Round 2: Day Fourteen.

Currently Watching: Eco Trip Season1, Episode 1: Chocolate

It's quite an impressive little series, following the travels of David de Rothschild to find out what the impact certain aspects of daily living have on the environment. In this particular episode, the subject is chocolate. From the cacao farm to the chocolate factory, the environmental impact of all the main ingredients are covered. But what interested me most [other than the delicious shots of chocolate] was the coverage of sugar. Apparently, sugar causes more biodiversity loss than any other crop. No only that, but the drainage of water sources and massive amounts of chemical runoff from cane production is causing an ecosystem collapse in the Everglades. The episode even recommends buying chocolate sweetened with raw organic sugar or organic agave nectar to help prevent such damages to the environment.

Think perhaps I'm on to something?

Round 2: Day Thirteen.

I have quite a headache this evening. Massive really. Couple that with a personal near-trauma and I'm not much in the mood for blogging, but here goes my best...

I'm bored with food. Dessert really is the whole point of the meal in my opinion and with nothing to look forward to, I get a bit discouraged. I have been pacifying my sweet tooth today with Clif Bars. They're organically sweetened so they're project approved, but since they're energy bars they're also around 230 calories each so eating three a day isn't very practical. When money is less tight, a trip to Trader Joe's for some non-sugar dessert ingredients may be in order.

Now back to my headache [it's the only thing I can think about so I guess it's the only thing you get to read about], it could be a sign of withdrawal. I experienced headaches early on in round one, but with all the cheats I've had in round two, it makes sense that they're a bit later in the game this time.* All I can do is chug some water, get some sleep, and tough it out.

*So I checked into round one's day thirteen to compare and found that I felt like crap at this point last year too, but for different reasons. Complete with headache.

Round 2: Day Twelve.

Something you may not know if you've never waited tables: your server doesn't get a lunch break. Sometimes your server probably hasn't eaten anything for the past 6 or 7 hours. Because service shifts are generally supposed to be shorter than the average work day, there usually isn't a planned 'break' at any point during the shift. Plus, when your job is to serve people their lunch break meal, when do you think you'll find the time to have one of your own?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, I'm just explaining a common aspect of the job so you can understand that on days like today, I work almost 7 hours with no food whatsoever. So when someone hands me a free piece of laughy taffy, I take it, ponder for about an hour over whether I should eat it, and finally get hungry enough that it doesn't matter anymore that I have to blog about my cheat later in the evening. But no diet cheat ever goes unpunished and I immediately became cursed with a sugar sore throat. [The laughy taffy ingredients list pretty much looks like this: sugar, corn syrup, and partial hydrogenated soybean oil. yum, right?]

After work, I came home and was asleep within the hour, slept solid for about two. Practically narcoleptic. I've been doing that a lot lately and I'm not sure if I should blame sugar withdrawal or my own bad sleep patterns, but it has to stop soon.

Of course, then how could I get these 3am blog posts out there into the world?

Round 2: Day Eleven.

This will be a short post. I'm feeling a bit under the weather tonight. It's starting to get brisk out in Chicago and it's making me feel run down and sniffly. Perhaps some of that is sugar withdrawal, but most of it's just the unmistakable signs of an oncoming cold.

The one and only good thing about the impending cold weather [other than getting to wear some fabulous new coats] is that I can once again pacify my sweet tooth with hot tea. This was how I curbed my dessert cravings during round one and didn't realize how much it helped until it was too hot for tea during the start of round two. Now, whenever that post-meal sweet tooth hits, I'll simply put on the kettle.

Now excuse me while I curl up on the couch with my cranberry green tea before passing out in the exhaustion that comes with catching a cold.

Round 2: Day Ten.

Did you know there's sugar in LEMON PEPPER SEASONING? I have a nagging suspicion that I made this discovery last year, but I'd forgotten 'til tonight. Who knew that even your spice rack involves sweetener? It's quite disappointing since I've created a habit of eating baby peas seasoned with lemon pepper seasoning. It gives a nice little citrus-y kick to my veggies and makes it easier get my greens. However, now I'm wondering if the appeal doesn't have something to do with sugar addiction. So tonight I had to settle for plain pepper.

In sweeter news, I'm addicted to browsing the recipes in My Year Without Sugar. It's so handy to have found a site where the work has been done for me. I'm thinking of trying the sugar-free sugar cookies soon since they're really the only sweet treat on the list that I have all the ingredients for already. Had I not eaten my last banana this morning, I could have tried the peanut butter pudding, but alas, it wasn't meant to be.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

Round 2: Day Nine.

Tonight, I don't feel so well. Possibly it's the half a bag of potato chips I just mindlessly consumed while watching television. They're sweetened organically [BBQ flavor requires a bit of sweetness], but still not the healthiest choice. Not to mention the fact that last night ended with a bit too much wine. Ok, WAY too much wine. And cheap, low quality wine at that. Without going into regurgitation details, let's just say I paid for my alcoholic indulgence when I got home. So I guess I even started the day on the wrong foot. I did however, get in my daily workout which has been absent while the parents were in town. But honestly, I'm quite ready to start taking this experiments seriously in hopes of a health improvement.

It's funny how just having a project like this to focus on makes things seem to come together in life more. I'm a firm believer in a daily purpose and this blog gives me that. No matter how pointless the job seems or how frustrating the homework, I always have this goal to work towards and that does amazing things for a girl's self image. But it really is time to take this seriously, no more cheating.

It helps that I found some inspiration today in the form of another sugar free blogger. Ironically enough, she started her sugar avoidance just around the time that my first month was ending last year. But at a year long, her goal was much more ambitious. Like me, she reached the end of her goal and felt so good that she didn't want to go back. However, while I slipped back into old habits in a matter of months, she's continued for another eight still going strong and gathering more information than I could ever dream.

Check out this inspiring project at http://www.blogcatalog.com/blog/my-year-without

Just make sure you still come back to visit me some time as well.