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Day Nine 3/9/16

3/11/2016

Taking a left

Today was an interesting day that surprised me just a bit. My day at work was going just fine until the final two hours and then everything seemed to go wrong. It caused me a bit of stress and I wasn’t exactly pleased. While this isn’t an entirely new situation for me, my reaction was completely different than before. You see, if this had happened two weeks ago, I would have started my short drive home and taken a left instead of a right, taking me to a Kroger that’s just two miles from the house. I then would have walked the aisles at Kroger trying to decide which brand of cookies, ice cream, candy, or other sweet thing I craved enough to spend my money on. Then I would have walked in my house at 1:10AM and set myself down on the couch to watch TV while eating almost all of what I bought. This was how I dealt with “tough” days or any days that I felt like something sweet. Tonight was the same scenario that I encountered many times before, but my brain didn’t switch over to “need sugar comfort mode”.

When I think back to it, I can’t say it was my will power alone that helped me avoid the sweet fate of Kroger after hours. It wasn’t even a desire that I felt I had to override, it just felt like business as usual and I wasn’t even tempted to take the left turn. I may not have explained it perfectly in the paragraphs above, but I can only say that something’s different now after nine days of the experiment, whether it’s in my body or my brain I’m not sure.

Chicken Bonanza

Another fun thing today was the delivery of eighty pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breasts to our house. My wife started ordering meat from Zaycon Fresh last year and we haven’t stopped since. Basically you order the meat by the case like a month or so in advance, then you drive somewhere local and they load it in your car. Trust me, when we started getting our meat this way, I was completely against it, but I’ve come to realize it’s quite a good deal. Even though I fear I won’t hear the end of it, I will go on record that my wife was completely right about this one. Check out their website if you’d like to learn more, it’s ZAYCON FRESH.

Be prepared, because I will likely be talking about chicken dishes in every post coming up for the next couple of weeks. Speaking of eating, here’s……..
What I ate today

The usual for breakfast, but it was rather late when I ate, so it counted more like a lunch than a breakfast. Since I ate so late, it threw my day off just a bit so I snagged a banana to take to work to tied me over until dinner.

Dinner was chicken (go figure), but it was crusted chicken in Almond Flour and parmesan cheese. The chicken was cut into smaller portions that were slightly bigger than boneless chicken wings. The sides were mashed sweet potatoes (seriously, why aren’t you eating these?), and corn.

My water intake was a bit lower than my goal of 100 ounces unfortunately. It’s hard to believe that I have an easier time of eating no sugar and flour than I do drinking enough water.

Well, onward to day ten!

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Day Eight 3/8/16

3/10/2016

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Hello everyone and welcome to the finish of day eight in my wonderful experiment of not eating any sugar or flour for the month of March. I’m still chugging away and haven’t slipped yet, so thanks for your support and for not having pizzas delivered to my house. For this blog, I wanted to share some “behind-the-scenes” stuff that helped me get to this point. I call this……..
How Facebook helped shape my experiment.

After my most recent annual physical, the doctor explained that my aches and pains weren’t due to some horrible illness that he could remedy with a pill or a laser. Instead he nicely explained that I’m getting older and I’m not eating the way I should be. This wasn’t the explanation I was expecting because over the previous months I had gotten accustomed to an ache here and a twinge there as part of daily life. After pondering things for a while, I realized I would have to discover for myself the impact a poor diet had on my body.

Around that same time, it seemed that many friends on Facebook were sharing the same Memes about staying in a log cabin for a year without internet for a million dollars, or spending a night in a haunted house for a million bucks. I’m sure you’ve seen them, or something similar, asking what you would do for some reward.

This started me thinking, what would I do to not have aches and pains for prolonged periods of time? What would I give up or start doing in exchange for that reward? I watched a documentary called Fed Up, which talks frankly about the sugar industry and the control it has over our lives, and at the end was a challenge to go a week without sugar to feel the change. That started my brain working on a plan to begin an experiment. While I’m not a glutton for punishment, I did know that a week was too short a timeframe to try anything new. You barely feel the effects after a week and you haven’t really put any change into effect. It takes 21 days to change a habit and the information I read about sugar stated it would be around two weeks for your body to adjust to functioning without it.

