I gave up sugar for two weeks and I’ve never felt better

Once I got into the habit of reaching for an apple instead of a cookie, I saw the pounds begin to shed


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As human beings our weight has been and probably always will be a constant burden in our daily lives. It’s hard to ignore your insecurities even with all these body positive campaigns telling us to accept ourselves as we are; flaws and all. It could be just me, but I still have yet to embrace all the things about my body that I’m not fully confident about, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.

Now let me set one thing straight, I don’t get all down in the dumps about my weight or appearance, but being newly single does give me motivation for some self-improvement. I can just hear you thinking, “You shouldn’t care what your weight is and neither should anyone else. You should be accepted as you are.” Blah, blah, blah.  I can see where people are coming from and why these positive body campaigns are so important, but isn’t it important that I accept myself as well? Is there really anything so terrible with wanting to lose a few pounds in order to feel good about myself and improve my overall well-being? In my mind, I’m doing myself a favor by taking care of my physical and mental self.

Giving up sugar and completely switching my eating habits has been one of the most difficult things I’ve had to do in awhile, especially surrounded by a society that promotes unhealthy habits all the while advertising foods like this as cheaper and more convenient than “the good stuff.” If you walked through the grocery store and actually looked at the prices of all the fruits and veggies, you would see that these items are probably some of the most expensive products the store sells. Why buy foods that are more expensive and aren’t as tasty as that box of mac and cheese in aisle two that’s only 80 cents? Our society makes it cheaper to gain weight and more and expensive to lose it.

When my best friend and I decided that we didn’t want to storm the beach wearing snow suits this summer, I decided to really stick to our plan to drop the pounds. Not only was I bound determined to look my best by the time I went back to school in the fall, but I also didn’t feel like blowing my newly earned money just to eat better day-to-day. Unfortunately the town I’m from doesn’t offer many places to grocery shop, so I take advantage of Aldi grocery stores when I’m out of town. I found that places like this offer the best bang for my buck on fruits and veggies and anything else I need to kick start my new found diet.

Adding in a better variety of foods wasn’t the most difficult thing I’ve had to do throughout this transformation, but cutting out sugar (desserts) and significantly increasing my water intake had to be the the biggest adjustment. At first I found it really tough to not reach for the brownies mocking me on our kitchen table, but once I got into the habit of reaching for an apple instead of a cookie, I saw the pounds begin to shed.

I try to get my 10,000 steps in everyday between working or exercising, but sometimes the day gets away from me and I haven’t reached my goal. I’m sure I’m not the only person who doesn’t have the time to workout regularly, which is why I found cutting out all the junk food and significantly decreasing my portion sizes extremely beneficial when I wasn’t able to fit some type of physical activity into my busy schedule.

I’ve seen so many changes in myself the last two weeks, not including the numbers dropping on the scale. I naturally wake up early in the morning instead of at noon, my moods have shifted significantly, my energy levels have drastically increased, and I feel better about myself already. Losing weight and giving up crappy foods has definitely been difficult, but I know in the future I’ll be thankful I started sooner rather than later. It’s been a slow transformation, and I still have a long ways to go, but being ten pounds lighter has never felt so good.