The last hurrah!

This is it, friends. In just a few hours, it'll be 2010: my sugar free year. Just a little while ago (before I stuffed my face with crab rangoon and four-cheese pizza rolls), I partook in my last sugary hurrah: my final root beer float and two tiny cannolis.

Delish!


But so not nutrish.

Whilst I downed the float and delighted in each cannoli, I enjoyed every ounce! And now, I could sincerely blow chunks. But how I feel right now (which certainly also has a lot to do with the afforementioned stuffing my face with crab rangoon and pizza rolls) serves as motivation for the year upon which we are soon to embark, because this year, I will never do that again.

It'll be hard.

It'll require research.

It'll require will power. And the grace of God.

But I have high hopes and expecations. I know I will feel better. I believe I will look better. And whatever else I learn about a life without sugar will show up here. So keep reading, and keep in touch.

Happy new year!

How much sugar I have is directly related to how many times I hit the snooze!

I just know it!

Monday night, after a basically sugarless day, I went to bed around midnight and set my alarm for 8. I got up when it rang and felt great. Last night, I indulged on a root beer float -- one of the final foamy delights I'll drink for a year (at least). I went to bed around midnight and set my alarm for 8. This morning, I hit the snooze thrice. I could not get me to get up. That, friends, is no stinkin' coincidence.

The last hurrah approaches...

Tonight, I indulged. Three words: root, beer and float.

I'll have one more on New Year's Eve.

And maybe a canoli.

And then, sugar and I are parting ways. I sincerely look forward to it.

Last night's dessert

So the Italian pastries were a no-go. I don't mind too much, since in the presence of such delights, I cannot be stopped. Instead, my bro brought a cheesecake. It was, in fact, delectable. But as expected, I woke up wishing I hadn't eaten it. That's partly because the more I eat dessert now, the more I'll want dessert later and also partly because -- as usual -- the sugar in it sucked the life out of me.

Without fail, if I eat a lot of sugar before bed, I wake up a little less than happy. A little lethargic. A little anxious, sometimes, if not a little depressed. It's temporary, of course (it passes when it passes, if you know what I mean). And in my opinion, it's so not worth it. Not in the least.

But don't get me wrong. I don't expect to feel 100%, a hundred percent of the time (that's impossible). And contrary to semi-popular belief among people I know, I'm also not trying to live forever or find the fountain of youth (I totally embrace the aging process, in fact! I hope for silver hair someday.). What I'm trying to do is learn what life is like without indulging on food that I really don't believe our bodies were designed to process anyway. And the goal, really, is to free me from the manufactured need for things like brownies, which do nothing for my body but very temporarily make my tastebuds excited, make me fat and make me feel like crap.

And sidenote: my house smells like meatballs. I'm stoked for Christmas dinner. And today, I'll go without dessert.

Merry Christmas Eve!

So Jesus's birthday is upon us. I come from a long line of short, loud Italians, so this holy day means I'm about to embark on a two-night marathon of stuffing my face. (Prosciutto is involved. So is lasagna. You know I didn't eat lunch today for a reason!) Word on the street (a.k.a. from my mom, who is in the kitchen appx. 15 feet away from me) is that my older bro is bringing the dessert.

If I had to guess, I'd say he's bringing Italian pastries. Crispy clam-shell shaped, cream filled sugar fests for the mouth. (I'm also hoping for a canoli, fyi.) So bascially, what I'm saying is that all bets are off. These days are the last in which I can eat these things before I delve into what will undoubtedly be the hardest bit of immersion journalism in which I have participated.

Let's get this party started. Merry Christmas!

Addendum to last night's post.

So, if you read what I wrote last night, you know that a Tortuga chocolate rum cake is the last thing I ate before going to sleep.

For my own sake (since I can reference this in 2010's times of temptation), I think it's important that I also share the following: This morning, I woke up feeling like crap. Coincidence? I think not. In fact, I know not, because it happens every time. Also, I dreamt all night that I was at Charles Trippy's Halloween-themed wedding, which is funny, but not as relevant.

The moral? Hard though it'll be, it'll be good (not just for me, but for others) to see what life is like without sugar.

Saying farewell.

A sugar free year would be a lot easier if I lived alone.

I could stock my shelves with healthy food. I could avoid peer pressure by avoiding peers. I could shackle shut the door so going out for junk food would seem like too much work. If only... I could have used to live alone tonight.

Rewind to this morning. When I walked through the living room, I noticed a six pack of Tortuga Rum Cakes.

Let me take this opportunity to tell you that I love rum cake. Love it, like, once, I ate so much in one sitting that I got buzzed. The six pack is a gift from some neighbors who just came home from a cruise. The six pack is now a five pack.

Since there are still 11 days during which I am technically free to eat sugar, I chose the chocolate one and enjoyed every bite. But til 2011, I have bid farewell to rum cake.

If I can go to a party and not eat dessert...

...I can so go "sugarless" for a year. Sim-ple.

But back to that in a moment. This afternoon at work, post-chicken 'n' dumplings soup, unsweetened applesauce and leftover popcorn, hunger came-a-callin'. Though it pains me to put three whole quarters into a vending machine, I gave in and got some pretzels when I knew I wouldn't be able to wait until after work for more food. (And a colleague brought in cookies again. Today, I stayed strong!)

