One of the Grouches

Grouchy.  Worse than grouchy.  Actively bitchy.  Owl has been marvelously patient so far, but each time he leaves my place, I worry that it might be the last time I see him.  Not that anyone could see my concern through the grumpy exterior.  I don’t even want to talk to myself lately.  SAD is playing a big part—suddenly it’s freezing cold and grey every day.  Winter landed hard immediately after December 25^th and it’s not letting up.  However, I suspect that the last couple of weeks of indulging in random Snickers™ bite-size bars and candy canes and hot chocolate and my “famous” sangria and  potato chips and wine and toffee peanuts and Chinese food and…….okay, you get the picture.  It’s been tasty and fun to share, but the sugary peaks and sullen valleys are doing unpleasant things to my mood. 

I’m not making any resolutions because I inevitably break them (even the cool ones like “laugh more” or “use the word ‘crazypants’ as often as possible”).  I think I will do a 21-day fast instead.  This summer I was forced to admit that I am an ice cream addict, so I used a 21-day ice cream fast to break some bad frozen food habits.  It’s time to address the processed sugar demon now.  I thought about jumping on the Whole30℗ wagon, but that might be more hardcore than I’m ready for.  So here’s my plan:  

One of the Sarahs' 21-Day Processed Sugar Fast

Start:  January 6^th

Finish:  January 27^th

Step 1.  Box it up. 

For the next few days, I will start hiding all my processed sugar snackies from myself.  Starting with the gumdrops and fancy-ass chocolate bars, continuing through the liquor cabinet, and finishing with the baking supplies.  At home and at work.  Not that I have baking supplies at work, but you know what I mean.

Step 2.  Replace it.

Stock the cabinets with plenty of primal-friendly snacks.  Invest in nuts and fruit and olives and sardines (yeah, weird, I know—but I like ‘em).  Dehydrate some apple slices, whip up a batch of no-sugar jerky, and cook up some of the nuts with herbs and/or spices but no sugar or canola oil.  Stock up on coconut milk.

Step 3.  Stick with it.

Make my favorite primal-friendly recipes and ignore those chocolate cravings.  Drown those impulses in bacon and sweet potatoes (paleOMG has the perfect recipe for that!).  Distract myself:  Dance around the house, create outfits for the cat, make out with Owl, chew my fingernails, do some yoga, run until I can’t breathe, anything that might work.  Just keep telling myself “It’s only 3 weeks.  I can ignore anything for 3 weeks.”

So who’s with me?  It’s easier than a resolution, less restrictive than Whole30℗, and we’ll still feel awesomer when we’re done than we do now!  (Of course, if you’re feeling hardcore, you should absolutely check out Whole30℗, because it looks amazing, there’s a lot of options for support and motivation over there, and we’ll still be able to complain to each other about how much we miss chocolate and wine.)