February Goal – Time to Wake Up!

In January, I challenged myself to eat less sugar.
No Candies.
No Chocolate.
No Pop.

How did I do? I would say pretty well. For the first 3 weeks, I managed to eat no sugar outside of my 3 treat days, permitted home baking, and a couple hot chocolates.

On the 12^th, I hit a bit of a snag. I instinctively ordered a milkshake at one of my favorite burger joints. I had been saving my 2^nd treat day for a social work event on the 13^th and here I go mistakenly using that freebie to get a milkshake. It was at this point that I decided I could ease up on myself since other than that day I had been doing REALLY well. My compromise with myself…milkshakes can be allowed for the remainder of the month.

After that, things progressed as well as before. I found myself stopping to think before I grabbed something to eat.

• Do I really want that cookie?
• Do I need a mid-day snack?
• What could I eat instead?
• How will this pop make me feel? (Hint: not awesome)

With all these questions in my head, I was able to cut WAY down on my sugar intake. I reduced the sugar in my home baked goods recipes like the chocolate chip cookies recipe. I had less hot chocolates even though I allowed them for the challenge. And I learned that I am usually more full than I realize much of the time, and don’t actually need a snack to make it through the day.

There were also two non-food breakthroughs at least partially related to my “sugar-free” month.

One, I lost 5 pounds in January. The main this I changed this month was this dietary change. I added a little bit of yoga and exercise and am ramping that up as I go. So I am super happy to finally see my post-surgery weight go down.

Two, my husband said he was proud of what I did. He knows I struggle with mad sugar cravings and he said I seemed happier since I was not angry with myself for eating poorly. He also noticed his own diet changing for the better by association, and that is always great! I really appreciated him saying these things to me, and his words were the highlight of my month.

So that was January, a successful challenge if I say so myself, but what shall I challenge myself to do in February?

My February goal is to wake up on time every day.

Lately I have had trouble waking up with my alarms. I hit snooze an, well, snooze! I also seem to be completely waking up at 1:00a.m. which is NOT enough sleep! To combat these issues I am committing to waking up at or before 6:00a.m. every day in February. NO LATER!

I am hoping this will normalize my sleep schedule again (it used to be super cyclical). I am also aiming to add some more productive time to my day. For instance, if I wake up at 6, I can:

• Prep a lunch
• Put food in the slow cooker for dinner
• Put out the trash or recycling on pick up days
• Make a breakfast for my husband and I
• Or even just relax a little bit (shower, read a book, watch the news)

 

Well, let’s see if I can keep up this habit. 5 days in and so far, so good!