Good morning!  Happy Hump Day!  It’s all downhill from here, workin’ folks!

I’ve been “Sugar Free” for over a week now!  This is my 11th day.

So how’s it going?

It started out rough… I’m not gonna lie.

Day 1 – Sunday – For some reason, I don’t eat many sweets on the weekend anyway, so it wasn’t a big deal to start on this day.  I think I’m just too busy running around.

Day 2 – Monday – 1pm rolled around and I really started craving an after-lunch sweet.

Day 3 – Not a great day at work, and my cravings for something chocolate is intense.  I feel like I’m talking like a drug addict or something, but seriously… this craving is ridiculous. I stick it out, though.

Work was rough for a few days, and I noticed that my cravings were stress and habit induced.  For example, after lunch, I still crave something sweet to munch on, so I started bringing grapes back with me, and that seems to satisfy my craving.  Or when work stuff started getting beyond my threshold of patience… last week, for example, work got stupid for ridiculous reasons, and all I could think about was running to Starbucks for a soy latte & a donut.  I didn’t, though, and that was a huge success for me!

Now that I’m on Day 11, I still have the cravings, but nothing so terrible.  Last night I had a horrible night with Harlow for some reason.  Before the Sugar Free February Challenge, I would have gone to Starbucks for a latte & donut this morning.  It fleetingly crossed my mind, but then I grabbed my lemon water (the internet told me to) and my plain coffee and headed to work.

Speaking of… I bought my first mini juicer thingie and I love it!  I have been trying to drink lemon water every morning because I heard there are a lot of health benefits to doing so (can’t hurt, right?).  The first few days, I was squeezing the lemon by hand which I hated.  I’d get juice all over my hand, and into my dry winter hands which stung.  Plus, I never got that much juice out!  I picked up a super cheap on this past weekend at Target and I adore it!  It is so easy and keeps my hand relatively free of juice.

Something else that I’ve noticed is that I have been starting to eat healthier in general.  I’ve been cooking more, and eating more whole foods.  I don’t know if it is a coincidence, or if my body is simply craving more nutritious foods since ridding itself of the super “bad” ones, but it is interesting at least.

What good things are you doing for your health these days?