Sweetless Wednesdays

Well it's Wednesday and I'm totally craving something sweet. I would kill for a piece of gum at this point. A few posts back I mentioned that for Lent I gave up eating anything sweet on Wednesdays. I decided to define "sweet" as both naturally and artificially. I do concede the sugar in things like milk or foods that have 2 or 3 grams like some cereal and sauces but have decided that fruit is a no no. I was having a conversation this morning with Andrew's speech therapist who gave up eating sweets for Lent on the difference between what I'm giving up and what he is giving up. He doesn't see a problem with naturally sweet like fruit or honey. I will admit that the natural sweet did tangle me up a bit at first but the more I thought about it the more I wanted to commit to no sweet anything. This is not to be bragging or anything, I could have easily have said no to donuts, pastry's, and various forms of candy along with my Coke and that would have been a worthy and notable thing but I would not have been challenged to really step out of my comfort zone. That along with the fact I'm already making an effort to limit those things in my daily diet as I pursue my weight loss goal. I knew deep in my heart that I could not go completely cold turkey on everything sweet and I did not want to set myself up for failure so I challenged myself to one day or five total in the Lenten Season. This is a much harder task than I thought it would be. I have a sweet tooth and it is almost second nature for me to seek out that which satisfies it. I know I have 6 days where I can eat whatever my little heart desires and I have one day where I really have to dig deep and focus on what I'm eating or not eating. I have caught myself several times absentmindedly putting food up to my mouth only to stop myself at the last moment when I realize what it is I'm doing. With Weight Watchers, I control what I eat and how much of it I eat so it is up to me to hold myself accountable. There are days when I'm really good at doing this and there are days when life interrupts and I go over points. I have also chosen at times to deliberately eat things that will put me over for the day but that is my choice and I can live with it. I know that if I do this too many times then I will not lose the weight I want to and if I really go overboard then I'll start gaining back what I've lost. If I have a "screw it" moment then it's me that I disappoint and no one else. Committing to my Lenten promise is so much different. I made a promise with God and if I have a "screw it " moment then I'm not just disappointing myself, I'm disappointing Him. I want to be able to look back and say with pride that "yes, I did it" and know He is pleased with me. When I do have my moments of weakness when my brain is in sugar mode then I remind myself what He gave up for Lent. Putting it that way makes my sweetless Wednesdays much more meaningful and accomplishable.