Yesterday a friend confided that that she was missing chocolate and nuts. She decided to give them up because she has been gaining not losing. She works a lot, and they give her an energy burst that keeps her going when she’s tired. However, at the same time she also said, that she feels better now that that they’re off the menu. Her clothes feel looser, she is less hungry. She hates to admit it, but she is probably better off without them. Then, she also went on to say that the Wendy’s salad she has been eating each week on her way to her second job, has 16 SmartPoints! She enjoys the salad, and it is convenient but in no way is worth all those points. When her daughter looked up the salad, it was a real eye opener, and now she is bringing her own salad.

I have been encouraging her to track her foods for a while now, and I guess her WW coach joined the chorus and got her to promise to track this week. She was blown away by at how easy it is to stack up hidden SmartPoints (or calories however you work it) on what seemingly would be healthy options. Nuts, salad, even chocolate (in moderation) are “healthy” options but not if portion sizes are too large, or if they are laden with hidden fat and salt. Awareness is a very important tool that makes a huge difference in the results we get along the way.

Read an article about sugar and respond.

Thursday, How Sweet It Is Seven Day No Sugar Challenge

Ryan Andrews wrote this article, Sugar Daddy: My Year Without Sugar. I found this to be full of information and incite. Rather than summarize the article, because hey you can read for yourself. I would rather explore the parts that were most meaningful to me. There was quite a lot that resonated with me. Some of the ideas Ryan put out there are:

• “Desserts are addictive.” For me this is a true statement! I find that when I eat desserts that are in the house, I want to go back for seconds, thirds, and sometimes the entire box of Enlighten bars. The best way for me to indulge in dessert is to go out and get an ice-cream cone, a piece of cake, or a cookie. This is my experience; however, it is not true for everyone. Ryan links to an article that details the effects of Dopamine on the brain that goes into why which is also an interesting read.
• “We get to choose what we do.” Agreed! We can empower ourselves to make deliberate choices. It’s a little easier to give up dessert when I create some context by comparing it to the struggle of raising a family or sustaining a career. When I think of it that way, it is not such a big thing after all.
• “We don’t eat sugar ‘in moderation’.” A fun fact, nearly 90% of the North American diet is comprised of processed foods (carb dense sugar rich foods). That’s why I’ve had so much success with WW because the #Freestyle plan leans so heavily into the 0 sp. foods (low fat whole food choices). this makes sense to me, as my coach Bonnie tells me, “We didn’t get here eating carrots, bananas, or grapes.” True! True!
• “Food is habit forming.” Yesterdays post goes into my thinking and YES! This a very true statement for me as well. He found that taking dessert off the menu left him feeling less hungry – same!

• “The ‘All or None’ approach can work with strong incentives . What he refers to an an incentive is how I regard as my why. Agreed. My why is a powerful one, I don’t want to gain back the weight I lost. It took a long time and a lot of effort to lose this weight because I wanted to feel good physically and build up my confidence. That is the most important thing.
• “Internal dialogue sucks.” I hadn’t thought about all the internal dialogue that goes on with the struggle to be moderate with dessert. It creates unnecessary so much unnecessary tension. All the, “Should I eat another peanut butter chocolate bar? No. But, if I eat two that’s only 5 sp. as opposed to 3 sp. what’s the big deal?” Sound familiar? Exhausting. I don’t miss that.
• “Taste re-calibration is possible.” It’s true, I am finding that I don’t even want sugary desserts (right now). Last night when my son was eating sorbet I had a ramekin full of fresh strawberries they were so sweet to me. What even does a ramekin hold, 1/3 of a cup 1/2 cup? So funny t think about – it was only five days sugar-free yesterday.
• Think about attachments… Change occurs at the desire level… Tap into what you want, avoid declarative statements…