Sugar Free Challenge Update.

Thought I would update on my progress with the Sugar Free Challenge and inform you all of the sad fact that I only lasted one day. What can I say, I love sweets (in moderation, of course) but after a torturous day without sugar, I caved and grabbed the first bit of chocolate-y goodness I could get my hands on.

Everyone told me it was insane (and impossible for me) to give up sugar (cold turkey) for 30 days. I laughed at their lack of faith in me, and smugly told them otherwise. So, yes you were all right and now I must eat humble pie...in fact I'm going to eat a real pie, that has lots and lots of sugar in it!

While I may have failed the 30-Day Sugar Free Challenge I am still determined to adopt a healthier lifestyle (in accordance with to-do list item #2 - become more healthier). So today began my new daily exercise regime, and I'm proud to say so far so good! I started out small and cycled 3km. Needless, to say my out-of-shape legs feel like they're about to fall off. Not sure what I want to be able to achieve with the cycling, but I guess being able to cycle long distances (in a reasonable amount of time) and not have my legs feel like death afterwards might be a good goal to aim for...maybe?

The 30 Day Sugar Free Challenge.

Okay so the family's naturopath has challenged all the subscribers to her newsletter to participate in the 30 Day Sugar Free Challenge. After reading about the challenge I've decided it is the perfect way to tackle my to-do list item #2 - become more healthier.

It seems there are many benefits of eliminating sugar from your diet. The ones that I'm hoping to achieve are - feeling more energetic, improving my concentration, becoming less irritable, reducing my seemingly constant headaches, reducing anxiety, improving my immune system and achieving a better skin complexion. There are heaps of other benefits which are equally important, but the ones I've listed are the ones I think would provide an major improvement in my life at the moment.

The Challenge

For 30 Days (any 30 day period before the 15th of November) I will be:

- Avoiding ALL added sugar (i.e. putting sugar in breakfast cereals, tea and coffee)

- Avoiding ALL obvious sugar (i.e. jams, biscuits, cakes and chocolates)

- Avoiding dried fruit and grapes.

Basically, the challenge means going 'cold turkey' with absolutely no sugar whatsoever - including artificial sweeteners as they apparently just aid cravings for sugar. In order to ensure my blood sugar levels stay steady I will have to ensure I consume protein with every meal. This apparently will also help to reduce cravings.

Now I will not be starting the challenge immediately as the family is going out for a rather extravagant celebratory dinner tomorrow evening. So, I may begin on or after the weekend. Either way I will report my progress here.

Wish me luck!

Tuesday.

Today was a pretty wonderful day. Ended up spending the afternoon with one of my best friends - the lovely S. Together we hunted down 3D blu-ray movies (which I have just been told was really great) and I was lent even more books from S's amazing collection. Honestly, until you see her shelves that are jam-packed full of books you cannot completely comprehend how great this collection of books truly is.

What made the day even better was making some progress on my to-do list, namely item #1 - planning a holiday. I have narrowed down my options to:

a) LA/NYC - I love the US, so it is inevitable that these two great cities will always be at the top of my potential-holiday-destination list;

b) Maui - this has been inspired by my sister's want for an island holiday; or

c) Singapore - a tried a tested holiday destination in my family. We always have fun (well aside from the time I got sick) and they now have a Universal Studios (yay!).

To-Do List

I haven't had much time to blog this week, with my days having been consumed by researching colour trade marks (fascinating I know). Like most people I've found myself wanting to escape from the mid-semester assessment period - so, short of tearing all the hair off my head in frustration, I've begun thinking and planning about things I'd like to do/change in my life. As a result I've come up with a list, it's not very big but by putting it in writing and sharing it with you all there's a faint chance that I may actually complete it.

A's To Do List:

1. Plan a holiday.

I've decided that I want to get away from the craziness that can be my life and commit to planning one holiday a year. Since I've already been on an adventure to the US earlier this year, this is more a goal for 2011.

2. Become more healthier.

Between the tonne of uni work I am faced with and the odd hours of work I've noticed that I've developed some really bad and unhealthy habits over the past couple of years. I have a tendency to gravitate towards junk food in order to cope with stress, and often skip meals because my work hours often coincide with meal times. As a result I've decided that I'm going to start to exercise more often than I currently do, and resume eating healthily.

As I work towards making over my lifestyle I'll be posting any new, great healthy food finds I stumble across.

3. Make an entire three-course meal from each copy of Bon Appetit Magazine I have acquired over the past couple of years.

Okay so this may be a slight contradiction to the previous item on my to-do list but as a lover of good, delicious food I was thinking it might be fun to set myself a goal and make the most of my subscription to my favourite food magazine. Over the years I have grabbed my Bon Appetit magazines the minute they arrive on my doorstep, and obsessively pored over and marked up all the recipes that I'd love to try. Of course laziness and time constraints often get the better of me. So by making a meal for my family (maybe once a week or fortnight or month - I'm still undecided) maybe, just maybe, I'll finally get around to trying out all the recipes I've salivated over.