Journal for the No Sugar Challenge

I just quit, so I have that very nice feeling of being both extremely motivated to stick with it and repulsed by sugar after so much binging. However, during the night I had maybe the most intense craving for sugar that I’ve ever had. After maybe 2 months of waking up in the middle of the night every night to eat sweets, I felt the craving through my entire body. I made myself fall back asleep and luckily I broke the cycle!

Nothing much to report. Didn’t really have any cravings or desires to eat sugar. Still pretty stoked on not eating any last night. Somebody brought rice crispy treats to a social gathering I was at and they looked great, but I’m still pretty much in that highly motivated, just started a new habit mode so I wasn’t tempted. I know that it’s going to fade though, so I have to constantly be on guard. Not as many cravings tonight and the morning came without any midnight sweets. Yeah!

So I just got back from a place that I’ve traditionally messed up any healthy eating plans I’ve had – the movie theater. Those “fill your own” bags of candy are so tempting. So many options, so many great gummy flavors. But, yet again, I wasn’t tempted! I’m committed to this now and still riding that high of being excited. I will definitely let you know when that excitement gives way to boredom or tediousness because that will be a crucial time.

Another day, another day without sugar. One thing that I’ve noticed is that I have been eating more carbs than usual, this is something I’ll have to watch moving forward. Had essentially no cravings today and things seem to be going pretty well. I did have a pretty busy day and I tend to eat more sugar when I’m restless/not busy.

Hmm, another pretty solid day in terms of cravings. Didn’t really have any desire to eat sugar until late at night when I had pizza at a social gathering. There were two 2 liters of Coke and Dr. Pepper and they both looked so delightful – there’s something that just makes soda pair so well with pizza! But I just refocused my thoughts and tried to stay more present. It worked for a while, but I did notice that I woke up with a HUGE sugar craving again in the middle of the night. Was able to just eat a slice of sourdough bread but would love to eventually cut out midnight snacks entirely. One thing at a time!

Pretty good day again! There were two particular moments where the temptation to give in came up: one was while I was watching a basketball game and the other was after a really nice dinner with some family friends. Sitting on the couch and watching sports is always a bit of a trigger for me. My mind isn’t active and I become a bit restless, which leads to restless/bored eating. I was able to just refocus and remember why I’m doing this. After dinner was hard because other people were involved, but I just told them I was quitting sweets and that was that.

This was the day I posted my “Why I’m Quitting Sugar” blog post on Medium and shared it on my personal Facebook page. There’s really no going back now, I made myself accountable to my entire social circle on FB.

I didn’t eat a good lunch and went to an evening social event extremely hungry. All that was available was cookies and so I was pretty miserable there and couldn’t wait to leave. Definitely a lesson learned in eating hearty meals at the right intervals of time.

I had some Chipotle in the evening and noticed that my cravings for sugar were about as high as they’ve ever been. For some reason after I eat Chipotle I notice I get cravings not just for sugary things but for salty things as well. To combat the cravings I just chugged a bunch of water, ate a few tortilla chips and felt pretty good again.

Had a couple of job interviews this day so I was very preoccupied with that. Didn’t really notice any cravings.

I know that I mentioned that eating sugar has made my appetite less pronounced, but this day I just didn’t eat enough. I went rock climbing at night and was just starving the whole time. Because I’m not eating sugar, I couldn’t buy any of the bars they sell there. It was pretty miserable. That night I watched a movie with my roommates which is also a typical time I would eat sugar but I didn’t really feel tempted

I woke up feeling SICK, but I went to play dodgeball with some friends and went to a party that night. The party had a nice spread of cookies and some delicious “Nothing Bundt Cake” that is some of the most delicious cake you will ever see. I was pretty envious when I saw people eating it but the craving never got that bad.

Woke up feeling even SICKER and had one of those days where you just spend the whole day inside, alternating between your bed and your couch. I watched the entire first season of Love and just hung out. I ate an entire medium Dominos pizza in one sitting. The cool thing though? These types of days are where I ALWAYS gorge on sugar. I will walk half asleep to the corner store and just buy an entire bag of stuff and then eat it all and feel terrible. But I didn’t do that. This might be one of the hardest days but one of the days where I made the most progress.

