I had an itch and I had to scratch it.  I know from experience that eating no sugar and no bread and drinking no alcohol is easiest the first week or so.  But, then my cravings come because my world of eating has become mundane.  One goal this go around is to become more inventive with my meals and snacks so I don’t feel mundane.  Thus, I completely empathize if you’re feeling bored with your food choices as of late. At our house the eating is going well.  We have always made a no sugar breakfast and have made several soups and chilies to have for lunches.  Add nuts, hummus and fruit for snacks and we seem set.  Oh, and did I mention tea. So. Much. Tea.  All that seems great…and boring now that it’s Day 10.  My partner has whined for chocolate after dinner for a few days.  So, now we’ve taken to enjoying a smoothie with banana, plain yogurt and frozen berries (none of which have added sugar).  So, so good.  The browner the nanner, the better the smoothie in terms of sweet.  Plus, it doesn’t leave you craving for more because natural sugar does not have the effects of added sugar.

In the past, my sugar detoxes consisted of a very limited natural sugar intake.  Over the years I recognized that albeit my successes, I felt deprived.  Just like diets can backfire and help you to gain more weight than you needed to lose in the first place, abstaining from all things sweet took its revenge later and I would find myself gorging when my abstinence was complete.   And, I also realized that because I felt deprived (because I was also depriving myself of nourishment) that I was eating much more of other things than I would normally.  I remember one Lent I gave up sugar and alcohol for 40 days and 40 nights (as well as all grains and fruit) and I was eating a block of Swiss cheese a week.  I couldn’t understand why I was gaining weight and I started tracking my intake online.  Uh yeah.  Turns out I was eating about 3,000 calories per day with my cheese and nut overload.  It was a great lesson learned.  Rather than blaming myself for lack of willpower, it made complete sense that my body would continue to give me signals for nourishment hoping the missing links (this being nutrients from fruit and grains) would be consumed.  You can have all the gas in your engine you want, but if you don’t have spark plugs the car won’t go.

So, smoothies it is to conquer those cravings for sugar (and alcohol) and it’s working.  For now.  My goal is to become more inventive.  We wanted whole wheat pancakes this morning because normally we make those habitually on the weekends considering we have eggs all week.  It would be easy to keep the 2 Tbl sugar out of the flour mix but what would we cover them with?  Just spreading peanut butter didn’t seem appetizing (without Pure Maple Syrup covering it).  So, I thought about the frozen fruit for our smoothies and thought, “How about a sugarless fruit compote?”  At that point eggs were already in the pan, but my mind is opening up.  This part is crucial to not continue the monotony of our current consumption pattern.  I will be searching the Internet this week for recipe.

‘Cause there are still 21 days to go.