Sugar, Sweetie, Honey!!

Nope, we haven’t ventured into a Waffle House in the Deep South. I wish!! These aren’t my pet names for any of you either, I don’t think I have yet crossed the age threshold for calling people this, although I feel it close by. Instead, this is my 18th day or so of having given up sugar for Lent. Checking in, looking forward, and lots of pep talks for myself and my Sugarless partner in this, Bri, the one who sweet talked me into this, as it were.

For those not of the Roof Company Mafia, Bri works with me at the SLR, she is the Gutter Department Goddess. She is fun, and up until the point she talks you into giving up sugar, one of my favorite people I have met in my migration into working a straight job. She also works as a fitness coach, and so she knows this stuff. But she also loves the sugar, and I know this is hard for her too, because she lives a short walk to the Mexican Treat store, Frio Mexican Treats, and they know her by name there. I don’t really know how she got me to do this, but I sit in a corner, and I am easily backed into that corner from time to time, and an easy mark for peer pressure. I assume she used this to her advantage. Don’t tell her, but I am glad she did.

I have mentioned how things are at the office, and others that work in offices have confirmed that this goes on all over. Sweets and treats are often available, donuts, cakes celebrating every single thing, cookies, all things sugar, all the time. It’s a trap. I love getting caught in that trap. I love sweets. There is no shame in my donut eating game. But there needs to be because the weight gain has been all too real since I have been sitting at a desk the better part of 9+ months. The recent gym weigh-in knocked the reality of that home for me, so something has to give. That’s how Bri got me, the day after weigh in when I was weak. She offered me a donut shaped life preserver, wait they are that shape anyway, and I took it.

It hasn’t been that bad, truly. My office mates are being good sports and not pushing Rice Krispy Treats at me all week. We did have a birthday, but they respectfully kept the cake away from me. We had a cake sitting in the break area all day yesterday, and I even made eye contact with it once, and I stayed strong. I am doing ok. I didn’t even really have any sugar withdrawals the way some people do. I am amazed by that. We have a ways to go before Easter gets here and I get paroled from Sugar Jail, but today, as I sit here typing, I am ok, truly.

Challenges are supposed to challenge you, hence the name. Since the new year started, we have done challenges at the gym, we did the squat thing, and then we let one of the coaches make a month’s worth of daily things, which were awful mostly, but the gang of us stuck with it. This sugar thing is just my current challenge. Like the others, I have support through it, or I am sure I would stumble. Through all of it I have chosen to look for the benefits instead of focusing on what I am missing out on. That has really been a big difference for me, and something I haven’t always been able to zone in on. When you look at it like you are denying yourself things, you could be setting yourself up for a fall. Change the mindset, change the outcome.

So my sweet tooth is in a holding cell, and I am seeing some positive things. As this Lenten season continues, I will continue to try to stick to this. If Bri can hang in there, so can I and when it’s all over, I will meet her at the Frio, and we will dominate something delicious and sweet, or maybe we will eat some plants or something. Hahaha, that’s cute that I think I could choose vegetables over churros! The good outweighs the bad, but ice cream is better than spinach. Have a great Lent, and whatever you have chosen as your challenge to get you to a better you, keep at it. We aren’t denying ourselves things, we are making things better for a great season ahead!