My Own Little Easter Weekend Victory

I am supremely, phenomenally, overwhelmingly proud of myself today.

You may or may not know this, but I have a pretty impressive history with sugar addiction, and I managed to cut it almost completely out of my diet about two years ago.  Since then, I've noticed some pretty cool things happening.  First and foremost, my body fat dropped out of the 22% range for the first time in my life-- as a matter of fact, it dropped 6% the year I made the change!  I took my body fat measurement yesterday, and it was the lowest it has ever been-- 13.6%!  The really cool thing about that is that I don't look gaunt or emaciated, and my strength levels are increasing through it all (I managed a 20kg pullup not long ago, and I am almost at a 24kg one-arm overhead press- more than twice my bodyweight!).  My blood tests, which I had done last month, are excellent, despite having a lot of heart disease, diabetes, and other nasty diseases all over my family tree.  When I was still on the sugar, my cholesterol was actually high-- sugar is at fault for a lot of heart disease.

My results, in case you were wondering.

But this is not what I wanted to tell you about today-- it's something much more exciting.  Yesterday, I was at Whole Foods (which should really have a Melody Wing, based on the amount of time I spend shopping there), and I thought, since it's a special occasion, I might buy some Easter candy to share with my boyfriend (meaning, of course, that I'd probably pop the whole bag in my mouth within an hour).  I went over to the bins of "Natural, Organic candy" and started reading the ingredients.  Sugar.  Corn syrup.  Cornstarch.  I moved on to another bin.  And another.  And I realized I had absolutely no desire to consume sugar, corn syrup, and cornstarch.  I left the store with no candy and a shocked look on my face.   I don't think I've ever given myself permission to eat candy and not gone ahead and eaten the candy.  I just did not want it.

This is HUGE.

Equally huge was that I had a few dried apricots when I got home and that was all.  I didn't eat the whole bag like I usually do (which is why I rarely buy dried fruit).  I was satisfied with what I'd had.

Seriously, if you don't think that cutting the junk out of your diet changes what your body craves, you haven't done it for long enough.  It took me 6 months to get rid of most of my sugar cravings, and it was only now that I realized that I just did not want the sweet stuff.  It's pretty cool when that happens.   I can't even begin to tell you how good it felt to have flipped the bird to gumdrops.

Just do it.  Get rid of the processed foods, the sugars, and all that crap.  Your body doesn't need it, and real food tastes better when it's gone.  If I can do it, ANYONE can do it.   Most importantly, be patient with your progress.  If you slip up now and then, it's not the end of the world.  Just jump back on the ole proverbial horse.  Your health and your waistline will thank you.

Questions?  Comments?  Post 'em here!