I’m not going to lie to you, my original plan was to use February as my experiment month, but the timing just wasn’t right and I hadn’t mentally prepped myself or the family for what was to come. I wanted to use a full month, start to finish, so March became the deadline.

My goal isn’t to preach the gospel of “no sugar” to folks or look down on soda drinkers out there. I think at the end of this month, which I hopefully survive, my plan is to have you ask yourself, “What would I do in exchange for feeling better, minimizing a medication I'm taking, not having to use insulin, or not feel aches and pains”. If you look at it as an “experiment” like I am, then you aren’t thinking about living the rest of your life without things. Suddenly it doesn’t become about eating your last slice of pizza ever or enjoying a final brownie before entering the dark world of no sugar. It simply becomes a test of your will, with an exact ending date.

The catch here is that when I get to the end of the month, I don’t know for sure how I’ll feel or where my mind will be. Maybe the “me” at the end of March will determine that my experiment is worth extending because of feeling better or seeing positive results. You just never know, but you can guarantee you’ll never find out if you don’t start. This month is just my start.

What I ate today

Do I even have to list my breakfast anymore? How about I list it if I don’t eat something other than some scrambled eggs, kielbasa, and some shredded cheese.

I was out on the road today so I thought ahead and brought a banana, which came in handy when my trip around town took longer than usual.

Lunch was a small taco salad because I’m still trying to use up that taco meat. I also used the cloud bread and made up a ham and havarti sandwich on it. Cooked it in the microwave for a minute and tried it out. The cloud bread held together like bread, but I thought it felt more like I was eating a very light omelet with meat and cheese. Not necessarily a bad thing.

Dinner was meatloaf, corn, and applesauce. I didn’t realize that applesauce would be such a hit with the family during this time. It’s like my 8 year old had never eaten it before and is constantly asking for it. One tip here though, make sure you buy the “natural” applesauce and not the regular. Check the ingredients and make sure it just says apples and water.

Well, off to day nine!

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Day Seven 3/7/16

3/9/2016

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Tonight is my one-week anniversary of my no sugar, no flour experiment. I realized that the first week also included no caffeine and no milk, though that wasn’t my original intention. This week I made a solid effort to increase my water intake to 100 ounces a day, which was triple my normal intake before. I feel like I hit the goal every day, though Saturday and Sunday may have been a little on the short side. I just don’t drink a lot of water when I’m driving around because I’m afraid I’ll need to stop every twenty minutes to pee.

So, here’s my summary of the week, but I’m going to warn you that it won’t be startling and exciting like so many commercials on TV. I didn’t set out to do this so I can impress you with losing tons of weight in just a week or two. In fact, I didn’t even weigh myself before the experiment began, because that wasn’t the important thing for me. This month is about my personal will power and how my body feels in general, so if you’re patiently waiting to see a topless selfie of my pudgy body in my bathroom mirror, then I’m going to have to break your heart. No camera phones were harmed in my preparation for this endeavor.

Here’s what I do know after one week.

I haven’t needed an antacid or felt like I had an upset stomach.
My joints weren’t achy or sore. (Not that I was falling apart before, but I did have my aches and pains that nagged me.)
My feet haven’t become swollen or ached. (Over recent months my feet would swell a bit when I ate high salt or badly. Again, not terribly, but enough to be annoying.)
I feel like I’m sleeping better now than a week ago. (This could tie back to not having to get an antacid at 3AM and then trying to fall back asleep.) I’m not sure if I’m snoring less, but I’m sure my wife would appreciate that side effect if it could happen soon.
I feel like I have more energy today than I did on average a week ago. Sure there were a couple of tough days in the beginning of the week, but each day after those had me more energetic than the last.
Finally, I feel like my head is clearer than it was last month. I’m not talking about “limitless” clarity where I’ve developed super human insight, just that things just seem better in my head.

What I ate today
Breakfast was a fresh batch of scrambled eggs and kielbasa. I know you are likely in disbelief that I’m still going strong on this meal each day, but I’m just weird I guess. A normal person would be enjoying fruit smoothies or yogurt, but not me.

