My first week

Recently, it has been brought to my attention how much sugar we all eat on a daily and what our daily value really should be.  It was extremely shocking and I realized I might have a serious problem.  Cake is my best friend, donuts are a great way to start the day, and those fancy juices made me think I'm doing right by my body.  Boy, was I sorely mistaken.

To help put things in perspective, the average female should consume no more than 25g of added sugars as.day and the average male 37.5g. A single Hershey's milk chocolate bar contains 24g of sugar.  Mind you, even typing this breaks my heart.  I cannot express to you how much I love my sweets.

But then I have to think about the consequences of eating such foods on a frequent basis.  There's obesity, Type II Diabetes, heart disease, and tooth decay.  I don't know about you, but I like having healthy teeth and a healthy heart.

So, I took the plunge.  I decided to limit my sugar intake to 20g or less a day. (Side note: I'm 5ft, so I wanted to stay well below the maximum).  Within the first week, I suffered from killer headaches everyday and had brownies, cakes and donuts on my mind all day everyday.  But I also found by day three, just day three, I was not feeling as tired after a long work day and found myself automatically being in a better mood.  After six days, I had lost six pounds.  And I was not starving myself.  Oh no, this girl is very food driven!  I was simply being more conscientious of the types of foods I was putting into my body. 

Today I am concluding week two, and have lost two more pounds since.  I have more energy to do things like write about this journey, take my dogs on longer walks or extra walks, and hula hoop a couple times a night while I watch TV.  It's absolutely incredible how much better I feel.

As I continue to post about this journey, I want to share with you simple recipes I'm finding along the way and easy, low impact exercise I'm finding to help reshape a healthier me.