A Sugar-free Week

I made it. No sugar and no carbs for a week. It was often a struggle, especially this weekend, when my wife made several things that I really like to eat, but that are high in sugar or carbs, and I had to turn them down, watching everyone else enjoy the heck out of them.

Surely, I'd get the last laugh, when my delayed gratification finally came to fruition and I ate my Symphony bar slowly and pleasurably.

When Monday morning arrived, I jumped out of bed at 6:30...okay, that's BS...I crawled miserably out of bed at 6:30 to go run.  I got my two miles in, then went upstairs to shower.  I weighed myself on the way in, and found that I'm still not under 260.  But I have two days left till the weigh-in, and I could still make it if I'm good, and stick to my plan.

I was planning out a couple of days of being careful with my eating, when I suddenly remembered that I could eat sugar this morning if I wanted to.  In fact, I had a Symphony bar waiting in my dresser drawer for the moment when that was allowed again.

I almost didn't want to do it.  I wasn't particularly hungry for that, and I wanted to make sure I hit 259.9 by weigh-in day.  I still ate it though, just less than I originally planned.

All I ate was that section that you see out of the wrapper.  I ate it as slowly as I possibly could, trying to savor every little bite, every gram of fat, every last calorie.  Interestingly, though, I found that it didn't hit the spot for me.  It seemed too sweet to me, and burned its way down my throat.  The pleasure wasn't there that I was hoping for.

It kind of puts a damper on my delayed gratification idea.  Will this work for me if the pleasure at the end of a week without sugar is not there?  If there's just as much pleasure from eating it every day as there is from waiting, where's the point in waiting?  Okay, I guess I might lose weight, but that's not guaranteed.  Too many other factors involved it seems.

Makes me think of my vow to avoid soda for a year.  I'm almost six months in, and I weigh no less than I did when I took the vow in the first place.  Was it worth it?  How can dumping that many calories have so little effect?

I guess, I'll try the no sugar/delayed gratification thing another time, and see if I can come up with a better treat to allow myself this week.  I think I've grown to enjoy dark chocolate more than milk chocolate these days.  Maybe I should pick something more along those lines instead.  I don't know.  I just hate it when things don't work out.  I'm more like Hannibal.  I love it when a plan comes together.