Wednesday, June 1, 2011

How Sweet It Is

It’s June!  At least…the calendar says so, because the cold and rainy weather around here is leaving me wondering.  But ANYWAY…

June means May is over and with May over the No Recreational Sugar for the Month of May challenge is over.  Sort of. 

You may or may not remember that I posted back in early May that I was joining a bunch of friends in giving up recreational sugar for the month.  Sports nutrition products during training/racing were OK, but I’d be skipping out on desserts, my all-afternoon dark chocolate snacks, and so on.

I’m glad I had a great support group because the first 2 weeks were hard.  I had to come up with alternatives for afternoon snacks and became quite cognizant of when the cravings tend to hit and whether I was really hungry versus bored.  It was nice to see my weight drop a couple pounds right away, with a May 7 race on the schedule (so *that’s* how you lean out to race weight…).   

After a couple weeks though, I had adjusted and it really wasn’t that hard.  Sure there were a couple slip-ups and one night of hedonistic eating all around (I blame the very long swim that morning) but the best part of having a group of friends to do it with was that I picked myself back up and got with the program again, rather than say “oh well I blew it let’s give up.”  The fact is I only ate maybe 2% of my normal sugar intake for a month.

I went grocery shopping yesterday and thought “huh, it’s the last day in May, I guess I can go hog-wild on sugar tomorrow.”  But then the vast majority of the desserts and candy I saw just didn’t appeal to me so I didn’t buy any. 

I’ve got 3 races in 3 weeks, starting tomorrow.  So I might as well stay on the bandwagon just a little bit longer.  My fruit and veggie snacks seem to be satisfying me enough.  Sure, I will probably enjoy a frozen yogurt or two if the bloody weather ever warms up, but I just might have broken sugar’s reign over my eating habits.  And how sweet THAT is. :)

8 comments:

Melissa said...

I love a sugar challenge! If people would just stop eating it for a few weeks they would realize how crappy all that junk food makes them feel, right?! You did awesome Molly! Good luck with all those races in the next three weeks. It's summer!!!!!

Aimee said...

Nice job with your sugar challenge! I don't think I could do it!

ADC said...

Hurrrayyy for the challenge.

San said...

Wohoo. Congrats on getting away from the sugar. feels good, doesn't it?

I have to admit I succumbed to sugar over the last month since I had a really crappy time, concerning my non-existent professional life. Chocolate here, chocolate there. But I'm back on my way to getting rid of the sugar again. Simply for the fact that I found my new professional goal, so I don't need the sugar-sugar anymore (can't say so for film-sugar, now where is my next rom-com?! ;-)

Have a great day.

Mary M said...

I cannot imagine going cold turkey... even if only for a month. Good job!

Wes said...

3 races in 3 weeks? nows the time to load up on sugar :-)

Jennifer Harrison said...

I liked the sugar challenge too! It was fine and not a big deal. I was not perfect...but smarter, so that was good for all of us! I still eat my chocolate but not as much. LOL

GOOD luck w/ all your races!

Andy said...

I gave up alcohol and Zaxby's (chicken finger fast casual restaurant) for lent this year, and at the end of all of it, I did not want to eat it. I have had Zaxby's once, and I drank over Memorial Day weekend, however, that was about it. Funny what happens when you make it a habit, eh? Have a great weekend!