Lunch was a taco salad again since I made too much taco meat and I’m trying to use it up. I put some meat and cheese on a piece of the cloud bread made yesterday and it was just strange, so I’ll try something else on it tomorrow.

Dinner was some leftover sausages from yesterday, half a sweet potato, broccoli and cauliflower mix, and a few turkey spinach meatballs with light alfredo sauce drizzled over the top of them. Turkey spinach meatballs are a favorite in the house and it’s a battle just to get a few. Even the pickiest eaters go after them with a vengeance.

Water intake was good today.

Thanks for hanging in there with me. Onto day eight!

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Day Four 3/4/16

3/6/2016

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Day Four

Side Effects
I’m not going to tell you that things have dramatically changed for the better after four days of my no sugar / no flour experiment, but I have noticed a couple of side effects. First, I haven’t needed an antacid since I began eating this way, not that I consumed them too regularly before. I used to need them after a pizza dinner or too many cookies and couldn’t imagine sleeping without some antacids on my nightstand. The second thing is hard to describe, but I noticed when I ate very unhealthy throughout a day, I would feel a pressure throughout my body much like I was being lightly squeezed everywhere at once. It was never enough to make me overly concerned because it almost felt like my body was in overdrive trying to process all the junk I consumed in large quantities. Since the beginning of this month, that hasn’t happened once.

When I wake up, it will be the weekend and I’m not positive how much more challenging it will be than the past few days. It will be my first around the family for a prolonged period and we often like to enjoy our time together eating things on the “not so healthy” scale. I’m sure my blog tomorrow night will have a different tone than the past few.

What I ate today

Had to make up a fresh batch of scrambled eggs and kielbasa for breakfast. Strangely enough, I am incapable of making just a couple of eggs because I tend to burn them. When I make eggs for breakfast, they are scrambled and I cook 16 at a time because I have developed the perfect method and timing for that amount. Of course, this allows me to have leftovers for a couple of days afterwards.

I shook things up a bit for lunch and cooked up some taco meat for my salad, instead of the traditional ham chunks. Sure I still had my cheese and black olives, but it was better than boring salad, day 4.

Dinner was cooked up by my oldest son who put seasoned porkchops on the menu. We learned that you need to wrap the sweet potatoes with tinfoil, but keep the shiny side facing in if you want to cook them all the way through. I ended up not having the sweet potatoes, but will catch them as a leftover tomorrow. I subbed in some natural applesauce and steamed corn to round out my meal. No snacks today because I was running around. I’m a little hungrier after getting off work than I have been for the past couple of days, but I’m fighting the urge to fix myself a snack. My goal is to avoid eating after 9PM.

I haven’t really missed any foods yet, but we’ll see how that goes. I do enjoy folks taking an interest in my experiment and keeping up on my progress, they are definitely keeping me honest.

Onto day five!

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Day Six 3/6/16

3/6/2016

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Day Six – Surviving Sunday

After a night of erratic sleep, (not due to my eating experiment), I ended up watching the Attack on Titan series for a while until breakfast and then ate the last of the eggs and kielbasa. I’m realizing that the weekends aren’t much more challenging than weekdays, except that being around my kids makes me want to eat ice cream or some other junk food item. It made me wonder if my children are to blame for weight issues over the past 18 years. Of course I would then have to blame someone for me being heavy as an adolescent, because I’m sure it had nothing to do with my love of Milk Duds and grape soda.

Spousal Support

I realized today that my wife is much stronger than I am with this eating experiment. She is eating the same way as I am, but doesn’t have a daily blog and readers to help her stay accountable. Add to that the fact that her job has her driving around past fast food places throughout the day and erratic work hours, which are challenges in themselves. I bow to her ability and strength and appreciate her keeping pace during this experiment. Try to find someone as crazy as you are if you want to make this eating leap.

