No Sugar

As of today I am not eating sugar anymore. I have one exception - one day a month I can go crazy (NOTE: this idea is the property of Boston Jenn, now San Francisco Jenn. I in no way meant to usurp her idea and appear brilliant at her expense. Jenn is obviously the brilliant one). I've actually gone without sugar before. From ages 13-around 16 my parents didn't have sugar in the house. I lost a little weight, but mainly I felt good. And you know the weirdest thing? It took me awhile to actually like things with sugar in them again after I hadn't eaten it for awhile.

Last year my friend Becky ate no sugar all year. She lost a bunch of weight and looks and feels great. I've been mulling this over for the past couple of weeks and finally decided to just do it. Well, Saturday night I was chatting with my friend Randi and told her I was going to cut out sugar starting February 1st and she immediately said "I'm doing it with you!" It's a wee bit harder for her, since she's studying to be a pastry chef, so her rule is, she can taste her batter and make sure she's doing it right, but when it's done, she can't cut herself off a big hunk and eat it like she usually does. We're supposed to check in with each other once a week.

So Sunday night I was at a baptism and telling my friend Chrissy about this and she said, "Oh, that's such a good idea..." and I could see she was really thinking about it. That evening I told Becky that Randi and I were going to give it a go. By the end of the night Becky had convinced Chrissy to do it and roped in this other girl Alyson.

Becky's advice: don't think you're doing this for a whole year because you'll feel overwhelmed. Just think, I'm not eating sugar today. Gradually all the todays add up and you've done the week and then the month and then the year. It's all scarily similar to AA's One Day At A Time thing. It's kind of similar really, what with the highs and lows that come from sugar.

I discovered last Fall that when I was sticking to my Dr. Phil Shape-Up Plan, I didn't even crave sugar. The plan is so fruit-heavy that I got plenty of sweetness in my system (In addition to my natural sweetness of course).

Since so many people know, I feel like I'm accountable for this. Kind of like people knowing I don't drink as a Mormon. I'd go to parties at work in Chicago and people would say, "Oh none of this for you, Kelly" like I was going to fling myself over the bar, break a bottle, and hold the shard up to the bartender's neck until he fixed me an appletini.

So here we go: Day 1 without sugar

(Why is everything sounding dirty to me lately?)