I pretty much just worked all day and then hung out with some friends at night. There has been some various candies and cookies lying around the house but I haven’t really wanted to indulge.

Nothing much to report. My roommates were making brownie sundaes and I am a HUGE fan of watching a show and chowing down on some ice cream and brownies. But I didn’t have any and I actually didn’t snack in the middle of the night at all last night. No sourdough bread, no tortilla chips, no nothing – I’m pretty pumped!

I was in charge of bringing the cookies to a social gathering tonight. I ended up going above and beyond, even got a “Kringle” from Trader Joes that was a huge hit. I won’t lie, I was somewhat tempted by all of the delicious sweets as I was setting them up, but more than there was just this sense of purpose and determination that this challenge has given me. The great benefits, the premise of this blog, and just some momentum going in my daily life.

Did not notice much. I really felt no cravings. It’s like not eating sweets is just becoming part of my day to day life.

Today I was just thinking about how healthy I’ve been eating. I can now eat plain oatmeal, yogurt with just a few blueberries in it, salmon and rice with just salt and pepper. It’s like my taste buds can now appreciate the subtler aspects of food. I don’t need that insane dopamine rush of sugar intake to feel like something tastes good.

Things got a little difficult because I went away to a conference this weekend and knew I was going to be around a lot of sweets and a lot of eating out. Me and two others hit the grocery store before going to our AirBnB and I spent $40 on non-sweet snacks. I think I way overdid it but it was kind of cool to see how many tasty things I could find that weren’t sweet.

This day was ridiculous  in terms of the amount of temptations that sprang up. During the conference we spent a lot of time sitting at a table. People brought all manner of candy, cookies and things like that. I know that if I was still eating sugar, I would have been stuffing my face from the start of the conference to the end. I would have gotten bloated and felt really weird after the sugar crash and it would have just been a lot less enjoyable. For lunch we went to this place and everyone was getting sodas which sounded really good. After lunch we went to an ice cream place and I had to just wait outside with a few others because it looked really tempting. This was probably the hardest day, at least as far as sheer volume of temptation goes.

Went back to the conference for a few hours but not eating candy was much easier today. Went home and now have no real sugar around to tempt me. Feel like I have a lot of momentum.

Worked all day and went grocery shopping. The supermarket now poses very little risk for me. When I first started, all the delicious treats at Trader Joes were very tempting but now it’s pretty firmly implanted that I’m just not going to buy any.

Was pretty easy today, though I definitely didn’t eat healthy today. Ordered a medium pizza from Dominos and easily ate over half of it. One thing that I’ve noticed is I’ve been lenient with myself when it comes to non-sugar junk food.

Ate like crap again! Waking up early has made it harder to eat less calories throughout the day. I’m just awake and active for longer so my body needs more food.

One thing that I’ve noticed throughout this entire challenge is what happens when people offer me sweets. Of course it’s not up to other people to remember that I’m not eating sugar, but it is up to me to say no and not be weird about it. I typically just try to give a good-hearted “No I’m good!”.

I ate a bunch of processed food again, though in my defense I did have a migraine last night. I was on a good track with my eating yesterday and then BOOM, huge migraine hit. Back at it again today.

Today was pretty easy. Once again went to the movie theater and didn’t even really feel tempted by the candy and ice cream and soda.

Saturdays used to be my “cheat day” when I was doing a calorie restriction, so I tend to associate the things I do on Saturday with stuffing my face with food. But the only time I really felt tempted was at a birthday party this night when there was cake and other sweets. There was even a piñata at the party and everybody was mowing down on the candy. I didn’t even care!

Was pretty busy all day and didn’t really have time to think about sweets. I did eat an entire Dominos pizza in the afternoon but I had earned it.

I was busy all day once again and the cravings for sweets just never came up.

Wow, 30 days! Today was extremely easy, I don’t think I thought about sweets even once. I don’t want to jinx myself but it’s basically become auto-pilot at this point.