What I ate today

-- I did snack on some cheese cubes at 4AM when I couldn’t sleep. I prefer cheddar and Colby, but that’s just me. Then my eggs and kielbasa shortly after that as I was winding down for a nap.
-- Lunch was a taco salad again, so I find myself alternating right now between a normal boring salad for a few days and a boring taco salad for the next few. Maybe next week I’ll shoot for chicken on my salad and create a rotation.
-- Dinner involved Bangers and Mash, but healthier style. Sausages with a light gravy next to some partially mashed sweet potatoes and fresh green beans. I’m trying to jazz up the blog a bit so hopefully you’ll see a picture here.
-- We went over to some friend’s house for the Walking Dead tonight, so I purposefully ate a little extra dinner so I wouldn’t be tempted. This was a very good thing because we arrived in time for the brownies to come out of the oven, enveloping the kitchen with the sweet chocolate smell of decadence. I hunkered down and stayed strong, even as the vanilla ice cream made an appearance, enticing me with its sweet charms. Obviously it didn’t phase me at all, as you can tell from my writing.

Cloud Bread

Today Stephanie made experimental “cloud bread” for us to sample. They kind of look like bun tops, but contain no flour. Here’s the recipe:

3 Eggs – Separated
3 Ounces of Cream Cheese
Quarter TSP cream of Tarter
A dash of salt to taste.

You mix the Cream Cheese with the egg yolks and beat the egg whites with the cream of tarter until stiff peaks. (Hopefully you know what stiff peaks are, because I still don’t.) Then you fold the egg yolk mixture into the egg whites and put it on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes.

They sort of had a bread like texture, but it also had a new strangeness. I might try a sandwich on them tomorrow and let you know how it turns out.

Sunday Dinner

Cloud Bread

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Day Five 3/5/16

3/6/2016

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Day Five – My first Saturday

Today wasn’t more challenging because of my family, but it was difficult due to running around. My errands took me out of the food safety of my house and into the real world. I tried to time it between meals, but things always take a little longer than expected. No, this isn’t where I confess falling out of my experiment, so be comfortable that my resolve is better than that, but I did break a cardinal rule I set out, which is skipping lunch. Sure I kept snacking on bananas and cheese sticks, but that didn’t make the drifting smell of Buffalo Wild Wings any easier to bear as I walked through the shopping center.

While I was out, I did find a copy of the book “Sugar Busters” at Goodwill for a dollar, which was a win. This was a book that I checked out of the library as I was looking into trying this experiment and I found it filled with lots of good information. I recommend you check your thrift stores for it.

My only trouble began around 10PM when I started getting really tired and decided to head to bed. This may sound like a good idea to you, but it typically ends badly for me because of shift work during the week. Think of it like you getting sleepy at 5PM and deciding to hit the sheets early for the heck of it, your body tends to consider it a nap, then wake you up around 10 and make your next day jacked up. I went to bed at 10, and now am up at 3AM typing up this blog and hoping I can go back to sleep close to my normal 3:30. More than likely I will be up until 5AM and will be a wreck on Sunday.

What I ate today
Eggs and kielbasa with a dusting of shredded cheddar for breakfast. (What can I say, I still love my eggs after five days straight.)

2 bananas, 1 cheddar cheese stick, and 1 beef stick for lunch. I had bought a pack of the Frigo meat and cheese packs because they were on sale and I had a coupon, but I’m not sure they are worth the money. I feel like I can make my own for cheaper. Of course, the family loves them so they were eliminated quickly.

Dinner was more extensive than usual with pork chops simmering in a verde salsa over a helping of Quinoa with a side of corn. If you’ve never tried or heard of Quinoa, I can best describe it some sort of plant that looks like fish eggs or eyes depending on how you prep it. While I don’t think it looks that great, it does make a good rice substitute at times and some say is a healthier option. I think it’s safe to say that the weirder a natural food looks, the healthier it is.

Tomorrow we typically go over to our friend’s house after dinner to watch the Walking Dead. In the past I have used this event to eat wonderful desserts to excess while watching folks kill zombies. This will be the first time during the experiment, but I’m already mentally prepped.

On to day six.

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Day Three 3/3/16

3/5/2016

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Day Three

My headache was gone and I had more energy today, which kept my spirits up. I had some folks tell me that they could never give up sugar and flour for a month and I had to answer that I wasn’t sure if I could either. I asked them to check in on me in a couple of weeks and see what happens.

