Sugar-free

After a rough week at work and bad food choices on the weekend, I am happy to ne back in my lane, so to speak. I have noticed lately that whenever I am eating clean my mood is so much better, almost like how you can stay at a luxury resort with high-end bedding but there's still nothing as comfortable as your own bed. It doesn't mean you didn't have fun but the routine comfortable of predictability is where it's at. When I eat low carb I already know my stomach will feel good, unlike when I eat low quality foods and have no idea how my stomach will handle it or how long it will take to feel like it's digesting. Monday at work I learned about a new Peleton challenge they set up for us, to do 500 minutes of Peleton workouts between Feb 15-March 15. That's roughly 20 minutes a day. I wasn't working out yet as of Monday so I was really on the fence. I have perpetually struggled to have any desire to work out, but if there's one thing that can motivate me it's a challenge. So without mulling it over I just signed up. Peleton workouts can be pretty hard but there are also meditation and yoga and even interval walking workouts. All of them count toward the goal. I actually started yesterday and did 20 minutes of interval walking. It made me feel great. Today I did yoga that focused on opening the chest. Meh. But I got up and moved and that's what matters. I have been on the scale this week because I'm curious to see if my experiment is working. Yesterday I was down to 178 and today I got back down to 177.4. I really want to break that 177 barrier so I can officially say I have lost 30 pounds! Of course my longterm goal is bigger than that but it's a great start. Drinking water without liquid stevia is tough. I felt so proud of myself for getting rid of the sugar cravings I definitely breaking the habit of things having to taste sweet via stevia or other natural sweetners (water, coffee, tea)is much harder than ditching real sugar. I really used those things as a crutch for so long that it still surprises me when I take a sip of water and there's no flavor. To help make the transition I bought a big bag of ice and it really helps plain water feel more interesting to me. I have also started dropping an unsweetened tea bag into my water a few times a day. I still seek the sweetness even with the tea but at least it adds flavor. I am going to try to not make the tea another crutch but it's nice to use here and there. The only dairy I've used this week is some heavy whipping cream in my coffee. I am finding it easier to give up dairy than the stevia, probably because avocado is taking the place of cheese in my fajita dinner. Honestly, I don't want to give up either of them but I want to continue to lose weight so I have to do things that are hard. There's always a sacrifice for the things you want! My plan is to stay off both for 10 days, then add some dairy back in to see what my weight does, then once I see how my body reacts to that I might experiment with only having sweeteners when I'm not fasting. If I have to give up the sweeteners altogether I will live but I know it's going to take time for me to adapt to plain water. I drink about 1½ gallons per day so the change is noticeable. All this is evidence of growth; to come back from a less-restrictive weekend and be able to be somewhat restrictive in order to see what is causing my body to hold onto weight even when I am fasting. In the past I would have quit long ago and procrastinated starting again for some future date, but now I feel like eating fries and pizza is like being in a hotel bed instead of my own, it's OK for a short time but I really feel good when I'm back in my own bed! And I think seeing the scale dip below 177 will feel so much more satisfying than a plate of fries, even if they are smothered with cheese and chased down with a sugar-free sweet drink.