A quick update...

I wrote the following last night, but didn't have time to press "Publish" before my professor started the class:

Minus the bean salad snafu from last week, my sugar free year is off to a great start. From the lobby of the Florida Mental Health Institute, I'll fill you in while I wait for my next class:

In just twelve days [almost] entirely sans sugar that doesn't occur naturally, I feel different. Good different. More energetic different. Most days, I'm up between 6:30 and 7 in the morning now, as opposed 7:30 or 8 a.m. or later, which is when I'd usually arise before sugar and I split up. I'm quicker to get ready before work, quicker to complete tasks at work. More motivated to exercise. Really freakin' hyper! Ask Fernando. Or Sarah. Boy, do they know.

Fun fact: I've had a few dreams about sugar this week. And in real life, I really haven't craved it (minus when I saw a sign for a molten chocolate cake at Chili's. That looked good.) So far, living "sugar free" hasn't been too hard. It's work, in that you have to be familiar with the several shady names there are for sugar (there'll be a blog on that in awhile!). You have to read the ingredients or, preferably, you have to eat the kinds of foods that don't require ingredients. For those, you have to shop the "outskirts" of your grocery store -- the produce section, the meat department. The bakery (some bread doesn't have sugar!). The hardest part so far has been the criticism, which inspires me to clarify what this experiment is about.

And since class is about to start, I will do that next time!