The end has arrived and with it I find myself writing my last blog and testament! The last 8 weeks has been awful at times (that sugar hangover was something I never need to experience in my life again, and I won't deny it was hard on a number of occasions to say to sweet food, especially homemade desserts - I'm a sucker for homemade desserts, I blame my mother for spoiling us with amazing home-made desserts throughout my life). At the same time, it has been such a great experience and such an eye opener to me about how much sugar I was eating and the effect it had on me without me even knowing.
You may remember when I started this program I had a number of goals I wanted to achieve. One of these goals was related to my digestive health. Well, I am pleased to announce that for the first time in about 9 years my life has not been controlled by my digestive system. Prior to starting this program, my Irritable Bowel Syndrome (ya I know wishy washy term for we have no idea what's wrong with you but your digestive system is broken) was starting to really take over my life, I never knew when it would strike, and when it did it was awful. Over the past 8 weeks I have lived a life predominately IBS free (there was one day when I think I just ate too much which was my own fault really), and if nothing else then that alone has changed my life for the better.
However, there is more. I am unfortunately one of this people who when you cover my face from the nose up looks like a teenager with a big acne covered chin, and when you cover from the nose down look like an old lady with big crow's feet eyes and dark circles under my eyes. Over the past few weeks, for the first time since I was about ten, I have had minimal to no acne on my skin (giving up sugar has been great but not great enough to rid me of the dreaded wrinkles unfortunately). I have noticed that I no longer have those yucky lumpy hidden acne spotty things under my chin, and I have so much fewer break outs on my face it's great! Please don't look too closely at my skin next time you see me though because while it is a big change for me, I still haven't got an amazingly beautiful complexion:)
Over the past few weeks I have also noticed a massive improvement to my energy levels. I find that my energy is steady all the time, and I no longer suffer from the 3pm slump where I feel the absolute need in my life to have something sugary to get me through the final hours at work without dying or yelling at someone. The one disadvantage to this that I have found is that when you are genuinely tired (or hungover as the case may be), you really just have to deal with it without being able to reach for a quick fix like a soft drink or a chocolate bar. In saying that, fruit does seem to semi hit that spot more so than it ever did before.
I guess the one thing that most people will be interested in is related to any weight loss I may have had throughout the program. The day I started the program I took all my measurements, and weighed myself. I am please to announce that I have lost 6cm from my waist, 3cm from my hips and 3cm from my rather large arse. All up I lost 3.5kgs and had a Dexa Scan done pre and post program and have lost 2% of my body fat (which may not seem much but it's 2% in the right direction).
I have to say of all the "diets" I've ever done in my lifelong mission as a female who is unhappy with her shape (isn't that about 90% of us!), this is the easiest, and the one that I really think I can maintain in the long run. When I finished the program on Saturday, someone asked was I going to eat something sweet, and the simple answer was no, I don't actually want to because I feel so good when I have been avoiding sugar. My goal now is to make it to Christmas before I have something sugary, and then to enjoy a nice mince pie, hopefully without then needing to follow that one mince pie with about ten more, and maybe one or two Cadburys Roses without finishing the tin in one sitting!
I have had some really yummy food throughout this program, and think it may be the best $150 I have ever invested into my health. I have learned that sesame seeds make anything more interesting, that olive oil and lime/lemon/ginger is a yummy salad dressing, that greek yogurt and lamb are actually tasty (maybe not together but who knows may I should try it), that avocado and feta is like some sort of amazing combination of breakfast yumminess, and that I can satisfy my dessert stomach without needing to eat a family size bar of chocolate.
When I started this program, I decided to do this blog to help keep me accountable, and I think it really has. There have been a number of times where I have literally wanted to throw in the cards, and then I would see people's support for me on my blog and think, well I can't tell all those people I've failed, and so I kept on keeping on. I would like to thank you all for this support and for reading my blog and keeping me motivated. Here's hoping that I can keep going for the next 7 weeks and reach my goal of getting to Christmas while maintaining my sugar free life style. Thanks for reading and supporting me everybody, you guys rock.
