The Month Without Sugar

So I have officially concluded a month without sugar, or artificial sweeteners.  I never mentioned it because I hate getting excited about something, telling everyone and then having to eat my words when I fail miserably. Because that happens a lot.  (*points to self, BIG failure)

But I did this one.  For no real solid reason I decided to see if I could go a month without refined sugar, or soda or anything with artificial sweetener.  Honestly, it was stupid easy.  Giving up soda was the hardest part and even that was pretty easy.  I don't really drink much soda to begin with.

About a week in I was catching up on one of my favorite blogs, Zen Habits.  He is doing "A year without", where each month he goes without something.  (post on that, here)  He's succeeded and failed on different things.  Oddly enough, starting today, HE is giving up sugar.  I'm curious how he'll do.

Anyway, end goal I guess is to really cut back on my intake of refined sugars and the ultimate evil that is artificial sweeteners.  Not that I consumed all that much to begin with.  I'm sure I could give them up altogether, but what's going to my Godson's birthday parties without cake?  Or pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving.   I've gotten very good at self control for the most part over the years.  Don't get me wrong, I've binged through half a bag of Oreos once or twice.  I'm only human.  But I'm not doing that kind of stuff daily.  Weekly, or even monthly.

Re-reading Leo's post on all the things he's giving up for a month...I may try another one.  Call me crazy, but attempting self-denial for a little while is kinda fun, I love a good challenge!!

Side note, he made a list of things he already gave up completely from his life:

Owning a car, Meat, Dairy/Eggs, Cable TV, Having too much stuff, Fast Food, Facebook, Packing a lot when travelling.

I've already giving up a couple of these.  I'm willing to bet I could do more.  Now the car thing is completely impractical.  He lives in a place with public transportation and I don't.  But really everything else I've already given up, or is very feasible.

I highly recommend trying something like this at least once in your life.  Learning discipline is never a bad thing!!