I won’t lie to you and say it’s easy, or that you should think about doing it next month. In all honesty, I have a bit of an edge on most folks right now with my schedule and preplanning. Will power has a bit to do with it too, but without a plan, I don’t think anyone would get very far. Here’s a few of the things I have going for me.

Work schedule. Even though I don’t like the schedule I work, it does work in my favor for tackling this experiment. I typically wake up around 9:30AM and have the ability to spend time making breakfast without being in a hurry. I leave for work around 2:30PM, so I can also make myself a nice lunch. My job is within five minutes of my house, so I come home for dinner, which is typically prepared by my wonderful wife or kids. I don’t really get additional breaks at work, so it isn’t like I have to sit and listen to a candy machine, calling my namely softly.
Grocery Shopping. I’ve done the shopping for the family for the past year and it’s given me a chance to slowly adjust some of the food choices in the house. During this experiment, I don’t have anyone to blame but myself for any “tempting” foods brought into the house. Of course, this ties in with the kids and things they like to eat, which is the next point.
Family Support. We started talking about this experiment months ago, describing what it might look like. Of course there was concern from all the kids about what they would be eating, but I made it clear that I wouldn’t be forcing my experiment on others. I did let them know that their eating habits may be impacted for the short term though, especially when it comes to foods that I typically snack on. We phased out the cereals that I love as much as them, and replaced them with ones they love and I don’t. Our youngest still gets his lunchables, gogurts, and peanut butter sandwiches because I have no interest in them, but he had to say goodbye to Goldfish Crackers and pretzels because I can’t control myself around those. Each child got to pick foods they enjoy that I don’t care for and I committed to stocking up on them.
Planning. Having a meal plan is one of the most important parts of this experiment and while I don’t have every day for the month figured out, we still talk over things as family. One of the most important parts is having some quick back up meals for dinner just in case my wife has to work late or gets held up. This allows the older kids to whip something up without having to stress about making a new meal that requires a lot of knowledge.
Mental strength. I’m not saying I have the willpower of a super hero, in fact I’m craving some chips with cheese right now. But I think that by calling it an “experiment” makes me feel like it’s less restrictive than a diet or permanent lifestyle change. I don’t know what my mind or body will be like at the end of March, but I could very well keep going with my experiment if it has a huge positive impact on my life. I just know that trying this for a week or two wouldn’t have the same effect on me due to the short timeframe. Besides, you can do anything for a month if you put your mind to it.
Peer pressure. No, I don’t have a gang of vegans hanging around me and telling me I need to eat more salad. To me, peer pressure is caused by you, the reader of these words. Once I committed to writing about this month, I knew folks would follow along and I don’t want to disappoint you with not giving it all my effort.
Money. I like to save it, and this gives me a chance to see that happen. I know there are some of you thinking that buying fresh food is so much more expensive than frozen pizzas and soda, but I’ve found that actually isn’t true. After the first trip to the grocery store over a year ago to take on the shopping responsibilities, I quickly realized that cookies, chips, and other “junk” foods were expensive and had to be cut back on. This was ironic because when my wife did the shopping and would ask what I needed, I would quickly say Oreos, Ice Cream, Deli Pizzas, etc. Look at how much money you spend on those things and you’ll be surprised. Add to that the money you spend eating out or ordering in and it’s quite a chunk of change. This month we won’t be doing much eating out because it’s easier to control the ingredients at our house.

With all that said, I know your life is likely very different than mine and some of these points might be more of a challenge for you. For me, everything came together and it just seemed like this was the moment for the experiment in my life. Your moment to do something similar will present itself soon enough and I hope you take advantage of it.

What I ate today:
Eggs and Kielbasa with some shredded cheddar sprinkled on the top for breakfast. A banana. Day three of my boring salad for lunch. Dinner was steak with fresh green beans and peppers prepared by my amazing wife. Water intake was just over 100 ounces again and I’m still running to the bathroom quite a bit.

Onto day four.

