3 weeks down . . . 2 to go

Stats as of this morning. Weight: 122.1. lost 5.1 lbs. Lost 2 1/4 inches from my waist, 1 1/2 inches from my hips, 1 3/4 inches from the thigh, 3/4 inch from the calf, 1/2 inch from upper arms, and 1/2 inch from forearm.

Yay! This is such a relief because I had a cheat day yesterday and worried I might have blown it all. Not that I overdid it, but I did sneak a few Easter treats & I know my sugar intake yesterday was much higher than it's been the past 3 weeks, but still much lower than my previous norm. I can see, though, how easy it would be to slip right back to old habits. It really is a daily decision-- wake up, commit to the goal, and re-commit every hour. You don't just "give up sugar" and move on with your life.

I can see how giving up a drug or nicotine addiction would be the same. We "sugar-free" peeps need to stick together, hold Sugar Anonymous meetings, swap degrading stories of cookie raids and Reese's Pieces binges. We live in a sugary world, at least a sugary nation, and we are an abused small population. We are inundated with sugar from a young age. We connect getting money (i.e. trip to the bank) with receiving sugar (i.e. free lollipops); we connect the joy of self-celebration (i.e. birthdays) with the mandatory cake and ice cream-- this starts at age 1, when our parents giddily video us gorging our faces, sparse hair, neck creases, belly buttons with frosting and spongy, moist Betty Crocker yellow, chocolate, or butter cream cake. Besides environmental influences, there's the biological fact that our taste buds are drawn to sweet tastes to prevent us from eating bitter, sour poisons. The cards are stacked against us before we're even born.

But children all over the world learn to take sweetness from the earth. From bananas, and pears, and pineapple, and carrots. They grow up knowing that food grows. In America, food comes in jars and in boxes, in plastic wrapping and bottles, with colorful labels and catchy names, like Twinkie and Sprite. In America, we "sugar avoiders" are WEIRD, SCARY, and ABNORMAL. Or stuck up food snobs. Hey, I'll take it. Rather be food snob than a food slob. Maybe I should start a United Front of Food Snobs. That's catchy.

Here's a nice, concise list I found of why sugar is really not so sweet: http://www.rheumatic.org/sugar.htm

In the end, everyone makes a choice. Some decide, "I'd rather die happy and full of sugar." Others think, "I don't drink; I don't smoke. Sugar is fine." And still most incorrectly say to themselves, "I don't eat that much sugar." They just haven't sat down and done the math. But a few do sit down and do the math. And a few understand their body for what it really is-- the only thing they're living in. And they decide to constantly improve what they put into their bodies. And eventually, that means cutting back on the sugar. WAY back.

Some may say my quest is vanity-driven. Perhaps it began that way. Let's face it, who doesn't want to have a rockin' bod? But what I've found in this process is a great humility, an amazing awe of the human spirit, of will power and determination. I've discovered the intricacies of the human body and just how sensitive it is to what we put into it. I've recognized the divinity of every muscle, tissue, organ, and cell of this body that houses my spirit, or deeper self. This body that gave life to three amazingly beautiful children, whose lives I want to be a part of for as long as possible. This body that is my only vehicle for communicating, for working, for serving and helping, for loving and giving, for teaching and performing, for hugging and holding, for seeing and feeling. This body. People spend their entire lives searching for divinity and looking outside of themselves. But if you've ever held a newborn, you know. That divinity has been inside the body all along.

The body is its own universe. May I always treat mine with gratitude and respect.