was prompted by a broken foot and a desire to clean up our diets to hopefully help get it healed a bit faster. Also, the timing couldn’t be more perfect because acquiring a bit of self-control when it comes to sweets and treats going into the holiday season seemed like a good idea. I am not a huge baked goods fan, ice cream and candy are my big vices. I am able to avoid those fairly easily by just not purchasing them. The second thing that has made this transition easy has been the fact that Gavin and I are doing this together. It’s nice to know we won’t be sabotaging each other by bring things into our home that the other “cant” have.
Of course the first couple of days are a bit hard, but because we had done this before we came prepared with lots of veggies and fruits to snack on when those sugar cravings were on the rise. After that, any excessive bloat from sugar started to die down and my whole body felt pretty dang good. My joints seem happier and I feel like my recovery is fairly excellent and I believe that has to do with my food intake. I look forward to completing the Whole 30 and moving forward into the holiday season armed with self-control and discipline and knowing the fact that if I fall too hard for all the Christmas sweets, that I am just 30 days away from regaining my sugar-less lifestyle.
Around Thanksgiving and Christmas many people complain about overindulging or gaining weight. Going into this holiday season, if you want to make a change in your diet or workout routine, try challenging yourself first and maybe you will make the choice to stick with the change.
