It's officially Week 2 of the NoSugar Challenge and I am realizing just how hard this is going to be. Last week was a walk in the park compared to this. Being sick, I had no appetite and didn't even think about food. This week is a different story. I'm back at it, getting my workouts in and craving my usual glass of wine (or three) and mid afternoon chocolate fix.
Strangely enough, neither of these have been anywhere as hard to avoid as dried fruit and breath mints. Two items I did not even, ever consider as a loss. But I LOVE almonds with dried apricots (it's what I usually eat mid morning) and I pop breathmints pretty much every 20 minutes. What makes it worse is I work from home. So all of these items are available and easily accessible in the pantry! I normally work at the breakfast bar in the kitchen so I've had to make a few adjustments to avoid the sugar cravings. I moved my 'office' to the back bedroom. Helps with the sugar cravings but really tests my ability to overcome the temptations of a nap!! I've also started 'pre packing' snacks for me to take into the back bedroom so I'm not tempted to come back into the kitchen. I'm fortunate enough to live in the PNW where there are lots of options for fresh fruit, veggies and nuts. I have been putting grapes and mandarins in a bowl and taking little tupperware servings of almonds and carrots with hummus. Let me be honest, none of this is replacing my cravings for Chocolate covered raisins or cookies but I'm reminding myself that this is supposed to be hard but the payoffs will come ten fold.. or so we hope.
One of the things I wanted to test with the no sugar challenge was the impact to my workouts. I was curious to see if I would see an improvement in my workouts whether it was an increase in energy, endurance or my ability to push my limits. Unfortunately, because I'm returning from a week off and a week of being sick, I think it's hard to say. I'm still feeling a bit tired and definitely don't have the endurance I had before I was sick. I'm hoping to be feeling 100% and back at it by Thursday so we'l see how this goes.
I can say one thing for sure, I have seen a huge improvement in my sleep cycles. My guess is most of this is due to the lack of alcohol but I have no issues falling asleep and only get up about 1-2 times a night. Normally, I get up 3 or 4 times a night and have a really hard time falling back asleep. What I've found over the past week is I will get up, check the time and go right back to sleep. That in itself should be a justification to stay off the sugar but let's be honest, I'll probably be sipping a glass of rose before the end of the week! :(