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Day Two 3/2/16

3/4/2016

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An interesting day with me waking up to a headache that I just couldn’t shake. I didn’t want to believe it was detoxing from sugar, especially since the memory of the three cookies I ate just 48 hours ago were still fresh on my mind. In the end, I think it did have something to do with my body craving sugar because nothing I took would make it go away. It did shift from a sharp pain to a dull throbbing ache after a quick nap mid-morning, so that was a win. My energy level was quite low at the start of my day.

I realized today that I gave up a lot more than just sugar and flour for my March experiment. I’ve also given up caffeine because I’ve never been a coffee drinker and all my usual beverages are out. Luckily for me, I haven’t been a huge soda drinker and we rarely had it in the house before this month, so I’m not trying to kick a soda addiction too.

Eating after midnight, which has become the norm for me after getting off work at 1am is out also. My goal is to try and get my body back to a normal daytime schedule, which means no late night snacking and instead, getting to bed early so I don’t sleep the morning away.

Finally, I’m attempting to increase my water intake to reach a more recommended level. Granted, I’m nowhere near what “experts” (and my wife) think I should be drinking each day, but I’ve tripled my intake, so I’m good with that for now.

What I ate today.
Finished up my eggs and Kielbasa this morning, then moved on to a banana around 1PM. Had another boring salad for lunch, so I’ll have to figure out something better soon. Dinner was delicious with my wonderful wife making a seasoned boneless chicken stuffed with broccoli in a cheese sauce, with sweet potato rounds sprinkled with a little cinnamon and nutmeg. If you aren’t eating sweet potatoes regularly, then you’re missing out.

On to day three.

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Day 1 Wrap up

3/3/2016

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Day one comes to a close and I have survived. Actually it didn’t feel like I had given up anything at all, so I’m thinking I just fooled my stomach and taste buds into thinking this is just a temporary thing. I noticed that I got a little sluggish around 9PM, but I wasn’t hungry.

The time after I get home from work will still be the biggest challenge for me I’m sure. I typically found myself able to snack on anything around 2AM, away from the prying eyes of my family, but I’ve decided that I will try to avoid eating so late in the evening during this experiment also. My best tactic for not eating after 1AM is flossing and brushing my teeth as soon as I get home. No one wants to eat after they go through the effort of brushing AND flossing. So far so good.

Meals today included scrambled eggs with turkey kielbasa and some cheese. Lunch was a boring salad with just lettuce, ham, cheese, and black olives, (I’ve never been a dressing guy, so that’s a win). Dinner was brautwurst, natural applesauce, and broccoli. Today was also the first day I drank over 100 ounces of water and it didn’t kill me.

Challenges for the upcoming weeks definitely include the possibility of becoming bored with the same foods over and over because I’m quite picky. I guess I’ll need to get over my pickiness pretty soon.

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The Experiment is underway

3/1/2016

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Well, I’m a couple of hours into March and my great experiment is underway. So begins my month long journey without processed sugar or flour to eat. So far I’m doing pretty good, but it’s only been an hour. Tomorrow, (or is it later today?), I’ll be enjoying some eggs and turkey kielbasa for breakfast, a nice salad for lunch, and then a dinner of Brauts, veggies, and sweet potatoes. Sprinkle in an apple here and there, and I have my strategy for the first day. I’m sure future days will be very similar though.

People have asked me why I would want to do this and I’m not sure I have an exact answer. Yes, I’ve watched some shows and read some books on our culture’s dependency on sugar, which made me want to see how much impact it has on my life. Maybe I want to do something like this while it’s on my terms and not when I have a health professional telling me it’s unavoidable. In the end, I think it’s just another challenge to see how much I can endure and then how I can use this challenge to encourage my creative side.

This is why I plan to record my thoughts as each day passes, so you can be part of my journey. Support me or sneer at my attempt, it’s your choice. I’m just happy you’re reading along.

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Forward>>

Day Nine 3/9/16

Day Eight 3/8/16

Day Seven 3/7/16

Day Four 3/4/16

Day Six 3/6/16

Sunday Dinner

Cloud Bread

Day Five 3/5/16

Day Three 3/3/16

Day Two 3/2/16

Day 1 Wrap up

The Experiment is underway

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