One Month At a Time: January Mid-Month Check-In
Wednesday January 18, 2017

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Earlier this month, I shared an approach for Welcoming the Quality in 2017 and Letting Go of The Quantity, One Month at a Time, and prior to the end of the month I wanted to take a moment to share with you my mid-month progress.

Each month one habit, concept or practice is the focus with the goal of reducing or letting go of something entirely that is not improving the quality of our lives. In January I’ve decided to focus on something that while rather general, allows you to tailor the life improvement that best suits you: Reduce or eliminate entirely one food or food type that does not serve you well.

As promised, I am checking in to share with you how the month has been going for me as I chose reducing or eliminating (the goal was eliminate entirely, and you will see how I did below) refined sugars.

As each month is focusing on letting go of something, I created a short series of questions to answer or statements to complete, so that you too can share your progress.

January Mid-Month Progress:

Abstained from the following refined sugar go-tos:

  • croissants
  • lemon tarts
  • cake

Moments of weakness:

  • pain aux chocolat
  • clafoutis aux poires
  • crackers

 

Things I’ve learned:

  • When I am hungry and tired I tend to reach for food that is easy and full of carbs (crackers are my go-to). This is not a bad thing, but a realization. And so ensuring I have healthy carbs paired with protein ready to grab and nosh on is crucial so that those pesky refined sugars aren’t consumed as well.
  • Simply having the one month goal, not a set number to reach, feels far more doable.
  • Having the goal and having shared with TSLL readers and podcast listeners gave me pause each time I reached for something with refined sugars. (Most of the time it stopped me.)
  • Simply having the conscious awareness reduced the amount of times I actually consumed refined sugars.
  • As I try to reduce or refrain from buying processed foods in general, it was easy to abstain from cookies, ice cream or store bought processed sauces. (However, homemade sauces – yep, yep, yep!)
  • My appetite has been satiated, and I’ve never felt deprived.
  • I’ve begun to explore further into different vinaigrettes to dress up my greens for lunch and dinner which add an abundance of flavor.
  • With the primary focus of my lunch and dinner being low-starch carbs and protein, I am reading this cookbook to become better adept at making delicious sauces to add flavor and variety to my meals.
  • I am feeling more energetic.
  • My sleep is sound and restful.
  • What I’ve learned about refined sugar during the process:
    • The American Heart Association recommends no more than six teaspoons of sugar a day for the average woman, and no more than nine teaspoons for the average man.
    • However, American adults consume 22 teaspoons per day, while the kids are scarfing down a daily average of 32 teaspoons
    • 4 grams of sugar is equivalent to one teaspoon
    • Check the label: Some of the many different ingredients that actually refer to sugar include high-fructose corn syrup, corn sweetener, demerara, evaporated cane juice, evaporated cane juice solids, fruit-juice concentrates, dextrose, fructose, lactose, and a number of other terms ending in “-ose”.

With just under two weeks to go, I am diving into reading The Case Against Sugar by Gary Taubes and am curious to read Year of No Sugar by Eve Schaub as well. Click here to read my final thoughts on how letting go or reducing something that wasn’t serving me wrapped up, how I will be moving forward and the observation regarding the improvement of the overall quality of living.

I encourage you to share how you are doing as well with the one item you chose to let go or reduce. Feel free to answer the three items above.

 

Image:  source

 

Thesimplyluxuriouslife.com | The Simply Luxurious Life

6 thoughts on “One Month At a Time: January Mid-Month Check-In

  1. I don’t think of croissants as having sugar, but a pain au chocolate certainly does.
    I make savory muffins with oatmeal, whole wheat flour and grated vegetables (beets, carrots, zucchini), which are filling and healthy (recipe on my blog). I make a big batch and freeze them; they defrost quickly in the microwave. It helps to have healthy options at hand.

  2. Before your podcast, I had already decided to give up non-essential spending for the month and decided to stick with that. After the initial realization that I had a strong impulse to shop online or purchase something in a moment of stress or anxiety, I have been doing pretty well and have only made a few extraneous purchases. I created a section in my bullet journal where I could daily record what I spent money on and am learning not to beat myself up about “messing up.” Instead, I’m just using this as an opportunity to get to know myself better and understand the underlying currents of my impulses.

    Thank you for the update, glad to see it’s going well for you!

    1. Thank you for sharing how your month of non-essential spending is going. It sounds like you are doing very well! What I noticed in your response is that being conscious is an important tool to limiting what isn’t working for us. Thanks again!

  3. I gave up alcohol and nightshade foods at the start of the New Year – I’m not generally a big drinker but this election season really had me reaching for the vino. Now that it’s been a few weeks, I’ve decided to stay off alcohol until I lose the weight I gained a couple years ago (thanks to my wonky thyroid). Since then, I’ve read even more about the way alcohol interferes with both metabolism and thyroid. I also have a major food sensitivity to nightshade foods, which also interferes with my thyroid function. In the past, I’ve found it nearly impossible to avoid nightshades and still enjoy food – when you live in Texas, tomatoes and peppers are a way of life! I finally decided to try creating weekly capsule menus – thank you, thank you, thank you for planting the seed of that idea!!! It has made life so much easier for me, and both my husband and I are loving it. I only shop once a week now, we’re eating out so much less, and I never find myself unprepared and therefore reaching for the foods that I shouldn’t have. I already love to cook, but this has really given me a newfound joy and satisfaction.

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