Are you joining us for the 12 Months to a Healthier You Challenge? If so, it’s the weekend and guess what that means? It’s time for our weekly check-in to post our progress.
April’s Challenge:
We’re focusing on developing the habit of cutting back on sugar. I encourage you to set a simple and doable goal for drinking more water and to stick with it.
New to this challenge? Read more details on the plan for this year here.
My Goals for Cutting Back on Sugar During April
My goal for April is to cut back on sugar — which is hard for a girl like me who has a strong sweet tooth! I’m going to make it my goal to only eat dessert once a week and to cut back on the sugar I use in my coffee on a daily basis, too.
I’m also hoping to keep up with January’s habit of exercising at least 4-5 times every week, February’s goal of eating a big salad at least six times a week, and March’s goal of drinking 8 glasses of water a day.
This Week’s Progress:
Alrighty, so the second week was much easier for me. In fact, my husband bought some chocolate cake for me when we were in South Carolina and I only ate half of it because it didn’t taste good. I was wondering if I was okay that I was going to throw out perfectly good chocolate cake, but Jesse tried a piece and said something was weird about it. So maybe I’m not completely losing my sweet tooth?? 🙂
The good news is that it truly has been a lot easier for me this week to be eating less sugar. And that makes me happy!
In other news, I hit my water goals four out of the seven days, exercised three times, and ate a salad every day.
How Are YOU Doing?
Leave a comment telling us how you did on your exercise goals this past week. If you’re blogging about this challenge, leave the direct link to your blog post about the challenge below. Are you on social media? You can also share your progress on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter by using hashtag #12MonthstoaHealthierYou.
Mandi says
I did well on my sugar goal every day but Saturday! It is getting a little easier. (Of course my goal is very mild- I am limiting myself to 1 dessert/treat a day.) I am doing pretty well on my other goals as well and I get to try some running again this week after 7 weeks off for an injury!
Christy says
As part of our version of the Daniel Diet my husband I had tried at the beginning of the year, we removed sugar from our diet for a week while we fasted and prayed over our goals for 2014. We left the sweetener (usually brown sugar or honey) out of our coffee, so we just had coffee with some milk. Now, 3.5 months later we are still drinking our coffee without any sugar. 🙂
Crystal Paine says
Good for you — I’m inspired!
Wendy Briscoe says
I’ve realized how poorly I eat. I have family members with type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. I have recently started tracking my food I eat on sparkpeople.com and noticing that most of my foods I consume are processed, and high sugars. Sodas, breads, pasta etc. How can I cut back? And how do you begin. I consumed a lot of sugar today (sodas, breads, and cookies), and have had no energy and felt blah. How do I begin? What do I need to eat instead of processed foods, pizza, pasta etc. We are on a tight budget, so how can I find healthier foods cheaply? Thank you, Wendy
Maria says
I’ve eaten a lot of sweet and desserts this week (our local grocery store had Little Debbies for $1 a box; with my daughter being gluten free, we don’t buy them as often anymore). I, too, have noticed some of them didn’t taste as well as I remember.
It’s been another stressful week for me. I’m doing my best, though I’m learning how my habits have been helping me feel better. I need to get back into them and to help my family join in too.
Rocky @ Somethin Outta Nothin says
Sometimes when you stop eating sugar the sweet stuff will taste weird. I think that’s a good thing though. I’ve had to cut out sugar off and on because of my ‘fake hypoglycemia’ (it’s stress induced-so no insulation issues).
I found that the more processed sweets tasted strange while the more natural, whole food sweets tasted even better! I call it my discerning mouth. 🙂
Becki @Running with Team Hogan says
I only ate one dessert this week, but I keep wanting sweets. I was trying not to eat energy bars/bites with chocolate in them but ended up eating them twice. I ate salad 4 days (and ran out without being able to run to the store). My water intake is going well, but not a full 2 liters a day – sometimes more like 1 1/2 with other liquid sources. Exercise is still needing more but I’ve got tonight and tomorrow until the week is over. 😉
Lana says
Sorry about the yucky chocolate cake! I should have given you a list of great restaurants here in my hometown before you arrived. We have some favorite family owned places with delicious food that only locals would know about. Our favorite place makes all desserts in house and they are awesome.