2009: No Sugar For Me!

No sugar for me this year, either!!!

I chose to not rent out that donut shop after all...

Last night I celebrated the incoming new year on the roof of my cousin's apartment building, in the rain, overlooking the city of Portland. There were fireworks all evening long.

My cousin made her special homemade pizza...we each had our own pizza with a dozen different topping choices. She is a natural cook and the pizzas were incredible. To top it all off, she had made brown rice flour molasses cookies for me, that are to die for. I ate three this morning for breakfast.

Sometime yesterday I decided that there were not enough convincing reasons to eat sugar again. Why be its slave? I realized that I may have control over sugar ONLY because I am not eating it; therefore I would not tempt the limits of my willpower by trying to eat just one sugary item. By now you are tired of hearing this, but I have to reiterate once more, THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS JUST ONE OREO!!

Because of quitting sugar last year, I am facing 2009 with a new perspective on nutrition, my willpower, others' willpower, and the overall power that sugar has on people. Around the time I quit eating sugar last year, I thought about sugar on a much lighter note. Now that I have experienced going without it and the struggles it involves (can you say CRAVINGS and that IT IS IN EVERYTHING!?!) I do not take sugar lightly. It is a tiny, empty granule capable of so much.

If someone wanted to, a movie could be made about a tiny program inserted into each sugar granule that is used to control people......however, I did watch Tron this morning....

Pizza-You Won't Believe It!

I made it through the weekend and am stronger because of it. I came face to face with an incredible challenge. It wasn't ice cream or cake or chocolate...Jeff ordered pizza! I wasn't interested at first because I had made a cream of mushroom rice casserole that I couldn't wait to taste. But as soon as we walked into Domino's to pick up the pizza, I couldn't help but breathe in every last drop of that sweet, sweet smell of pizza dough, sauce, cheese and grease. It smelled so good I decided that one piece would be perfect. Just to make sure that I was in the clear, I asked the cashier if he would check the ingredients for sugar in the sauce. He was surprised but went back and checked anyway. He still looked surprised when he returned. "I looked at the nutritional facts and there is actually sugar in the pizza sauce...I thought they just used a lot of salt," was all he said. So we walked away with Jeff's pizza and I was okay with not having any, until we got home. As soon as he opened the lid the delicious smells chased me around the kitchen while I tried to focus on my casserole. I stood still for some time looking at the pizza and thinking about the year ahead of me. Was it even possible to go without sugar? At some point, I would surely eat something with sugar and not find out until later. What about going out to eat? It wouldn't be possible to check ingredients for every little thing. I took another look at the pizza. What was my point in giving up sugar? Was it really that meaningful to me? It must be impossible. Then all of a sudden, I felt renewed and inspired to continue my quest for a sugar-free year. I will expose all of the least-likely foods to have added sugar. Because it makes me mad! You don't need sugar to make pizza!