No Sugar, Baby

One of my favourite catchphrases from Ash in the film "Bruce Campbell Vs the Army of Darkness" is "Give me some sugar, baby" (only topped by "Groovy" and "This is my boomstick!").  It's cheesy, it's funny and it's a fantastic one-liner to have as a post-apocalyptic demon-fighting anti-hero. 

This is his boomstick.

But for now, no more sugar for me. 

Since last Sunday (Sep 13^th), I've been sugar free.  And what do I mean by sugar free? Well, no fructose, AKA the sugar that makes things sweet. This means no white/brown sugar, agave, fruit juices, honey, high fructose corn syrup, etc.  And no artificial sweeteners like Splenda or Stevia.  Fruit, only in its original form and it will be the only sweet thing in my diet; this means no juices, jams, preserves or the likes. 

Do I miss the sweetness, uff yes I do.  Last Tuesday someone brought Krispy Kreme doughnuts (my favourite food ever) to the office and I didn't eat a single one.  

I´ve been reading labels to make sure that there’s no hidden sugars in my food, sticking to the must natural state of food and I try to eat organic as much as I can.

Beware, 4 g equals 1 tbs of sugar

I will try to detox from my sugar addiction (more about that on future posts) and stay sugar free for at least 30 days.

The first few days were kind of horrible… I had a headache, cravings, hunger, the whole enchilada.  But after 12 days I feel better, more alert, less hungry between meals and I don’t crave sweet flavours any more.

Between the organic foods, start working out and stick to small workouts twice a day routine, my 30 day yoga and meditation challenges, quit smoking, stop drinking fizzy beverages, and loosing 17 lbs, I feel so much better.  This was definitely, the best birthday present I could have given to myself.

I started a few months back, on May 11^th and I've been having a slow but constant progress of 1 lb lost in average.  Sometimes I lose more than a lb, but then I don’t lose any weight. If I keep this average of 1 lb per week, I’ll reach my goal for next year.  For September 24^th 2016 (exactly on my birthday) I’ll be at my goal weight and I would have lost the baffling amount of 62 lbs (more or less).   So for my next birthday, I’ll be fit, strong and healthy because I'm walking that road today. I started a few months back and now that I started I will not stop loving myself, so I know I’ll keep being healthy, eating clean and right (must of the time), working out, not smoking, and no poisons in my body. 

I don’t want to go back to bad habits, because that means my self-loathing is back.

A few months ago, all I could think about was dying, killing myself to be precise.  I wrote something resembling a goodbye note to my beloved husband and every day I would think about the best way to do it, preferably like an accident so he could file the insurance report and at least have something.  The only thing that kept me from doing it was that I couldn't find a proper way to do it, with no survival chance and that looked like an accident.  So one day, I was surfing the web and  thought, how much would it take me to lose all this extra weight? And I thought it could take at least 4 or 5 years… but when I entered the numbers on some webpage it said that if I lost 2 lbs a week, I would be on my target weight by January 2016… wait… what? Mmm… maybe I should give it a try.

So I did, and started eating better and healthier and something happened I didn't expect: my depression, my 3 year old depression started to fade away.  Just by eating better and stop eating bad food.  I also think it helped the feeling of doing something for myself.

After a few weeks, I decided I needed to work out in order to achieve my goals, but how can I do that if I've been sedentary for more than 10 years and I smoke around a pack a day (more if there is a party or friends).  So first step, quit smoking! Cold turkey, as they say.  One day I smoked my last cigarette, enjoyed it as if it was the last one on earth (for me it was) and after I put it out, I hadn't had a smoke since.

I also started working out.  I found a beginner’s program that had what to do and when to rest, so I put on some yoga pants I had that were a bit very tight on me and I started moving every morning before starting my day.

25 days ago, I decided on adding up more workouts and started a 30 day yoga challenge at Do You Yoga.  The teacher is Erin Mots and I LOVE HER so much. She reminded me why I loved yoga so much and after the challenge is over, I want to start my yoga practice every day, at least 1 hour.

On the same day, I started a 30 day meditation challenge also at Do You Yoga, but the teacher is Faith Hunter and she is marvellous for easing into different kinds of breathing and guided meditations.

And finally, in this quest for a better health I started my 30 days without sugar after watching That Sugar Film.

All in all I feel fantastic, I'm in a good mood must of the time and I'm finding it easier and easier every day to make the right choices.  For the first time, I think I'm heading for a lifestyle change and not a diet you start and finish only to gain everything back, plus a bit more.

I hope I reach my weight goal, but mostly I want a health and fitness goal.  I want to be healthy, eating natural foods, no chemicals, and smoke free and able to do any physical activity I want without injury or being out of breath or too week. And I want to look good, toned and fit.  

Perhaps like her (minus the tan and the underwear!):

I wish I could do that... and look like that!