January 7th, 2025
Today, I felt great! Perhaps it is just my optimism, but I am fairly certain that my body is already reaping the benefits of being weaned from sugar. I had a nice balanced energy all day with no cravings. I was able to leave work around 4:30, run to the grocery store, and cook a lovely lemon-paprika salmon dish over beans and spinach. I had to substitute pinto beans for cannellini beans but the dish seemed to harmonize perfectly, despite the switch.
What I have started to notice is that I am enjoying other foods more. I had a cauliflower Tikka Masala dish with chickpeas over rice for lunch (left over from last night) and I am convinced I was enjoying the distinct flavors of each ingredient in a way that usually eludes me. I am now realizing that I have probably treated lunch and dinner as obligatory tasks to complete to get to the dessert on the other side. I should just at least put up the facade that I am eating healthy before I give myself permission to have a handful of cookies and offset, if not destroy, whatever nutritional value I just gained. And other times, I just don’t care. I might just skip the charade and go straight for the sugar.
My mom used to make the best raspberry squares ever. I never liked raspberries growing up. To be honest, I never ate that much fruit. But mask all the natural goodness in a sugary square of delight, and you would never know I would hardly touch one off of the vine. Whole Foods has a box downstairs of fresh raspberry squares and, sadly, they never sell just one, like the cookies. So if I am compelled by stress, hunger, anxiety, or any other excuse I can give myself, I’ll get the plastic box of giant squares for nostalgia and dig into them. The problem is each square is about four servings and there are four in a box. My mom made hers nice and small so we could have three or four and let our childhood metabolism burn through them- but that old psychology kicks in and before I know it, I have had 1000 calories of four raspberry squares.
Since I have not had sugar in nine days, I am noticing my temptation to be so ridiculous is slowly fading away and my taste buds are starting to sing for other flavors…which brings me back to the salmon dish. I swear it was one of the best I have made. However, I don’t ever recall pinto beans and spinach underlaying baked salmon something to get excited about. So perhaps my taste buds are adjusting to and appreciating more the other flavors of the world. After savoring the flavors of my dish, I headed to play tennis feeling great about myself. No temptations today….almost.
Coming home from tennis, I walked into the house to see a lone nicely wrapped in plastic chocolate chip cookie. At first, I walked by thinking myself impervious to its powers. Sadly mistaken, I turned around and headed to the pantry where I could indulge in something that wouldn’t technically ruin my streak but could feed my gluttonous side. Good old salty tortilla chips. What can I say, I am a work in progress.