No Sugar... No problem?

A month has passed on my attempt to reduce my sugar consumption. I'd love to say: "Look how well I did" but if I rocked it from the start, I likely didn't have a sugar problem to begin with.

I could quote academic journals on the differences between the refined sugars and the "natural" sugars I've been trying to allow myself, but this is the internet, where I don't feel the need to support my claims with proper evidence and scholastic support. I'm not trying to persuade you my way is the right way. It's just my experience on getting over my sugar addiction. I wanted to reduce my consumption of sugar, and I thought the easiest way to do that is to select only certain sugars to consume and force myself to get create at avoiding the others.

Again, what I've been allowing myself:

• Fruits and vegetables
• Honey
• Treats on special occassions. 

(So pretty much "sugar as God created it" and "weekends off". We had a lot of special occasions. And yes, if I had access to sugar cane, I would have totally chewed up that bad boy).

How did it go?

The successes

• I love my smoothie recipe. As soon as we stock up on watermelon again (which fortunately goes on sale regularly, though still not as cheap as Regina, where they wear it as hats. Google it, people. Google it). 
• My granola bar recipe was a good start, but needs some work (mostly so I won't destroy my keyboard with its crumbliness). (Watch for recipes of both the smoothie and the granola bar coming soon)
• My concern about giving up ketchup in the middle of hamburger season was unfounded. Load on the tomatoes (a food which I just recently started eating)!
• Given the expense of honey, I certainly found myself using less and less
• I discovered how sweet many foods are once your taste buds adjust
• Most mornings were much smoother, not only in not having a "sugar hang over" but also in just being able to jump out of bed and go. Having pre-made my breakfast also helped a lot too!
• Starbucks Shaked Iced Passion Tea (unsweetened) makes a great summer treat

The Setbacks
 - I used "Special occasions" loosely

• My friend got married! (And I chose to eat half of the dessert table myself)
• My grandparents celebrated their 60th anniversary (limited myself to one dessert at the dinner, but may have gone cray on cookies and ice cream at the lunch the next day)
• My MA was conferred! (And I got sweet breakfast treats, afternoon ice cream and a big dollop of ketchup on my hot dog)
• My mom made cookies! (I may have eaten at least a dozen in 24 hours)
• My husband was on vacation! (I couldn't deprive him of a case of Coke for that... but I could deprive him of half of it)
• My department helped organize convocation! (Being at work before you're usually awake some how equates to a very sugar-laden Starbucks)
• My coffee was only 25 cents! (Starbucks anniversary meant 25 scoops of sugar with it... mostly kidding)
• My car died! (And to make up for not finding the ginger snap I wanted to buy, I got 2 chocolate chip cookies)

Believe me - after every one of those legitimate and illegitimate indulgences, I felt the effects. Lethargy, early morning headaches, stuffy nose (ok, that may be due to the fact our office is about 65 degrees on a good day).

What I found most interesting in this experiment was not how easy it was to avoid sugar (which I did do very well at times, despite the above list), but rather what other addictions it created or fostered:

• Can't have a cold can of coke at the end of a long, hot bus ride? Why choose water when there is beer?
• Can't run out for ice cream when the evening "snackies" hit? Why not have something overly salty? 

Where do I go from here?

I can't go back to "life as normal" after experiencing waking up WITHOUT a headache. I think (sigh) I may have to turn this month's experiment into a lifestyle. This last month allowed me to see both how easy it is to limit sugar, but also how easy it is to form new "food addictions". So going forward, for the next month my goals are this:

• Establish a better granola bar recipe (I think the afternoon run-to-the-caf-for-a-cookie routine was the hardest to give up)
• Work on increasing water consumption without increasing boredom by adding lime, cucumber, or herbal tea
• This one is key: develop the skill of treating myself without over-indulging

 I'll post my latest smoothie recipe hopefully this coming week, and my granola one once it's "perfected". I don't know if I'll check in mid-month (accountability: good. Only posting about food: bad), but hopefully I'll make it to the end of July!

Take a picture, it will last longer

(It has recently come to light that a number of my relatives frequent this blog. Hi!!)

While the title may sound like a snarky comment, there is truth behind it. We take pictures because we worry we will lose the memory of a moment. We look back through these pictures, hanging them on our walls, placing them on our desks, to remember the event, or recapture the emotion.

I never doubted my grandmother's love for her family and friends. It was blatantly displayed on every possible surface of her house, then later her apartment, then later her room in an assisted living facility. One of the last interactions I had with her was showing her the picture Scott & I had taken for our engagement / Save the date / Christmas cards, and pinning it by her hospital bed, amongst various other pictures my cousins had placed there as well.

Over the years, as my grandmother amassed more and more family, but moved to smaller and smaller houses and suites, my aunts or my mother would attempt to corral all the pictures she had placed on her wall (some in frames, others taped or pinned in place) into one large collage. With the rate at which the family grew, it almost seemed that as soon as a collage was finished, it would be outdated. With time, pictures began to filter into my parents' house as my grandmother ran out of room for them.

The night after my grandmother passed away, my mother started pulling together pictures from various albums, frames and collages to bring to the funeral. To say the carpet was covered in pictures would not be an overstatement. To see the number of people who loved my grandmother and whom my grandmother loved was overwhelming. 

My grandmother's estate finalized a few weeks ago, and my mother saw to it that both my sister and I were offered a portion it so we could purchase something, preferably which would remind us of our grandmother. However, my grandmother was not a woman who tended to spoil herself. She freely gave to others whom she saw as being in need, even if it meant she would do without. We would frequently go to visit her and find that she had loaned a chair or a television to a friend. I struggled for a long time with finding something that properly commemorate my grandmother, given her disengagement with things normally believed to have value.

But as I found our spare bed covered with photographs for a slideshow to commemorate my other set of grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary, the answer was clear: a camera. Even if (as I dream I will almost every night), I drop the camera into the ocean, smash it on concrete or bury it in dirt, I will still have the pictures. And some day, when my children untape pictures from my walls, and pick frames off my shelves to compile collages of my friends and family, I will tell them of their great-grandmother and how her love for her friends and family could never be contained to a frame.

My grandparents on the day of their wedding, in the locket I wore the day of mine

(PS - did I mention I've enabled anonymous comment again?)

I've got blisters on these...feet!

Some weeks, it's so easy to decide what to give away  - all I have to do is look down.

Scott and I went for a walk to pick up some essentials tonight. Our walk was roughly a kilometer, not bad. I said to Scott as we threw on shorts to beat the heat. As I grabbed a pair of shoes, I said: "I'm going to regret this".

I wasn't going to regret the walk in the heat - it was really only half the walk it should have been. Our parking lot had been cleaned today, so this morning, we had to move our cars. I drove mine to the nearest "Park and Ride" and grabbed my bus from there. However, I forgot to pick it up on the way home.


Walking to the car/on the errands was just enough time to destroy my feet with these sandals. That it - out they go!