Life is sweet. And so is sugar.

Hi there folks! I'm back. Back in the world of sugar. This is day 6.

Photo from nourition.com

What I learned is still pretty similar to what I wrote in my mid-month reflection.

The biggest take-home for me was the aspect of sugar in breakfast foods. I do not want to be starting the day off with added sugar in my foods. No, I'm not going to be militant about this, but as a regular thing I will start paying more attention to sugars in yogurts, cereals, and other items.  A rare doughnut or pastry are okay for special breakfasts, but I'm not looking for something so sweet in the routine rotation.

Another change is that I'm still having tea without any sweetener. I've grown to like it this way, so why add anything else? .

This sugar month has brought home the importance of allowing myself to indulge. The main time that I missed sugar was on the weekend. During week days the lack of sugar was hardly noticeable. I know that recommendations often say you should not use food as a reward for eating well. And this makes sense, but when I eat copious amounts of fruits and vegetables throughout the week and watch portion sizes, I can enjoy a dessert because I ate well throughout the week. If I completely cut myself off from the more "fun" foods, I think I would go crazy and eat everything I missed a few months down the road.

Not having sugar was a bit of a saving grace. I had an excuse to say, "No" to candies and treats that came my way. Candy bowls at a conference I recently attended and leftover desserts that are routinely left out in the office were off limits. That saved me from food I did not need to be eating.

Now that I've gotten to try a few sweet things, what is my reaction?

I had a fun sized Snickers bar that was way too sweet.

Special K cereal, okay, but felt like I was eating dessert for breakfast.

David and I had a bit of a vacation day and shared a slice of key lime pie on a day trip. This was good.

I could have done without a girl scout cookie, it wasn't all that I hoped it would be.

And life changing news, I have never liked dark chocolate but I tried a little Dove square the other day and it was wonderful.

My experiment changed the way I taste sweetness and that is what I was hoping for. I no longer need quite as much sugar to satisfy a sweet craving and I am more aware of the sugar that is in some unexpected places. This was a great challenge for me and I look forward to trying other monthly challenges throughout the year.

Intention

On the Art of Simple blog the question was posed: What are you doing to live life slower and with more intention?

This is a link-up to The Art of Simple that coincides with the release of the blog's founder Tsh Oxenreider's new book Notes From a Blue Bike. Can't wait to get my hands on this one!

In response to Tsh's question here is something I'm working on:

Re-making the morning.

This idea is not new or creative, but actually following through with this is new to me. Having a job that requires me to be in the office by 8 is ideal. I find it hard to get out of bed if I do not have a place to go. Most of my undergrad years of college I was the type to wake up 15 minutes before I had to leave, throw on jeans and a hoodie, brush teeth, and grab a granola bar right before I ran out the door. Somewhere in my senior year I realized that I felt so much more alert and awake for the day if I had an hour or more to wake up before heading out into the world. This was spurred on by the fact that I had to read about a million books for an online class I was taking at the time and if I didn't push through those books in the morning, they would not get read.

As many have discovered, and I am trying to live out, a morning is the ideal slice of day to carve out some extra time. For the last week or so I have been waking up an extra 30 minutes early. The motivation for this came from a 6 week devotional David and I are doing as part of the membership class for our church. I really enjoy the devotions (5 days/week) but I was finding that I would do day 1 in a timely manner for the week, and then do days 2-5 about 30 minutes before we had to leave for the class. That is not exactly the way to get the most out of a study. Especially a reflective one.

Enter: Mornings.

With the help of a sample life coaching session from Candice (very soon she'll be a certified life coach running her own business!), I decided to challenge myself to wake up at 6am for 2.5 (but I'm thinking I'll actually do 3) weeks. Monday morning marked the start of week 2 and I am LOVING it. A slow morning with a little reading and prayer and a warm cup of tea is a beautiful way to start the day. With the extra 30 minutes I have time to not rush through the study, and I'm not staring at the clock the way I would if I did it the last 30 minutes before leaving. I even have time to sneak in a few quick chores (like emptying the dishwasher) so the apartment is that much more welcoming when I come home.

An ideal morning for me would consist of exercise, a short study, time to get ready without rushing, and since this is the dreaming stage, time carved out for blogging.

Tomorrow morning I will not be waking up at 4am to accomplish a half day's worth of tasks before starting with my job. Not realistic. But if I work towards it, maybe after the 3 week trial of 6am, I can try 3 weeks or waking up at 5:45 and throw in a few minutes of easy exercises. (And as a disclaimer, my goal will never be to wake up at 4am.)

Not changing the world over here, but it's the small mundane tasks that make up a life. As I work to make posititive changes (however big or small) in my life, I hope to be more helpful and uplifting to the people I interact with throughout the day.