I Quit Sugar: Week 1

Since I know you're just DYING to know how I'm holding up now that I've given up sugar, here's a long boring recap of how the first week has gone.

The difficult stuff:

• I'm starving! I spent a few days feeling HONGRY. I'm not sure if that was because I wasn't polishing off the girls' snacks and meals or because I was more focused on what I couldn't eat than what I could, but my tummy was pretty grumbly for a few days.
•  No dessert after dinner! After the girls go to bed, my sugar cravings kick into high gear. It doesn't help that David hasn't given up our nightly treat ritual. I've substituted cheese popcorn, a glass of juice, and even an unsweetened pancake with unsweetened peanut butter. It helps but it's not the same. I'd really like to break the habit entirely but it's not going very well; this has been by far the hardest thing for me.
• Breakfast takes forever! Pouring a bowl of cereal or reheating some frozen muffins is my default, and either option takes like 2 seconds. Scrambling some eggs takes more time AND dirties more dishes. Ugh.

The less difficult stuff:

• I can say no! It's been surprisingly easy to decline offers of tasty things. I went to two different parties this week and managed to avoid all sugar at both. (Of course I didn't eat AT ALL at one, which was kind of miserable, but hey! Good for me!) Plus I took my young women to McDonald's for treats after a trip to the Phoenix Art Museum and didn't even get a McFlurry. Willpower: I has it.
• I can have snacks! I took the girls on an adventure to Schnepf Farms and brought sliced bell peppers and pretzels in my bag. Both are kosher for me. I didn't feel frustrated or left out when we stopped for snacks after visiting the baby pygmy goats. It was great.
• Lunch and dinner are business as usual! It's always nice to know I have some good eating habits. I haven't really had to adapt any of my meal plans. I did make my own balsamic salad dressing instead of using the bottled honey mustard stuff we had in the fridge, but that didn't feel like a sacrifice at all.

New coping strategies:

• Prepping breakfast ahead of time. I cooked up a bunch of diced potatoes yesterday so I could toss them in with my eggs every morning. I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner, because it's making my life so much easier. I plan to chop up some vegetables to throw in so I don't have to do that every morning either.
• Thinking about delicious things I CAN eat. When I have tasty sugar-free things on hand that I look forward to eating, I feel much less deprived. Since I'm not cutting out fruit, smoothies may just be my saving grace.
• Avoiding food blogs and Pinterest. I still check in every couple days, but it's really hard to fight the cravings when I'm staring at gorgeous pictures of gooey chocolate and fluffy pastries and salted caramel everything. Mostly I'm learning to mark as read or scroll quickly so I don't dwell on what I'm not enjoying.

Too long, didn't read? In a nutshell: I'm surviving.

I'm not exactly happy about it, but I'm not exactly suffering either. I don't know yet if quitting sugar has made a difference in my health, energy levels, weight, or anything else. It's just too soon to tell, I think. But I am proud of myself. I made a commitment and I'm sticking to it.

...for a few more weeks, anyway. Then BRING ON THE CADBURY EGGS.