Current status of Project No More Sugar = total failure.
The main reasons for this are as follows: I am a pro at making excuses, I play the “I’ll start fresh again tomorrow” card way too often, and I am the worst offender of eating because I’m bored.
On the excuses front, I’ve had a ton. First I was sick, then I was just crabby, and I was also excusing myself at any social gathering. I made cupcakes for my brother’s birthday and ended up eating the majority because nobody cared for them. My “defense” was that I made them from scratch, so even though they had sugar, they were better than processed cupcake mix and frosting.
My love of fresh starts and clean slates always does me in. Too many times, I’ve been reaching for a second helping of cookies after dinner and thinking, well I already messed this up, I’ll just start fresh tomorrow.
The last reason is the worst and the hardest to stop doing: eating out of boredom. After dinner, I consistently snack right up until it’s time for bed. Mixed in are healthy things – sometimes I nosh on a salad or a few pieces of toast – but mostly it’s junk. I honestly can’t tell the difference between being truly hungry, having an unnecessary craving, and feeling false hunger because I’m bored.
To deal with that issue, the advice is typically to clear your home of junk food. However, since I live at home and my mother is notorious for stocking up on snacks, I can’t exactly expect my parents to throw away all that food just because I can’t control myself. Since my lack of willpower is a weakness of mine, it’s a recipe for disaster.
I decided it was time to reevaluate my plan and truly start over. My new goals are to stop eating obviously sugary foods until the end of March and stop eating sugar in any form for the month of April. Also, I’m barring myself from our basement, which is where we store the majority of our junk food. That should help with a lot of the unnecessary snacking.
If I do end up indulging in something, I’m not going to beat myself up for it and I’m not going to throw in the towel. Two cookies after dinner doesn’t make me a total failure and I have to realize I’m doing more harm than good by trying to constantly start over.
Here's hoping take two goes a lot better. And yes, making an snazzy graphic is definitely a motivator, in case you were wondering.
