SUGAR-FREE...

I had another fabulous week! THJing is definitely helping, no doubt...but I think that going SUGAR-FREE, though, has been key in why it's going so well. Cravings for sweets & other carbs are gone!! Yeah, I think about them some... but there is no serious "draw" to them... they don't call to me like they usually do. I can usually take care of it w/ some fruit. If you have any doubts about this, I have to tell you that I've been dealing w/ some MAJOR PMS sugar-cravings for the last few years... OUT OF CONTROL & it usually kills my week... then I'm spending the rest of the month undoing the damage. This has been a HUGE reason why I've had so much trouble the past year & 1/2 or so. No, REALLY! It's like clockwork. I even talked to my doctor about it, thinking that it was all in my head & that I was using PMS as an excuse to blow it once a month... NOPE! It's a true chemical/hormonal thing (thing, LOL, so technical!!)... something to do w/ the build-up of iron in your system just before your period (sorry guys). My doctor thought that going "sugar-free" might help ease the "out of control-ness" of PMS & sure enough, I've just experienced my THIRD run @ a fairly calm PMS week!

I've noticed that the desire to munch is gone... not just PMSing, but any time. I can talk myself into waiting till the urge passes, instead of just going for it, as is my norm over the past year or two.

My friends think I'm nuts when I talk about this... but I'm just blown away w/ the difference in how I feel! Even I think about how rough it might be to be sugar-free forever... & I know that I'm going to have things like birthday cake & a piece of Thanksgiving pumpkin pie & stuff like that... but I also know what it feels like to come down from that sugar, so I think it'll be few & far between... so I'll more than likely be very happy w/ a small piece of whatever.

If you're interested in finding out more about sugar addiction, check this out or just Sugar Addiction.

A highly recommended book (by my doctor & many many online) written by Kathleen DesMaisons Ph.D., is Potatoes Not Prozac: A Natural Seven-Step Dietary Plan to Stabilize the Level of Sugar in Your Blood, Control Your Cravings and Lose Weight, and Recognize How Foods Affect the Way You Feel. I have it... just haven't read it. Now that I'm working on the sugar-free thing, I'm going to read it.

Oh yeah... what I was getting at w/ the PMS thing & all, LOL!!....cool thing about this weigh-in... I'm SOOOOOOO close to ONDERLAND again & my recent/more realistic goal was to be back under 200 by my 40th birthday, which is May 16th... just over a week away. Well... my worry was that next week would be my PMS week, which means just before "TOM" (time of month - sorry guys!), my weight would normally be up 3-5 lbs on average "just before" (it's true, guys... but nope, not a reason to whine about weight-gain & TOM, but it IS reality... TEMPORARY REALITY... but it's something, the extra weight, you can count on each month.) & I figured that it might be tough to actually be down .9 lbs or more @ my next WI since i was expecting to be dealing w/ extra weight, right? NOPE... "TOM", LOL, came along late today, after WI, which means that I was already holding that extra "pre-weight" & still lost 2.4 lbs!!! Yeah me!!! :o) So... next week's WI should be FABULOUS! PLUS...I went through another PMS week w/out even realizing it. Cool!! :o)

LOL... sorry guys... really... I needed to go into all "that" to relate how things are changing w/ me... & how well things are going!

Thanks for listening!

Julie