No Sugar....

I gave up sweets (mostly) for 6 weeks.

To be more precise, I gave up sweets from February 18 to April 5.  I had two lapses required by politeness, when I had a glass of lemonade and a glass of sparkling grape juice.  In the beginning, I polished off some yogurt and didn't buy any more.  (Yes, the flavored Yoplait ones.  Probably similar to eating a candy bar.)

But I did make it a total of 21 days, straight, there at the end.

So what happened?

I started at 113.6 pounds on February 18.  I ended at 109.8 pounds on April 5, although most of the time I was in the 110-112 range.  I worked out occasionally, and tried to at least walk every day for a minimum of 20 minutes.

I found that if I avoided sweets, I craved salty, greasy food.  I noticed that when I was relaxed and happy the scale seemed to dip quite regardless of what else I was or wasn't up to.

Then it was the Easter Octave.  (Octave=eight days.  Easter = Rejoice.  Ergo "Easter Octave" is Catholic for "Let's party for eight days.")  I ate whatever I jolly well felt like, including my favorites: Reese's Pieces and York Peppermint Patties.  My weight hung out in the 112s, until yesterday, the end of the octave, when it hit 113.8.

I found that if I ate lots of sweets, I got incredibly moody.  Really, really moody.  And I have had a tummy ache for most of the past week.

Conclusion: I'm not going to buy sweets or junk food.  If I'm offered it and it is luscious beyond description (i.e. Sr. Carmen's tiramisu), then I will eat it very slowly and enjoy it very much.  But sugar makes me ill and cranky in large quantities.  So other than high feasts (Easter, Christmas) and my birthday, and social obligations ("I made this for you because I know you love French Silk Pie") I'm going to cut back.  Way back.

How about you?  Have you given up sugar or gluten or ______?  What kind of difference did it made?