Sugar Free

After the latest round of evaluating my diet, my coach suggested I eliminate refined sugar since it's the last evil remaining. I had mixed feelings about this. While I don't actively seek sugar, I don't avoid it and I like sweet things. I'm also supposed to limit alcohol to one drink no more than 2-3 times per week.

Starting Monday, I buckled down and tried the new approach. I ate a lot more fruit than usual including about two cups of raspberries, a peach and a banana. I think the only refined sugar I had that day was in the tablespoon or so of salad dressing I had with lunch. Overall I didn't miss it but I did find myself thinking about it a lot. Tuesday also went well. I added some strawberries and tart cherries to the fruit mix and tried a new approach to my evening workout and dinner. Since I work a bit late I'm often ravenous during my evening workout and end up eating dinner as late as 10 or 10:30. So I had a mini dinner around 5:30, came home and biked, then had a Greek yogurt with berries after. I had way more energy during my ride than usual so it seemed to work.

Wednesday I totally fell off the wagon due to a special day at work. Our office closed for a summer service day where we all volunteered on various projects throughout the city. I spent the day at a nursing home in my neighborhood where we played games with the residents and then had a cookout. I ate a hot dog, some potato salad and regular salad. All in all not terrible, but the happy hour that followed pushed it over the edge. I drank about two weeks worth of my drinks quota and ate pretty much every food I'm not supposed to.

I tried to get back on track today but had an all day work meeting where my food options were limited so I tried to choose wisely. That is until the cookie tray came out. I'm not going to lie - I ate five cookies. Yes, five. I had a small brownie, a mini black and white cookie and some delicious, thin raspberry thing right after lunch, then another brownie and an oatmeal cookie later. It's like I had to make up for the lack of sugar over the past couple days. Later while swimming I got really nauseous and think it was due to the cookie binge. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

I likely won't be so strict in my diet long term, but I'm happy to have kicked the process food habit and definitely feel tremendously better as a result.

Running (Wednesday)
Distance - 5 miles
Time - 43:06

Swimming (Thursday)
Distance - 1,500 yards
Time - 28:39