Cutting Back on Sugar for July

If one of Weight Watchers' requirements was to eat 5-7 (or 20) servings of sweets per day, I'd be killing it at this program!  Very sadly, we all know that immense amounts of sugar doesn't really do a body good.  <i><span style="color: #999999;">I cannot stress the word 'sadly' enough in that statement.</span></i><br /><br />I've been constantly trying to find areas of improvement (there are many!) in my weight loss journey, especially since I've been stagnant for months.  After reading <a href="http://movingthescale.blogspot.com/2012/06/sugar-its-addiction.html" target="_blank">Missy's post</a> about cutting out sugar for the month of July, I decided to follow suit.  She's right, sugar is an addiction.  Sugar is my drug.  Sugar is my alcohol.  Sugar is my cigarette (that's for you Joel!). <br /><br />Essentially, this is all about trying to find what works for me.  Right now, the phrase "everything in moderation" isn't really working.  In fact, I don't even know what moderation means anymore.  That can be both a challenge and benefit to following Weight Watchers.  Essentially, WW allows you to eat whatever you want.  That's great if you're a picky eater like me.  However, sometimes that flexibility is exactly what shoots me in the foot.  Right now, I almost <i>need </i>to be put on a strict, detox diet to remind myself of the types of foods that truly are beneficial to my body.  If I had the PointsPlus for the day, given the choice between my favorite meal from McDonald's and a more well-balanced lower PointsPlus home-cooked meal, I'm honestly going to choose McDonald's every single time.  This isn't okay with me. <br /><br /><div style="color: #999999; text-align: center;"><i>I'm doing a lot of "writing to think" here.. so just bare with me.</i></div><br />I've always tried to view this journey as a lifestyle change, and not a temporary diet.  To me, when I hear the word "diet", I automatically think of a person who is eating from a list of specific foods for a short period of time.  With WW, and with a "lifestyle change", I have currently been of the mindset of not changing my poor eating habits, but simply downsizing them.  I know from past diets I've been on, I don't do well with strict food lists.  I know this is because when I would ask myself, "Can you do this diet long term?" the answer would always be "No way! I feel deprived!"  The "good" thing about WW is that you can still have your cake and it eat too.  I don't <i>have </i>to cut out any "bad" foods - i.e. fast food, sweets, junk food, etc - because I know I can manage to fit those foods into my life using WW.   I do this by ordering smaller portions (like a kid's meal) or even ordering the regular size portion, but just counting it. <br /><br />Still, I cannot help but wonder, if I truly cut out those "bad" foods, even if for a short period of time to detox, then perhaps that would be the jump start I need.  Right now, in this moment, I'm essentially not doing anything different than I was when I started this journey, except eating a little bit less.  Yes, that's good.  It helped me lose 30 lbs.  But it's not enough.  <br /><br />So for now, I'm going to cut out sugar for the month of July and see where that takes me.  Eventually, I'll reintroduce it back into my life in smaller portions, but for now, it needs to go entirely.    <br /><br /><b style="color: #351c75;">For those WW readers, did you cut out any food groups/restaurants/etc when you started your journey? Or did you just do what I've done - cut back the portion size?</b><br /><br />**special thanks to Missy for the inspiration behind this post and this challenge :)<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />

No Sugar Challenge Cutting Back on Sugar for July

If one of Weight Watchers' requirements was to eat 5-7 (or 20) servings of sweets per day, I'd be killing it at this program!  Very ...

Read more »