Day Twenty-Nine/Day Thirty.

So this is it: The End. It's sort of anti-climactic since I have no real cravings left. I doubt I'll be binge-eating dessert tomorrow or anything. Actually, with as good as my health has been lately I might never look back. Strike that, I might indulge in the occasional craving, but it has to be worth it. For instance, the second I get a dinner buddy, I'm all about a turkey burger/chocolate milkshake combo at some point, but at the same time I doubt I'll be indulging in the office cookie stash just for the heck of it. I'll allow myself to eat the lean pockets in my freezer, but I'll definitely be keeping mental notes on how my body feels afterwards. Really it's all about balance. And listening to my body. But I'm rather impressed with myself for making it thru this month not only alive, but healthier.

And now I have a question for you, my handful of readers: any questions?
I'll start writing my WUNT article sometime this week and it would be nice to be able to anticipate any information that a reader might want to hear about. Obviously, the basics will be covered, but is there anything nagging at your thoughts about my experience that you feel I should also share? Let me know.

Day Twenty-Eight.

Thanks to a fellow foodie, I've made a delicious discovery: Avocado. I've had it before in dips and on pizzas, but I've never braved a fresh purchase of my own. Quite frankly, I wasn't even sure how to prepare it [and had to ask]. Today, I've had it twice. The first was on an egg sandwich with turkey bacon and red bell pepper. A-mazing. Though I'm still not sure I have my avocado slicing down right because it kind of turned to mush. However, this lead me to an interesting idea: I've been using organic Dijon dressing on sandwiches in an attempt to replace my beloved Miracle Whip [the lemonaise was used exactly once, I can't take the idea of ingesting almost all egg yolk when it doesn't even taste that good], but with the avocado mush it lead to an interesting taste and texture. So this evening I had another egg sandwich [don't judge, I get on daily, sometimes weekly food kicks and eat the same thing three times a day, that's my prerogative] topped with spinach and an avocado/Dijon mixture as my spread. Surprisingly very yum! [Still not Miracle Whip, but it's getting tastier.]

Day Twenty-Seven.

So tonight my parents took me out to Chili's for dinner. I really considered ordering a black bean burger, but had to veto that idea when I realized that I always order it with a chocolate shake, it just wouldn't taste right without it.

It will be interesting to see what I will allow myself to eat after this whole thing is over with. While I have no desire to go back to my daily sugar habit, I will be relieved to be able to stop reading the label of every food item I pick up. [Ok, let's face it, I'll probably still be reading labels, but sometimes I'll care about the sugar content and sometimes the food on the front will just look too delicious.] I honestly do LOVE the way I feel now that I'm not poisoning my body with sugar. I've never felt healthier for this time of year. Usually by now I'm reaching for the Dayquill like the rest of the world, but this month there's not so much as a sniffle [disregarding the first week of flu-like withdrawal, that is].

Frankly, I'm not even tempted by the five boxes of cookies that now live in the corner of my office. I'd rather feel on top of my game all week long than have two seconds of sugar on my tongue.

Day Twenty-Five/Day Twenty-Six.

So I made an amazing food discovery tonight. Morning Star's Vegetarian buffalo chicken. I only gave up chicken a few months ago and the one item I can't shake the craving for it buffalo chicken. These little things not only fit the bill, but taste amazing. Seriously, I could serve them to hard core meat eaters and they wouldn't notice the difference. It was only after devouring a plate full for dinner that I thought to look at the box. The ingredients list, which is very long [I said they were vegetarian, not necessarily healthy], had sugar buried in the middle. Oh well, you live, you learn.

And speaking of items with unexpected sweetness, the one item I CANNOT WAIT to get back to in four days is...Miracle Whip. I'm loving the benefits of a nearly sugarless existence and will probably continue most of them even after the 30 days are up, but I will never again abandon my Miracle Whip. I've always been a hard core fan [Mayo ain't got nothing on the Whip], but after depriving myself for three weeks, the bottle calls to me every time I open the fridge. Will power I have, but it can only go so far.

Oh, and yesterday's banana nut muffins turned out surprisingly delicious. I had to substitute agave nectar for the brown rice syrup [I found rice VINEGAR in my search, but not syrup, weird.], but I looked up substitutions online and got them pretty well settled. BTW, agave nectar is not only a natural sweetener that doesn't spike your blood sugar like refined sugar does, but it's also nearly twice as sweet. Most substitutions only call for half as much in baking and cooking. Check out the info I found here.

Oh, and have I mentioned how fighting strong my immune system has become? Everyone around me is getting sick but I'm on top of my game [physically anyway, mentally, I'd rather stay in bed than work tomorrow, but that's a whole other story].

Day Twenty-Four.

I noticed something today. Though it has been well over six months since my last teeth cleaning, my teeth have recently been absent of that mid-day 'sweater' feeling that sometimes happens. [Be grossed out if you like, but you know what I'm talking about.] Now they feel clean and fresh all day long. A benefit of avoiding the sweet stuff perhaps?

Tomorrow plans have been made to attempt baking the sugar-free banana nut muffins. My baking partner and I are equal parts talented and disastrous in the kitchen so really it could go either way. I'll keep you posted on the [hopefully] delicious results.

Until then.

Day Twenty-Three

hmm...this is almost over. I'm really not sure I want it to be. I kind of like the challenge.

What shall I do next? A detox diet? Juice fast? Give up turkey? [Ok, so I already tried that last one and while the future vegan in me wants to make it work, the turkey bacon addict just isn't ready.]

Regardless, I like these little projects and feel the need to continue.