The Big White Farmhouse

Hello.  My name is Ashley and I am addicted to sugar.  What is it about the holidays and falling completely off track?  The past few months have been especially bad.  When it comes to sweets, I tend to be an all or nothing kind of girl.  I can’t just have a piece of chocolate and put the rest away.  Oh no!  That chocolate calls to me from the cupboard (in a secret spot away from little hands!) until I devour the rest!  


With the new year, I knew I needed a detox to lose a few bad habits and re-gain a bunch of good ones.  I wanted to cleanse my insides a bit and get rid of some of my belly bloat.  I also knew that a better diet would inspire me to consistently exercise again.  So No Sugar January, a 30 day challenge, was born!  




My rules:
+ No sweets: cookies, ice cream, cheesecake, brownies, etc. are all off limits.
+ Nothing with artificial sweeteners. 
+ Natural sugars (in the form of fresh and dried fruit) are allowed.
+ This is not Whole30.  Gluten is allowed, but try to limit how much I eat.
+ Traces of sugar seem to be in everything, so try to eat as raw and clean as possible.
  
I’ve been keeping a bit of a daily diary through the process.  Take a peek:
DAY 1 | Feeling positive.  This is going to be easy!  DAY 2 | I have a minor headache that has lingered all day.  DAY 3 | The headache is back…thank goodness this is the worst of the detoxing so far!  DAY 4 | I’ve re-discovered that I’m an emotional eater.  I had a hard day with the kids and I just want a bowl of ice cream!  DAY 5 | French onion meatballs and green beans for dinner…yum.  DAY 6 | Starting to crave smoothies as my something sweet.  Bringing the fruit & spinach smoothies back into regular rotation.  DAY 7 | Italian chicken with broccoli for dinner, which was gobbled up by everyone.  I had a double serving of the broccoli…who am I?  DAY 8 | Jumped on the scale today “just to see” and I’m down almost a pound and a half.  Good push to keep going!  DAY 9 | A couple of dried apricots seems to satisfy my sweet tooth.  DAY 10 | Dinner was pork stir-fry with lots of veggies.  Delicious.  DAY 11 | The boys asked for chocolate chip cookies.  I bought some (which I never do) because I don’t trust myself to not lick the batter.  DAY 12 | While walking today, I happily discovered that I felt no lingering aching or pain in my ankle.  Maybe there’s a connection to the change in diet?  DAY 13 | Today was the launch of Big White Farmhouse and I decided to break the “no sugar fast” to celebrate with an apple fritter.  Tasted good going down, but I had a belly ache later.  Worth it.  DAY 14 | Even with the taste of sugar yesterday, I feel ready to continue the challenge.  I think there’s a lesson in moderation here.  

Two weeks down, two to go!