Goodbye to the dessert stomach (for now at least)

With that I find myself at the beginning of week 7 of an 8 week program that I was dreading starting and now I'm dreading it finishing.  You may find this post a little short and boring compared to any of my other posts (not that I think the rest were amazingly interesting or anything but they probably were compared to this one - apologies), and really that's just because the whole "no sugar" thing has been really easy for me this week, kinda like it's part of my life now, which is what I hoped all along. The reason I am dreading it coming to an end is that I really fear how I will manage when I'm not been told what to eat and when, but I think I should be able to manage.

A few things have happened this week which I will mention.  The first was I ate a banana.  Now this is something that may seem ridiculously boring to you, but it was not completely boring to me.  It was, no word of a lie, the most amazing banana I have ever eaten in my life.  If you have been following the blogs then you will know that I have a "mild" obsession with bananas, and it has been probably the biggest struggle of the whole no sugar thing my 4 weeks without an amazing banana.  So, all week once we were allowed to eat fruit, I was waiting for the perfect banana eating moment, and this came after I finished work on Sunday and went and bought myself a reward for surviving a day at work (sometimes at 730am I wonder if the whole survival of work thing is possible and when I make it I feel the need for a reward!).  It was probably the best reward for surviving a day at work ever (well maybe not ever but at least in the last few months anyways), it truly was as good as I had remembered, if not better:)

The second thing that happened was that I went out to dinner, and had the yummiest dinner which would usually be followed by a lovely dessert in true Morag "I have a second stomach for dessert" fashion.  After we were finished dinner (no sauces or added sugars I promise), the waitress came and asked did we want dessert and I didn't even have to think about it, or look at the menu and lust after what I couldn't have or moan about how my life is so hard because I can't have something, I genuinely didn't want dessert.  This may not seem a big deal to everybody, but anybody who has ever eaten out (or in) with me will know that dessert plays a massive part in my life, I generally look at the dessert menu before the main course so I can make a truly informed decision, so to not actually want dessert well that is massive I tell you!!!

This week I also received an e-mail from my dad with a link to an article he had read in the paper about what happens when you remove sugar from your diet.  This excited me for two reasons, one being that it helped me see that what I was doing wasn't for nothing.  This article discussed the research that was done on 43 obese children found that after just 9 days the children's insulin levels dropped and their cholesterol improved.  For anyone who is interested in reading the newspaper article here is the link: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/removing-sugar-from-diet-for-just-nine-days-can-have-dramatic-results-new-study-claims-a6710521.html?cmpid=facebook-post.

The second reason this excited me was because it made me really happy to know that my dad was following my journey (at least I assume he is), and that he was also reading a little around the subject.  It made me realise a little that my blog may be making people think a little more about their sugar intake, and what impact it may be having on them.  I have had a few people say that my blog "inspired" them, which kind of makes me giggle as I don't think I'm a person to inspire anybody, but from everything I have read about sugar, it makes me think that if even half a dozen people who have been reading my blog reduce their sugar intake by a few teaspoons a day then that's just great and it makes me happy!  I do know that quitting sugar isn't for everyone though, so don't feel you need to feel guilty about eating sugar, or justify why you want to keep eating sugar to me.

Anyways, I did say it wasn't going to be a very interesting blog, like I say this week has been easy and there's not much to say about it.  I intend to enjoy the next two weeks on the program, and hopefully I will be as positive about the whole thing in my last blog in two weeks.  Thanks for reading, until next time!