Day 22: Holding on… (31 days without sugar)
Hello, my sugar-free friends!
I was reading an article this morning about how to stay motivated over a period of time. It said that studies have shown that people are most successful with staying on task by first celebrating the early successes at the beginning of the endeavor, but then once you’ve been at it for a while, that’s probably not going to be enough to keep you going. Now that we’re in the 3rd quarter of our month-long commitment, it’s possibly better to look forward to the finish line. Focus on what’s left to do, and how to make the next 9 days feel wildly successful.
So, I’m thinking of 9 great things that will help get me through the next 9 days:
Now that my tastes are somewhat reset, I’m giving myself permission to eat more fruit. I’m really looking forward to a mango or banana.
Easter is coming (April 4th), and I’m not really feeling tempted to buy any Easter candy. Normally, I’d be looking forward to jelly beans and marshmallow peeps. It’s going to be way easier to stay vegan this Easter. Candy doesn’t seem appealing to me right now- hooray!
Chocolate, though…. we bought 2 kinds of organic vegan chocolate at the beginning of the month- one with zero sweetener, and the other has stevia. I’ve not had the stevia chocolate so far this month, because I really wanted to reset my taste for sweetness. I’m excited for the stevia chocolate (‘cause frankly, this 90% cacao bar tastes a little bit like dirt.) Heck, I might have some even before the end of the month, technically it’s still within my no-sugar boundary that I set up. It will be interesting to see how sweet it tastes.
I’m happy to know I’ll have 9 more days of waking up without joint pain. Honestly, this right here is motivation enough to quit sugar forever.
I signed up online for a vegan-keto diet workshop that starts tomorrow. I don’t really desire to get into ketosis, but the workshop comes with recipes for a whole week of vegan/keto meals, that I am excited to try. (Sponsored by The Beet, check it out.) I always love getting new vegan recipes in my toolbox.
I still have 9 more days to lose a little weight. I was expecting to drop a pound or two, but that hasn’t seemed to happen yet. I’ve been eating more dense foods than normal, like nuts, so I guess that’s why. I’m OK if it doesn’t happen.
I’ve started planning for my annual Spring Detox. It’s nice to know that I won’t have to do much prep work before starting it, because I’m already off of sugar and caffeine (only drinking decaf these days). I can’t wait to create some delicious smoothies.
I could pretend I’m doing a “10 Days without Sugar Challenge” and feel like I’ve already had a head start, LOL.
Let’s do a zoom call on March 31st so we can talk about how successful our month was, or how difficult it was, and what were our major obstacles. If you’re interested, let me know and I’ll set it up. It would be around 7:30 pm ET.
What will help you stay motivated for the next 9 days?
~Cheryl
