Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Sarah, I'm 35 years old, married, and I have two children. My husband Steven is 39, Sam is 7 and Luke just turned 3. Sadly wee don't have a dog to complete the perfect all American family, though we do have a grumpy cat, and various assorted fish and reptiles. We live in suburbia, in Northern California, where I'm a stay at home mom. Although that's a bit of a misnomer, as I'm rarely home all day, I feel like I spend most of my days rushing here, there, and everywhere. All in all we're about as average a family as you can imagine.
We meet the American average in more ways than one. Since Steven and I have been married, (12 years this May,) we have both steadily gained weight every year. There were definitely years where we gained more than others. Two pregnancies, and the subsequent two toddlerhoods took a toll on my body. Steven spends a lot of his work week on the road, so a diet of fast food has become common. And I'll fully admit that we frequently make poor choices regarding food, both for us and our children. In a time where many of my fellow parents make sure nothing passes their children's lips that is not organic, all natural, whole grain, etc., my kids tend to enjoy a diet reminiscent of my own from the 1980's. Only with more Happy Meals thrown in.
I really only have myself to blame. I'm a pretty descent cook. I can follow most recipes and produce edible, if not pretty darn good food. I even enjoy cooking, and especially baking. But life happens. Some days we don't get home until dinner time. Other days my toddler has run me ragged, and I'm not up to anything more strenuous than Papa Murphy's Take n Bake pizza. Sometimes we want to go out to dinner as a family just for the fun of it, and hey, Red Robin has pretty tasty burgers and fries. Not to mention onion rings with campfire sauce and milk shakes. Then there are the holidays, which always revolve around food, much of it sweet. And the birthday parties. Good lord the birthday parties. My younger son Luke is part of a fantastic local playgroup, which is specifically for kids all born within six months of each other. Which means, they all have birthdays within six months of each other! We're in the midst of birthday party season right now, in fact we got back from one at Chuck E Cheese about three hours ago, and we're at a different one yesterday! Sam, my 7 year old, gets invited to a fair few as well, though for the most part he's at the drop off age, so at least I'm not getting a cupcake as well.
Goodness I talk a lot. Or write a lot I guess.
Anyway, I knew I had a problem. Last spring, we had a particularly tough few months, with a lot of time spent on the road, which meant of course, a lot more fast food type meals. I went to a doctors appointment in early May for a sinus infection, and was forced to get on a scale. I weighed in at 196 pounds! The only time I had ever been higher was at nine months pregnant! It was time for a wake up call. I promptly joined Weight Watchers, which had worked well in the past, until I got pregnant with Luke.
Weight Watchers is of course a paid program, and it certainly works. At this moment I'm down 23 pounds. It could certainly be more, but I'm definitely one of those people who always has an excuse or a reason to have that cupcake or order of fries. The thing about WW is that you can eat what you want. You just need to watch portions, and offset the not healthy stuff with lots of fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, low fat dairy, and whole grains. If you've ever attended a meeting, ( and I'm part of a fantastic meeting, shout out to The Crazy Losers!) you know that there is always a wide array of people, from the newbies, to the ones who are back for the third or fourth try, to the lifetime members, those elusive creatures who have attained their goal weight and are keeping it off. The difference I think you'll find between these people is that the ones who're making it work, really work for them, have figured out that actually ayou can't really eat what ever you want. Sure, you can have one slice of pizza. But the rest of your week needs to be healthy. And it needs to be real food, honest to goodness vegetables, meat, whole grains, etc. Not "diet food" that is full of chemicals, and not much else.
So, where are we now? I've learned my lessons about eating smaller portions, real food, and moderate exercise. I have good weeks and bad weeks. I'm on a journey, and that's ok. But this blog isn't about WeightWatchers. It's about quitting sugar. A few months ago, one of our members gave up all sugar and alcohol. Over Christmas. Just let that sink in for a minute. No sugar, or alcohol. At Christmas. She was very strong, and made it to her personal goal of New Years. Then another member mentioned watching something on YouTube about sugar. And I remembered reading an article about a family who did a year of no sugar. And I decided I needed to do some research. I plugged going sugar free into google, and promptly got sucked in. I Was Horrified. I spent the next few days reading and reading and reading. (Links coming soon.) The whole time I was talking at my husband about this. I think he was afraid. But somehow I talked him into doing a sugar free trial. And lord help us, we start next week. Because starting the week of Valentines seemed like setting us up for failure. So, big deep breath, and away we go.
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