Taming the Sweet Tooth

Today is Day 22 without sugar. No cakes, no biscuits, no lollies, no chocolate, no sauces with loads of sugar- like in the jar mayo, tomato sauce, no grown up cordial, no teaspoons of sugar in my tea or coffee, no teaspoons of honey, no sharing of a Saturday morning post Ballet croissant with Busy. For a little while there was NO visiting over here, one of my fave blogs but the cake images were driving me wild.

 No licking of the cake batter bowl, no freshly baked banana bread, no sharing of cakes with Busy, no gelato bar trips, no sugar in my tea no sugar in my coffee, no honey, and did I mention  no chocolate no chocolate no chocolate. I never ate a lot of processed foods insofar as things from packets so I wasn't eating loads of hidden sugar, I knew the sugar I was eating,  but a few cups of tea a day and some grown up cordial at night and the odd biscuit, chocolate after dinner - well it adds up.

So what have I learnt? What has changed? Well, I am glad you asked: 

1. it is easier for me to say no all the time to sweet things rather than go through the should I? should I? -the internal battle that rages when I am offered something.

2. it is easier to not have 1 biscuit/ piece of chocolate/ slice of cake at all than to have one then try to not have another one. I am now so use to just saying no I don't even think about if I should anymore. This is great.

3. I really think I was addicted to sugar in that I had cravings for it and I definitely experienced some withdrawal symptoms but I don't feel like it is the problem for me like it may be for others in so far as every time they eat it it caused mood swings and ups and downs and general grumpiness afterwards.

What I have NOW realised, with my PHD in Hindsight, is that working, running My Bearded Pigeon, renovating, being the president of a management committee of a place with some long standing issues that were keeping me awake at night as I tried- stupidly- to please everyone, and dealing with someone being cranky with me at work was actually what has been stressful and causing me to feel this at times, awfulness -not sugar. Of course this all meant I was eating more sugar as a way of (not) dealing with this added stress. So sugar was not the issue at all. (Have since received an apology from cranky work colleague and resigned from the management committee-PHEW! and the renovations are done insoafar as Chef is doing the finishing touches and the builders are gone.)

4. However, I have lost a few kgs (always good) and am feeling a sense of freedom from trying not to have it. I still sometimes feel like chocolate- and at one point early on started saying hello to the Lindt chocolate in the fridge, but it is a passing feeling and I turn to my other friend SALT and eat some nuts. There is also a packet of chocolate covered almonds in the house too, but I am not wanting to eat them, they actually don't have the magical powers of fixing things I previously thought they had. And I am still eating fruit.

I said to a friend of mine at work "I wonder how long I will be able to do this?" she said, so annoyingly right and so counselling 101 "It sounds like you feel like you don't have nay control over that" (the Counsellor does not like being counselled but her words are ringing in my head all the time) I have repeated the same back to her ( also a counsellor) on more than one occasion as she is on a fitness regime and we both agree it makes sense and we have both said it to our clients about 100 times each. 

I wonder should I test the waters? Should I have a piece of chocolate to see that it is not as amazing as I thought so?  Not yet. I want to do this zero tolerance approach for a bit longer yet. I am just past three weeks. The magic it- takes -3 -weeks -to- change- a -habit time. I feel like I am over the hump.  Here's hoping.