Just like honey: resolutions revisited

Come to Mama !!

You know how the new enemy is sugar ? How we keep seeing diet plans encouraging us to 'kick the habit' of sweet stuff ? Even Davina has got in on the act and her latest New Year plan is to ditch sugar in five weeks. Well I've got news for everyone that will save you the money (or you can send it to me - I'll add it to my fundraising total for Comic Relief I promise !)

I've done it.

I've broken my dependence on sugar and no longer crave it.

In a month.

In January I decided to give my body a break from the rubbish I had been filling it with over Christmas. I stopped eating chocolate, puddings, cakes, 'treats' and alcohol. Not for money, not as a precursor to going sober or anything. Just. I did it last year and lost half a stone. This year I also cut back on bread and started making green smoothies in the morning which has been a whole other journey. In the mornings I've been blending up banana, spinach, avocado, coconut water, chia seeds and random fruit and drinking them on my way to work. I'm not sure if they've had any miraculous effects on my health, but I'm pretty sure it's better for me than a latte and a pain au chocolat.

Ok, it doesn't look green, but it actually is :) 

Anyway, I digress. So, I've cut out chocolate before and what I've noticed is that everything tastes far too sweet even a few days after stopping eating sweet stuff. I don't have sugar in my tea or eat cereals and I don't drink fizzy pop or squashes either. I do, however, work in an office were there are always 'treats' around and it's very tempting. I've been out to eat with friends a few times since I started this and I've skipped desert and stuck to water or soft drinks. It's been fine. No one even notices really.

So what happens tomorrow ? Well. I had been telling everyone that I'm going to have a binge on sweets, cakes and biscuits tomorrow and I did buy a nice bottle of wine this evening. Truth is though, I'm not sure I'll want to stuff myself now I'm out of the habit. I'm now used to stopping to think about what I'm going to eat and considering whether or not I'm hungry or just bored.

The greatest breakfast there is. 

I'm not saying I'll be blending green smoothies every day of the week or that I'll eschew french pastries in favour of porridge when I'm getting into work at some unearthly hour. What I will do is try and maintain some of the momentum I've gained from ditching the unhealthy food. So there's that.

Now where did I put that bag of giant chocolate buttons ?

It's the second day of the rest of your life :)

Don't you tell me what to do !! 

I realise that resolutions is a dirty word and everyone keeps going on about how they've decided to make 'life changes' instead of resolutions. Well, I've decided to go all old school and just set myself a few things to do and not do. It's terribly dull hearing about how other people are giving up drinking or going on a diet so I won't actually go into that. On the basis that the hardest part of any life change is just making a start, what I will do is tell you how I'm getting on so far. You can work out from that what I've set myself as aims. It's like the US game show Jeopardy.

So today on the second day of this year I have managed to:

• Wake up (not that early really) and made myself breakfast - I don't always eat breakfast as I rarely have time so that was a massive achievement

• Get out of the house to go swimming - the pool was empty and it was proper blissful :)

• Not shout at my boy - admittedly it helped that he was staying with my Mother last night, but still. I think I might just have cracked this parenting thing.

• Avoid any chocolate passing my lips, even when the man in Thorntons offered me a free sample of a smiley face chocolate. I realise this sounds all wrong, but it really was a genuine and innocent offer.

• Stop myself eating yet another mince pie I chose a healthy 'real food' snack this afternoon - it even involved fruit. Go me !!

• Progress from thinking about making green smoothies to actually going out to buy the ingredients to make them. I hope that tomorrow I will actually get round to making one - can't promise I'll keep it down though.

• Begin the great declutter. I have given away my 'spare' toaster, kettle and filter jug. For me this is big news as I hoard everything.

So, I'm making good progress on some of my aims for the year.

It's only two days in so I think that's a pretty good start.

That is going to make a lot of green smoothie !!