Rolling over another 4 points from yesterday is a great reinforcement that I’m on the right track with my food choices. I’m not hungry and I don’t feel deprived. I know that I will eat dessert again, but for right now the feeling of satisfaction and control I have don’t make me miss it a bit. It is really astounding to me how different I feel.

Take a picture of something “sweet” and write about it.

Wednesday,
How Sweet It Is Seven Day Sugar Challenge

This isn’t a recent picture but it is something sweet. The last time I was in NYC with friends, we went to a Mexican restaurant and I was so struck by this sweet gesture. It was close to Valentine’s Day and there was this lovely window display. It was there to represent beautiful feelings of adoration and whimsy. I really appreciate the effort it took to create the effect. It is here to remind me that if I look, I know I can find many examples of sweetness. What if I craved that, instead of dessert? What would that be like? The habit would still be there looking for something sweet but the my routine wouldn’t cause me to gain weight, feel sluggish, or defeated. What if, I could change my routine and still get that same reward? What would that habit loop look like? In terms of habit loops it would look like this…

Unfortunately, stress is one of my cues to crave sweets. I notice that when I eat something sweet I get that momentary sense of calm and wellbeing from it. Maybe, I can redefine that craving for sweet into a more productive routine, like looking for sweetness in the world. I am reminded of the beginning of this journey…

What if, I spent my time looking for beauty instead of overlooking it? What would I find? I want to adopt a generous lens, one that looks for strengths, not deficits.

Day Eleven…
SEPTEMBER 13, 2017

I think there is a lot to this. I think I may have been forgetting how important it is to look to the world for sweetness and beauty instead of looking to food. I encourage you to consider this because it might help you too. That is always one of my reasons for writing, to help myself figure out some stuff, and to inspire others to help themselves. It feels good to be part of something that sparks hope and discovery. Be well on the journey.