Sugar-Free-Cravings

October 1 -- There Is Work To Be Done!

My head and heart are full to bursting ... I have more ideas and thoughts that I want to express than the candy in Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory.

Today launches the 30 Day Sugar Detox Trial with My Miracle Tea and precious Meridian friends. How well I remember the first weeks on the tea, (January 2008) when I drank it in the mid-afternoon, and the startling realization that I had no afternoon need for nibbling, tasting, standing at the counter, eating anything that came along.  How ready I was for a healthy dinner. 

How did I ever let that go? Because I wanted to EAT the darned stuff more than I wanted to be FREE of it.  Like it was some best friend.  I've let that little ritual go and Starting TODAY, I WILL drink my tea between 2 and 3 PM.  Either as an event with Mom (92 and lives with us -- who loves it in pretty cups and with time for a visit) or a quick "shot" of just 1/4 cup of concentrate.

Today also marks my commitment to myself and all participating that I will track my eating at www.SparkPeople.com.  That place is overwhelming, but once you commit to spending an hour, choosing your plan, deciding to ignore the ads and the socializing (at least for me) I LOVE IT.
That online tracker, meal plans, recipes, ARE THE BEST.  My dear friend Katie Bristow in London lost 50 pounds ... with SparkPeople.com and is keeping it off. 

Bob and I spent yesterday with an LDS business friend, and now a wonderful personal friend as well from St. George Utah.  Her name is Carolyn Cooper ... and when we were making plans for dinner she said, "Oh, by the way -- "I eat pretty much plant based."  No problem.

Then when we got together, she added, "And I'm sugar-free ... since December of last year."  She told me her story, which I'll tell later, but in short her MIGRAINES are gone, and her joints no longer crack and pop in the morning.

But it was how she said, "Since December of last year ..."  And I thought of my friend that I was with a month ago, who when the M&Ms went around and the other friends I was with declined, she said, "Trying to quit?"

I don't know.  I don't want to get all weird and over dramatic.  But it's sounding like a RECOVERY program.  Don't alcoholics say something like that "I've been clean since ...." 

And I have to say, I would LOVE-LOVE-LOVE to be able to say, "I've been sugar free for fill-in-the-blank number months/years."  At different times I have been "ice-cream" free, or "sugar free from Monday-Saturday with treats only on Sunday."

Now I want to say like Carolyn Cooper did last night "Since OCTOBER 1, 2013!!!!" in the coming months and years.
 I have to admit that.  I have to say that.  I've done much better over the past week, gearing up for October 1, and the cravings are abated.  But I KNOW how temporary that can be.

YES. A year from now to CELEBRATE October 1 with "I've been sugar free for a whole year!

Am I going cold turkey?  YES as far as candy, (my worst) cake cookie, chocolate.
Am I going to keep eating bread?  SOME, but being careful.

That's enough for now.  www.SparkPeople.com, drinking the tea in the afternoon, and acknowledging that sugar has often controlled me. 

I hope everybody's read the article: 
10 Things You Don't Know About Sugar