Chptr Sixty-Something (we think) - in which we are late for work, have too many projects going and are missing SUGAR...

"hey, this wasn't MY resolution..."

So.  Confession:  I gained about 20 lbs between July and December 2010.

Part of it was cutting out my daily hour-long walks, which I somewhat blame on having increasing pain in my ass (ok, hips, but I like saying that not only AM I a pain in the ass, but I have one, too) because of 15 years of my body compensating for a shortened leg (result of an injury in 1995). Also, it's gotten cold, and I get lazy, and I have an excuse not to walk so I'm taking it.

A HUGE part of the weight gain has been a ramp-up in my sugar intake, especially around chocolate.  Who knows why, who cares why, but I began eating more and more and more chocolate the last 6 months - for breakfast, at the office, with dinner - not just for dessert, but as an appetizer while I was making microwaving my supper and feeding the dogs, and of course for dessert and as a bedtime snack.  I just kind of obliviously kept chocolate around, ate it whenever, and one day found I was kind of moving from fix to fix.

To combat this, and because I've done a lot of reading and talking to folks about what to eat and not to eat, I've decided that as much as I can without becoming a Food Nazi, I will not be eating food where sugar (even unprocessed types of sugar) are in the first 3 ingredients.

I got the 3 ingredient rule from an overeater's anonymous speaker tape, and the speaker decided on that rule for herself because her favorite salad dressing had sugar as ingredient number 4 and she wanted to keep that salad dressing on her approved foods list.  This makes about as much sense as anything to me, and indeed while reading food labels, I'm finding that a ridiculous amount of the food that I was eating had some form of sugar in the first 3 ingredients!

I'm one week in to this - I started before the new year, and then on new year's day found myself mindlessly munching cookies at my mom's and they also had cheesecake and I decided that cheesecake as my last sugar fix - chocolate raspberry cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory - was a high-end last indulgence.

The day of this week where I ate sugar, I noticed a big rush and then a brain-freeze-like headache.

I wish I wasn't noticing positive results from this - I LOVE MY CHOCOLATE, I MISS MY CHOCOLATE - but I am.  I had energy at work yesterday afternoon - I didn't want to crawl under my desk and nap.  Don't know that I've noticed that I'm more focused yet, and not sure I'm sleeping better which have been mentioned as positive side effects.  But one week in, and I'm noticing enough good stuff that I think it's healthy to keep going with this project.

It definitely is a one circumstance at a time gig - I can get through getting ready for work, cuz I've got no chocolate in the house, plus my morning yummy thing is coffee (and I admit to putting honey, raw honey, in my coffee - may give this up eventually, we shall see).  But then I have to get to work, and that is a minefield - folks keep candy jars in their offices (my deal is to troll stealthily from office to office, usually at 3pm), put out stuff to share in the kitchen, and I work OVER a Starbucks.  And then there's the evening marketing, usually at the Food Coop, and I have to stay away (STEP BACK FROM THE CANDY BARS, MA'AM) from the chocolate bar display - large and prominent, and being by the cash registers, somewhat unavoidable.  Then home to safety.

My knitting indulgence right now is a fairly complicated lace shawl.  I still have one Christmas present to finish (my sweet Meredith is so patient), but knitting this lace is soothing me.  More about that on another posting.  For now, I'm signing off and wishing everyone a happy 2011 beginning, and lots of resolve - and be kind to yourself when you slip.   That's the biggest thing, not throwing in the towel with a setback, don't you think?  Getting up, saying "OK, I forgive myself for the error," and staying on the healthy path.

XOXO - Jann (and Chester, mais oui!)
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