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?

Sunday Thoughts

When you have fear and do the thing anyway, you are holding on to the hand of God.

-- Edwene Gaines

Busy Hands Afternoon + Roller Derby

I went to my first roller derby last week!

It looks like tons of fun and I am quite sure I would have NO PROBLEM being that aggressive!  (However, as my athletic ability rivals that of your average doorknob, the world will never get to see Trippy Zippy, derby girl extraordinaire!)

I would include photos, but most of the ones I took looked like this:

Craft afternoon photographed much better....

You Might Be A Gardener

.... if you turn the compost pile and do a happy dance because you saw an earthworm.

He turned the compost pile and she did the happy dance.  We divide up the work in our marriage....

Progress on the "Us Painting"

 What I’ve been calling our “us painting” is progressing nicely.

I’m done with my part of it.  Belovedest will now add the finishing touches so it looks something like this:

I changed the roses to dots, though.  Here's the post which discusses how we came up with this joint image.

Hope this inspires you to have some fun!  (And don't worry if you aren't any good.  That tales all the fun out of it.)

The Fun of Cleaning with Cloth Rags

My husband initially resisted the idea of using old T-shirts for rags until I cut them into uniform shapes and told them he could pitch them if they got really, really gross.

I think he might be more convinced after Saturday cleaning--- You can’t skate around the floor like this with paper towels!

March Budget Numbers

Amazon revenue: $2.15.  Thank you for your purchases through the Amazon portal (on your right)!  Each and every one helps.

Budget wise, March was brutal.

New microwave.  Car trouble.  (More car trouble—but that was fixed with duct tape.  Yup!  You might be a redneck if….)  Then the voluntary stuff, like the skates.   It was just not pretty and I really don’t want to talk about it!  

There’s always April… except for taxes!