Another Food Challenge

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I HATE the way I feel the week before I start an eating challenge.  I justify eating up every piece of chocolate in the house, saying that I will need the house to be free of these temptations while I’m resetting myself.  My stomach is bloated and cramped.  My vision is blurred.  My brain fog is thick as pea soup.  Yuck.  Why do I do this to myself?  I have a sweet tooth that needs to be tamed often.  Not a good thing when you have a relatively high blood sugar level to begin with and a brother with Type 1 Diabetes.  So, here I go again, embarking on another challenge in an attempt to tame the sugar dragon.

Just last year I swore off eating challenges.  I loved Stacy Toth’s blog about why she didn’t do food challenges anymore.  As a former bulimic, it resonated with me. But then I got my A1c test results back and wanted to see if I could get a lower number (I tend to be pretty competitive with myself).  So I started another 21 Day Sugar Detox.  Only it lasted for almost 60 days.  And then I got my A1c tested again and guess what?  It was exactly the same as when I was eating sugar.  So I swore off challenges forever, again.  Which leads me to here and now. 

There has just a lot of change in the air, and I don’t do well with change.  Being a stress eater, sugar began creeping back into my daily diet.  Sugar used to be off-limits during the week and enjoyed on the weekend.  But then I opened a bag of chocolate chips on a Tuesday night.  And some Hail Merry Bites were bought (and enjoyed) on a Thursday.  I made The Paleo Mom’s Gingerbread Cookies, and while she touted them as so clean they wouldn’t count toward your 80/20, I’m sure she didn’t intend for a dozen of them to be eaten within 2 days.  The last straw for me though is always when my clothes just don’t feel good.  That’s it!  I’m signing up for another eating challenge and, once again, I’m feeling like a failure.

However, I’m feeling a bit better since reading Melissa Hartwig’s latest book, “Food Freedom Forever”.  I love her 3 Step Plan:

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  • Reset Your Health, Habits and Relationship With Food
  • Enjoy Your Food Freedom
  • Acknowledge When You’re Starting To Slip
  • Repeat As Needed

Finally, someone believes that this is a process and we slip up sometimes.  I know I certainly do.  My slips up don’t come in the form of gluten.  I can resist the squishiest pastry, loaf of bread or bagel.  As for dairy, I can take it or leave it.  But all bets are off when it comes to sugar.  Chocolate in just about any form is tempting but Eating Evolved Coconut Butter Cups and Hail Merry Bites are simply irresistible. 

Now to decide which challenge to do.  I could make up my own, but I know I would find a way to justify “changing” my rules to accommodate my cravings.  I’ve done Diane Sanfillipo’s 21 Day Sugar Detox several times and I absolutely love it.  But I think I need a BIG challenge this time so I’m opting for Food Freedom Forever’s/Whole 30 Craving Buster Reset.  This means NO:

  • Grains
  • Dairy
  • Legumes
  • Nuts, seeds or dried fruit
  • Alcohol
  • Added sugar
  • Artificial sweeteners
  • Carrageenan, MSG or sulfites
  • Sweets/treats/baked goods

Oh, that last one is tough.  But as The Whole 30 says, “Beating cancer is hard.  Birthing a baby is hard.  Losing a parent is hard.  Drinking your coffee black. Is. Not. Hard.”  And doing something hard every once in a while is just what I need.  Stay tuned for what I AM going to eat once I start this thing.