Author: Autumn
•1/08/2011 02:08:00 PM
I am not one for New Year's resolutions - I am not a goal-oriented person in general. That is not to say that I wander through life aimlessly. I have goals; I just don't tend to write them down and call them such. That being said, if you've read my blog this past year, you've seen my occasional month-long personal challenges. Those are much more manageable, and I was quite successful with them.

Sometime after Thanksgiving, this crazy idea popped into my head that I couldn't let go of. I thought it over through the rest of the year, and basically figured, "What the hell, why on earth not?"

So I have decided to go directly from crawling to racing ... and up my month-long no dessert challenge to an entire year. Yes, I acknowledge your gasps and straight jacket suggestions. I even agree with them. But again, why not? It's only a year.

BACKGROUND: This is the very first time I did it for a month. And this is where I explain how that went. I did it again a couple of times after that, often alone, and once with a couple of friends.

PARAMETERS: I know exactly what I mean when I say no sweets, but it doesn't seem quite clear to others. I am not cutting sugar out of my diet entirely, it is found in so many things I don't know how I would do it. Sugar itself is not my problem. I am cutting out desserts - things like chocolate, candy, cookies, cakes, etc. Chocolate milk is in, because I love it and I don't have the rationing issues there I have with desserts. The same is true of hot chocolate, though I am going to try not to buy it on my way to work as often.

EXCEPTIONS: I acknowledge there are circumstances wherein it would be rude or awkward to decline dessert. I ran into this yesterday actually. One of my closest friends (and the only person from high school I am still friends and not just Facebook "friends" with) got married yesterday and I was a bridesmaid. Instead of a big wedding cake, they had cupcakes for the guests and a wedding cheesecake that they cut at the reception. The bride made the cheesecake herself, and it was only served to the wedding party. I declined at first, but they urged me to at least try some. I didn't want to be rude, especially since she made it. So I had a small piece. It was delicious! So if I run into something like that again, I will make an exception. Though I hope it is quite rare.

CLARIFICATIONS: First, this is not a New Year's resolution. It was just a timing thing. I had been thinking about it for a bit, and since Jan. 1 was coming up, I thought it would make it easy and clean to start my sweet-less year at that point. Second, this is not a weight loss thing. Yes, I could stand to lose some weight, but that isn't why I do these no dessert things. This is about rationing and primarily about testing my ability to control myself. I won't be upset or surprised if I do lose some weight because of it, but I don't care so much about that.

I know I am a little belated in writing this, but I did start it on January 1, and other than that one piece of cheesecake, the first week went very smoothly. I have said in the past that once I start doing this, it becomes really easy for me, so I am really not concerned about keeping this up for the entire year.
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2 comments:

On January 8, 2011 at 5:15 PM , .micki. said...

You go girl! You can do it!

 
On January 10, 2011 at 1:33 PM , Katie said...

I am super impressed! Good luck, I know you can make it.

One thing I love about your goal is that you aren't crazy about it. You know the limits and what you will and won't be able to do and you stick to it. (if that makes sense... I mean, you aren't absurd and try to do something that no one who is sane would be able to do... anyway)

You are awesome!