Sweets & Treats

Another "unsweetened" week down and so far so good -- among many challenges. In the past week I've baked twice for a theatre fundraiser, I've stood in a favourite bakery of mine waiting for my soup-and-sandwich dinner, I have resisted the urge to dive into sugary gifts, I turned down Green Tea Ice Cream and I operated lights in a small booth that contained a very enticing container of jujubes.

My only "fail" this week (and since the beginning of this experiment/challenge) was the three whiskey sours I had. Oops! It's another one of those things you forget about, that are an automatic part of a bar trip for some, and contain sugar -- mixed drinks.

I have somehow convinced myself that since I have decreased my consumption of the extra "candy/chocolate/Starbucks coffees" processed sugars that I can increase my consumption of carbs (bread, pasta, etc.) -- something I had under control prior to this month. I believe this to be the reason I am not feeling or seeing results as expected. (Read: No significant dip in scale numbers and still feel bloated at times. Hello! Carbs!) So, to that end, I vow to seriously decrease my consumption of carbs from now until the end of the month. I want to be able to see and feel some sort of a difference from this challenge, gosh darn-it! To assist in the "weening" process, I did purchase a gluten-free, no sugar tea biscuit dry mix from the health food store that I am going to try out.

Another thing I've noticed is my increase in regular black tea with Splenda. I hardly ever used Splenda, or drank black tea prior to this Unsweetened February. I am not as concerned with this, although, too much artificial sweetener is not a good thing. (Read: Sara really needs to cut down/out diet cola.)

After talking with a friend today, I am going to look more into Stevia. It's always been on my radar, but I've never tried it.

This challenge is not only a physical one, but a mental one too. I am educating myself on better ways of living and better health practices surrounding my food intake. I do hope I get something meaningful and useful out of this challenge.