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My Year of No Sugar and Getting Back On Track

by Megan

I recently went a year without eating sugar, and since going on vacation and reintroducing sugar, my progress has suffered greatly! So today I’m sharing 5 tips for getting back on track, which are all the things I’m currently working on!

5-Tips-For-Getting-Back-On-Track

It’s been a whole month since I completed my year of no sugar, and it’s taken me this long to get around to writing about it. The year ended while I was on vacation in Maine, and I was prepared!

sugar-party

Oh yes, I ate about half of that chocolate cake for lunch that day. And my first bite of sugar was the homemade whoopie pie, which was out-of-this-world good!

eating-sugar

I also did a test taste between regular Coke and Coke Zero. Yeah…while Coke Zero was a decent alternative, there’s nothing like the taste of a real Coca Cola!

coke-taste-test

I took full advantage of my sugar freedom, and I indulged while on vacation. I don’t regret it. I’ve only been back to Maine twice in the past five years, and I was going to make the most of it.

However…I am so far off the horse it’s not even funny. I don’t know how going on vacation for a month translates into 30 pounds…but it basically translates into 30 pounds.

So here I am, wishing I could be triumphant about my success, and it’s pretty much all gone. I could lament about how UNFAIR it is that it is so hard to lose weight and so ridiculously easy to gain it back, but that wouldn’t really accomplish anything.

I’ve been home now for three weeks, and I’m ready to make this happen again. It’s hard to say what was “baby weight” and what wasn’t, but I was down about 60 pounds since having Harry (and only gained 40 while pregnant with him). I was nearing a comfortable weight, loving the clothes I could buy, and feeling amazing.

Now I feel terrible. It sucks being back at the beginning. It sucks feeling uncomfortable every day. And it SUCKS to have to watch what you eat.

But that’s the reality.

So…

Since I know a lot of us find ourselves in the same boat, having to get back on the horse, try again, go back to the beginning, I thought I’d share my tips for getting back on track, whatever your goals might be.

Tip #1: Take a walk.

It’s so easy to get stuck in the rut of sitting on the couch, wishing. It’s difficult to take the first step toward making a change, but once you take the first step, the rest tend to follow. So literally take a step. Get out of the house, take a walk, and be alone with your thoughts. Clear your mind and recommit yourself to whatever it is that you want to do. Remember how you’ve been there before and how you got there, and know that you can do it again!

Tip #2: Set a goal.

Choose something that you can work toward every day, preferably something with a deadline. So for me, I’m going to run a marathon. I’ve picked out the race and the date, and I have a training schedule in place. I can’t always control what the scale is going to say, but I can control whether or not I put on my running shoes and hit the pavement.

Tip #3: Visualize the end of the day.

During the day, as you make various decisions, imagine yourself going to bed at the end of the day, and ask yourself if you’re going to feel like you are closer to your goal. It’s so easy to waste a day. I would eat fast food for lunch every single day, if it didn’t affect my weight (I know it’s not healthy, but come on, it’s delicious!). But every day I have the chance to get closer to my goal or farther away. An individual day might not seem like a big deal, but your good and bad choices are adding up, and you want one side of the scale to outweigh the other. The more the good days outweigh the bad, the faster you will achieve your goal!

Tip #4: Don’t dwell, act.

I could be sulking about the weight I gained on vacation, and I am a little on the inside. But that won’t change anything. I’m also guilty of spending too much time planning. Planning is okay but it’s not going to get the job done. What actions can you take today that will move you in the direction of your goals?

Tip #5: Get into a routine.

The hardest part about getting going again is breaking out of the routine you’ve created. Whether your routine is eating junk food at night, or sleeping in instead of hitting the gym, you are not moving closer to your goals. You have to create a new routine that will become comfortable as you stick with it. So commit to getting up at 6am every day to go for a run, or having a protein shake every morning, or whatever it is that you can do every day that will get you closer to your goal.

So there are my tips. My marathon is January 31st, right down the street from where I live! I am at the beginning in so many ways, but if you never start, you never finish, right?!

What do you want to accomplish before the end of 2014?

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