Day 8

The week of suffering has been a success. I did not falter, unless to notice there was hidden sugar in some foods I thought there was none (farewell my beloved turkey bites, you will be missed). The turkey bite incident prompted me to purge my pantry (which I have done many times before on many other diets).
I now have a garbage can full of pasta sauce, Indian sauces, drink mixes, sugar free candy & chocolates, cereal, bread, and canned goods.
What a waste of money!
It now takes me 3 hours to get groceries as I have to read every ingredient and not just make sure it is low in fat, calories, and carbs. I thought I would be safe if I grocery shopped at the organic grocery store, but alas....sugar in different forms were hiding in my food.

I do a weekly weigh-in each Monday morning. These few minutes before the weigh-in are more stressful then opening your front door to find a cop standing there. The final number directly affects my mood for the day. If I lose weight I am happy, elated, and motivated to keep up the good work. If I am the same weight, I feel ashamed, as if I didn't give it my all and that I just wasted a week. If I gain weight? Well, then I fall into a deep depression and swear off eating ever again, and will only live off water and the odd green leafy vegetable.
This morning....drum roll please...
1 lb lighter,
pfffffffftttt
Well, better than gaining right? So far in 2 weeks I have lost 6 lbs. Yay me.
Purchasing food with no sugar in it is HARD. I was definitely one cranky bitch at the grocery store the other day. It is really not a surprise why there are so many unhealthy people out there. Now, I am not just saying unhealthy as in fat (but yes, there are also a lot of fat people) I just mean unhealthy. The items that we put into our body on a daily basis are not good. I challenge you to read the ingredients and see all the crap that is in some of the food you are putting into your body. Why is there sugar in everything? Sauces, salad dressing, deli meats, salads, sushi, it makes me want to scream.

So how can we get away from sugar? Other than preparing every single meal ourselves from scratch, it is a hard feat, because where this is no sugar...there is the other devil: Artificial Sweeteners (booooo).
Now, saying that. I have given up aspartame and artificial sweeteners for the past 3 weeks. Since doing so, I have noticed that I can concentrate better, I haven't had any headaches, and my cravings for sweet things has gone away. BOOYAH!

Aspartame, sigh...SO bad for you, in fact most artificial sweeteners are. The backassward thing about aspartame is that many people use it to lose weight. However, there have been studies done which suggest that aspartame, although low in calories, causes way more damage than good, and ironically doesn't aid in weight loss, but can actually attribute to gaining weight around your midsection.
Having recently dissolved my love hate relationship with diet pops, and my many coffees a day with sweetener, I can honestly say I noticed a big difference. I bet you will too.

Google Aspartame or artificial sweeteners and you will probably be surprised with what comes up. There are websites out there that say Aspartame is fine, and it isn’t harmful and blah blah blah. I am not a doctor, nor a nutritionalist, but after educating myself on artificial sweeteners, sugars, and sugars by other names. I don’t feel I want to even eat sweets, it just isn’t worth it to me. The more you educate yourself on what you are putting in your body, the EASIER it will be for you to eat healthy.

A few of my favourites are:
http://www.naturalnews.com/022785.html
http://www.medicinenet.com/artificial_sweeteners/article.htm