I can tell already that when I officially subtract sweetened snacks from what I can eat, I'm going to go hungry. So in effort to avoid feeling so starved that I fall into sugary sin, I'm going to have to stock my desks with snacks appropriate for a sugar free year. Before the first of the year, I'll post a list of rules about what I can and cannot eat (and I'm sure throughout the year, I'll find a few food items I'll have to research before deciding). But for now, I feel compelled to clarify: when I say I'm going sugarless, I definitely don't mean I'll eat sweet things if they have fake sugar in them. What I mean is that I am essentially actually giving up desserts. No more pie (I'll miss you, pumpkin!). Cake. Ice cream. Pastries (I might have one more canoli before New Year's Day.). Most juice will be out of the question (but I might be able to find something that's naturally sweet at a health food store). So Jello pudding? No, thanks. But unsweetened applesauce? Yes, please.

Anyway, I'm glad I went for the pretzels. They held me over until a party after work, where -- after salad and chili -- I stared a cheesecake in the face and didn't even feel tempted.

Day -15: Boomshockalocka!

Starting early...

I figure if I'm not going to eat sugar for an entire year, I may as well avoid it in the next 15 days -- the last days I'll be allowed to indulge until 2011.

I realize that my rash decision to quit sugar cold turkey is evidence of insanity. I mean, in just the short period of time during which I wrote last night's entry on this blog, I actually ate two donuts. Two! But with friends (and a blog) to hold me accountable, I go forth with confidence.

I can so do this.

But around 2 this afternoon, I wanted a snack. And thanks to the daggum vending machine in the break room, I knew exactly what I wanted:That's right. Grandma's Mini Sandwich Cremes.

Have you ever tried them? Are you aware of the perfection in the cookie to creme ratio? Can you fathom the way they melt at the right rate of speed? Has the artificial flavor changed your life?

Yes, I love them. Yes, I realize my love for them makes me a hypocrite (do as I say, not as I do?) And yes, I am ashamed.

But I am not ashamed to report that my good friends will power and popcorn showed up just in time.

Day -16: Success!

Oh, sugar.

Let me be blunt: sugar and I don't get along.

Our feud started overnight, at slumber parties -- ugh -- in my youth. Even to write this now, fifteen years since my last sleepover, I shudder. And want to barf. Bowls full of M&Ms and the friends who pressured me into eating them kept me from the safety of my sugarless sleeping bag. Something seemed wrong with the unabashed stuffing my face with food my mom would never buy, but my friends of yore were not the kind who wanted to be right.

When I realized the way the all-night sleepless sugar fests made me feel -- you know, stomach and mind in shambles, plagued by regret and the shakes, stone cold and completely empty -- I quit going to them. But sugar showed up elsewhere.

For the rest of elementary school, I ate cookies and milk after school. By middle school, lunch time bake sales begot after school sugar comas. And in high school? Root beer made my butt grow. By tenth grade, the scale said 175. Wake. Up. Call.

First, I stopped drinking soda. By that alone, I dropped 20 pounds. I gave up carbs for an entire summer (wouldn't necessarily do that now, for the record). Rode an exercise bike for 30 minutes a day. And by senior year, the scale said 135. Cha-ching! But I was still missing... something.

In college, I figured out what that was: nourishment. While I loved my size 9's and being so thin that the skinniest girl in school said things like "Your thighs are almost as small as mine!" (Yeah. She had couth.), I looked sort of sickly. While what I didn't eat played a major role in a major loss of weight, what I did eat wasn't cutting it. And it's just as well, since in college, I crept back toward my old ways -- but never fully.

By no means am I an unhealthy eater. (Ask my Aunt Laura in North Carolina. Last time I visited, I made her stock up on spinach and garbanzo beans. And that was so I'd have something to eat for breakfast.) But by no means am I where I'd like to be, because if and when you show me the sugar-laden treats that, years ago, led to my boycotting slumber parties, I. Can't. RESIST!

Just today, I ate three cookies from a bowl a colleague brought to work. Needless to say, saying no to sugar is a struggle that's been on for years. In one of many attempts to kick the habit -- and by habit, I do mean addiction -- a few friends commended my desire to live dessert-free. But the same friends still offered tempting treats, and told me how to justify it: everything in moderation.

But I can't agree. Why, even in moderation, would I want something like the sugar you find in sweets? It feeds inflammation. It suppresses the immune system. It contributes to anxiety. It can cause depression. I can vouch for all that first hand.

If there's nothing in it that my body needs, I really don't see the point. So soon, I'll do to sugar what I should have done the day we first met.

I'm going to walk away.

Say goodbye.

Sever all ties.

And I'm gonna do it for a year.

I'm aware, of course, that my body needs some sugar -- and that, I will mostly get in fruits, vegetables and bread. The experiment, inspired by a recent conversation with my friend Sarah, won't be easy. But I'm curious enough to give it a shot. What will happen...to my body? To my moods? To my tastebuds?

Two and a half weeks to cut back.

Two and a half weeks until 2010.

My sugar free year.