I am in uncharted territory when it comes to my relationship with desserts.  I am continuing with the no desserts for now – (with a rare exception).   The NO decision continues to be easier every day.  But this time, I feel less sorry for myself in that I need to make this change long term.  That’s different.

At least it’s a no-brainer that reducing or eliminating sweets and a significant reduction in sugar is beneficial to one’s health.

Change is hard but it seems that it is not impossible and the longer this goes on, new habits are being formed. Saying no to the gourmet cookie yesterday without feeling sorry for myself felt like a victory.

“How to not become a diabetic” classes start on January 30th.  Eight weeks of learning how to prevent this condition in my future – so I hope I learn something helpful.

I decided a month ago to make a change regarding sweets and candy to have a simple way to reduce carbs and sugar in my diet.    Sort of my own version of a Whole 30, I suppose.  I determined that I was not going to eat sweets for 30 days (a re-boot, so to speak) – with an exception of Christmas and New Years weekends.  My main motivation is to attempt to prevent development of  diabetes.  Based on what I read, this can be avoided by simply making  changes that may yield a 10% weight loss.

There is much that confuses me regarding how to best lose weight for my body and metabolism and what changes to make.  There are many products to consider that supposedly help.  But this change was free, not easy but doable for 30 days, changes that no one disagreed with as a way to improve diet.  Eat more protein, avoid simple carbs, reduce carbs in general, eliminate added sugar.  So let’s begin and just do it.

“But it’s the holidays!”

The holidays are indeed filled with junk and so much sweetness – as I was reminded many times.  Why this particular time?!  Why not?  As a person who enjoys baking sweets and eating out and socializing around food, it does not take the holidays to cause the endless flow of sweets in my life.

In the past 30 days, I have had one gingerbread cookie, 1 small slice of a Yule log (Christmas Eve), and one tiny piece of cheesecake (New Year’s Eve), and yesterday at my daughter-in-law’s baby shower, I had a small piece of cake and the smallest scone I’d baked.

Observations I’ve made in this dramatic (at least for me) change:  I did not die.  It was not as hard as I thought it would be.  Yes or No decisions are easier than HOW MUCH and HOW OFTEN.  I ate a lot of fruit and it tasted very sweet.  I can have a cup or coffee or tea and do not need a cookie but it feels weird.  I tried not to talk about it much but enough to keep me accountable.  I lost a couple of pounds.  (Obviously this is not a “lose weight fast” plan.)

A friend and I are signed up for an 8 week class on how to avoid developing diabetes.  I’m going to get re-acquainted with MyFitnessPal.  I have a treadmill.  More changes are coming, 30 days at a time.  Baby steps.  I can do it.

 Not my feet – and I think half of me weighs this much.  🙂