Sugarless 2011 Update

I just realized that there hasn't been an update for a while on Sugarless 2011. In a nutshell...

I REALLY missed my sweets.

And I mean like the sadness you may have experienced as a kid when Mom told you that you couldn't hang out with Sally anymore because she's a bad influence.

I'm sorry, Sweetie, but she's a Mac user.

I'd walk down the aisles of Wegmans and shed a silent tear for the cookies that were getting the cold shoulder, and try to shut the tantalizing scent of pie out of my nostrils. All that gung-ho "Sweets? Who needs sweets??" in January has melted away to openly pining for my long-lost loves. Speaking of which...

I cheated a few times.


The first time was in fact pretty funny. I had been having a horrible day-- this was in the midst of the post office drama, so I was annoyed over that; and I was suddenly feeling lonely in our new town, and Oscar was acting up, and I just felt tired. Nothing too horrible on its own, but for some odd reason, it was all just overwhelming me. There was only one thing that would appease my cranky, tired self. So I marched up to Adam and told him, "We are going to get ice cream. NOW."

So I suggest you find that coupon.

We went to a Dairy Queen down the road, where I ordered a nice chocolate ice cream cone dipped in extra chocolate. It was delicious, but I had just broken a successful four-month streak of no sugar. What on earth would possess me to need chocolate that much?

And the next day, my period returned from its 18-month hiatus. I used to be really skeptical of so-called PMS symptoms, but now I'm not so sure. :-P

The other cheating instances, I just realized, were on holidays-- a cupcake on Good Friday, an Orangina for Mother's Day. I'll have to be a little more vigilant about that.

I lost weight.


Last week, when we were visiting the brother- and sister-in-law, we pulled out the scale just to see how much Oscar weighs these days. My eight-month-old clocked in at 27 pounds!!! Good grief! Equally exciting is that I'm tipping the scales the other direction-- I have finally shed all the pregnancy weight and ten more pounds beyond that!! I don't know if it's the breastfeeding, cutting sweets, or the calories burned from hauling a freaking 27-pound baby everywhere, but there is officially less of me to love these days.

I took advantage of the Bread Challenge loophole.

It was always an Easter family tradition growing up to have cinnamon rolls for breakfast. So this year, I found this Clone of a Cinnabon recipe and baked the single most delicious food I have ever made. If you are looking for a good cinnamon roll recipe, look no further! It was so good, I totally forgot to be sad about not getting Eater candy, and I spent the day alternating between euphoric sugar highs and deep sugar comas. Monday was a sugar withdrawal day, but oh, was it ever worth it.

So that's what's going on with the sugar. I haven't fallen off the train yet!

Sugarless 2011: What About Snacks?

I am approaching the end of the first three months of Sugarless 2011! In many ways, it's been easy-- after three months, candy is actually starting to look gross. And in some ways, it's been hard; I die a little inside every time I drive past Krispy Kreme. But above all, it's been successful! And I can't say the same about my other resolution, but we won't talk about that.

*wipes away a tear*

Cool Mum asked me a while back what I do for snacks. Truth be told, aside from pregnancy- when I consumed everything in sight like a crazed hippo- I've never been much of a snacker. It's probably for this reason alone that in spite of not working out much, I've stayed pretty much the same shape since high school. If I have snacks in the house, then I'll usually eat it, so I don't keep much snacky stuff around. But when I do, here is some of the resolution-approved stuff I eat...

-Nuts
-Bananas with peanut butter
-Popcorn
-Hummus on crackers
-Cheese sticks
-Oatmeal
-Chips with salsa/sour cream
-Sliced avocado
-Plain yogurt (sounds yucky, but after you eat delicious homemade crockpot yogurt, there's no going back)

And sometimes I'll eat the bad stuff, too, like Cheez-its or Pringles. I'm just limiting the sugar, not going eco-vegan-health-crazy. Cool Mum has a recipe for faux ice cream that I've been meaning to make, and I'm always on the lookout for new things to try. So tell me... what are your favorite sugarless snacks?

This post is linked with Work For Me Wednesday.