M & I just completed our 3rd no-sweets January. Crazy, huh! This year I did not feel like I over-indulged in sweets over Christmas, but it’s just been a good way to start the year fresh. I feel like this year I had more cravings than in the past, so that sucked, but I survived. I did cheat a little by adding coffee creamer to my coffee on mornings that I drank it (not every morning!). I also am now using less creamer than I was a few months ago, so that’s a good thing.
I still struggled on days where I had basically no sugar at all. One Saturday we had pizza for lunch, cheeseburgers and fries for dinner and popcorn for a snack, so really no sugar at all. That afternoon (after only eating pizza) I had no energy & knew I’d feel better if I just ate a piece of chocolate or something. I didn’t give in though.
In addition to not eating candy, cookies, ice cream (or drinking soda), I tracked everything I ate on myfitnesspal. Although I cut out sweets, I still ate junk- chips, pizza, pasta. There would be days I’d be way over my myfitnesspal calorie limit and other days I’d be right around the recommended amount. I don’t base my life around this program, but it is nice to have a record of how I’m eating. By cutting out sweets, and tracking what I ate, I ended up losing 6 pounds! That was seriously all I did, I already said I did not eat any healthier and I definitely did not do any exercise (I walked to the post office and back in -20 degree weather one evening, does that count?).
Even though 6 pounds isn’t much, it’s still something. And that was the goal of the month- to see if I could lose weight by not eating sweets. Since I did, I have some motivation to keep it up (eventhoughImayormaynothavejusteatenadovechocolate). I’ve been pretty good this week, only eating a piece of cheesecake (Superbowl) and drinking a milk shake (Steak n Shake bday coupon). We’re already a month into February and I’m still using myfitnesspal just because I’m interested. I am really not focused on losing any weight, but if it happens, great!
I will probably splurge this weekend…aka birthday weekend woohoooo!!! and then go back to watching it more. We’ll see. Who knows.
Apparently I didn’t blog about my 2013 experience 😦 (which is why I wrote this so I do have it to reflect back on!) If you want to read about 2012, you can check those blog posts out here, here, here, here, here annnnd here.
Sidenote: I do someday hope to start writing more again. I took a new job back in October (!) and at this job I do actual work & don’t have a chance to sit around and do nothing. We still don’t have internet in our apartment, so I can’t post from home besides on my phone. I don’t have much time for making crafts any more, but have done some the past few months and have also tried (and made up!) some new recipes. Sommmmedayyyy I hope to post regularly again!
Hannah K 