“Throwing Down the Gauntlet” on Sugar | The Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans LLC

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The Free Dictionary says, to “throw down the gauntlet” means:

to invite someone to argue, fight, or compete with you

The other day I posted on Facebook about the possibility of dropping sugar from my diet (and dealing with my severe cravings with coconut oil) like this lady did and the result of that is the following post! This will be a challenge, one that not everyone will accept, but if you do accept it I believe it will have lasting effects on your (and my) life.

The past few months I have been reading and seeing more and more about the benefits of cutting out the sugar in my life. I know we have posted about how important it is to reduce and eliminate sugar from our diet several times. I’ve been seeing it all over Facebook, too! Everywhere I turn, people are talking about cutting sugar from their diet. I’ve known I have needed to do it for some time now, too but OH MY GOODNESS!!! I DON’T WANNA!!! WAWAWA!!

But, something really hit me this week like a ton of sugar cubes when I saw this post and this post that made me decide I NEED to do this and NOW!! You see, I have had hypo-thyroid disease for at least 5 years. I’ve been on and off medicine for it. It’s been regulated for a while and then it’s unregulated. I’m also at the age where my hormones are pretty much non-existent (gotta love menopause, right?). Everywhere I turn I read something about how if I will will just stop eating so much sugar or go sugar free so many of my issues will be solved (or at least controlled),IF I will just stop consuming so freaking much sugar!!

So, when Christy commented on my post from Facebook, this idea was born!

A “No Sugar for THIRTY DAYS” Challenge!! A “throwing down of the gauntlet”, if you will?

Who wants to join me?? Here’s how it will go….

**Starting Monday,  April 14 and for the next 29 days ( thru, Wednesday, May 14) we will consume NO ADDED SUGAR of any kind!! That means no white sugar, no raw sugar, no substitute sugars, especially those pesky, hidden sugars like glucose and all those sugars we don’t know how to pronouce (you know how bad they are, right?)!! No candy, no soda, no sweet tea, nothing, nada, none!! The only “sugar” you may consume will be that found within RAW, FRESH or frozen FRUIT! This means spending a lot of time reading food labels, or eating fresh, raw foods. This means processed foods will be VERY limited in the next 30 days!!

This is completely voluntary and the only prize you will receive is the personal gratification that you really can survive without added sugar for at least 30 days! It will be “on the honor system” as most of our challenges are.

I know what you are saying but, Ann, Easter is just next weekend!! What about the candy in the Easter baskets? What all those yummy desserts at the party we are going to? What about birthday parties? Or the dinner out with the girlfriends or blah, blah, blah?? The list really is endless, isn’t it? I know mine is!!  My parents will be celebrating their 50th anniversary next month (during this 30 day period) and I know there will be plenty of temptations of sugar there. Heck, I’m in charge of bringing the punch and a dessert!!

Heck, just in the time I’ve been writing this post I’ve consumed enough sugar to last me the whole entire 30 days and that’s just tonight!! I eat far too much sugar and it’s literally killing me!! I must take charge of my own life and change it now!!

I know this will be one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done but I really and truly believe it is necessary for me to get a handle on my health issues, however I can. And I believe that we all need to challenge ourselves to give up  the thing that is literally killing thousands of people every day! I just found this great post giving a review on a cookbook and a 21-Day Detox. I’m pushing myself a bit longer as I feel that it will make a huge difference but I’m guessing it will have some wonderful recipes that will help make my life a lot easier this month!! And I can get it immediately on my kindle so I can start looking it over between now and Monday morning! 🙂  **I really don’t know anything about this program or book, someone just showed it to me a few minutes ago and I thought it fit right in, so I’m adding it to my post and my sugar-free fast!

Here’s the deal…I have a 10 year old son and he’s counting on me to live to see him grow up (and possibly have grandkids).  I have a 23 year old son, who will someday (not anytime soon, but someday) provide me with grandkids, and I want to be healthy enough to play with them; take them to the park, ride bikes with them, go for walks with them, run around and be silly with them! All those things that grandmas want to do. However, if I continue down this road of always sick because of a stupid auto-immune disease, I’m not going to be able to do anything but watch from the sidelines and I’m not interested in being a “sidelines” kind of girl.

One of my good friends told me this week that she gave up sugar completely, based on the recommendation of her allergist, and the hardest part of it was the first 5 days. Since she has given up sugar (and gluten, but that’s an entirely different beast that will need to be tackled later) she has had very few allergy issues. I figure if I can get past the first week, of no sugar, it will be a whole lot easier for the rest of the 30 days and I may reap the rewards of less allergy issues, as well. I’m going to get creative in dealing with my cravings and give the coconut oil a try, too. If it will help keep me from constantly wanting something sweet, I’m willing to give it a try! I am going to drink some of the thousands of recipes of “infused water”, too since I want something besides water to drink in the afternoons. For dessert, instead of eating junk I’m going to get some fresh, yummy fruit!

So who’s in?? Who is willing to accept my challenge to go sugar-free for 30 days? Who is ready to see how much different you will feel without the crutch of sugar? Who is ready to see how much weight you can lose in 30 days without the aid of anything but healthy, clean, sugar-free living?

I’ve created a private Facebook group so we can share our joys and our struggles. Come on over and ask to join and we will cheer each other on, day by day!!

Monday we’ll start the beginning of our new life together, sugar-free!!

xoxoxo,

Ann

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