A couple of weeks ago, my husband and I decided to give up carbs and sugar—for three weeks. My husband has done this before; I never have.

It’s now been two weeks, and I’m still off the sugar and the carbs. The first week was difficult as I had a hard time figuring out what to eat when I was hungry (plus every cracker and cookie I saw looked good to me—even ones I wouldn’t normally eat.) But once I went to the grocery store and got some nuts and a few other things to have on hand, it was easier.

I’ve also been really focusing on eating only when I’m hungry, and stopping eating when I feel full.

I’ve been surprised by many things this past two weeks.

  1. I don’t need as much food as I thought I did to feel full. Sometimes an apple and peanut butter is all I need, other times I need more. I ran 5 miles this morning, and after I cooled down I ate two scrambled eggs and two slices of bacon. One afternoon I was late to a meeting so I grabbed a slice of deli ham and some pistachios, thinking I would eat a real dinner after the meeting. I wasn’t hungry after the meeting, so I didn’t eat any more that night.
  2. I was addicted to carbs and sugar. (I don’t know why this was such a surprise!)  I get a lot of headaches but since I’ve been off the sugar and carbs, I’ve only had one headache.
  3. It’s much easier to pass on desserts or any kind of sweet when I’ve made the decision ahead of time. I don’t have to put any mental energy into “resisting” the cake or the cookies. It’s off my radar.

Now that I’m into the third week without carbs and sugar, I need to decide what I’m going to do when the three weeks are up. I know I don’t want to go back to eating carbs and sugar the way I was, but I want to try to add a little back to my diet and see how it goes.

I have a friend who says fruit doesn’t agree with her, that she doesn’t feel good after she eats it—so she doesn’t.

If I eat pasta and get a headache soon after, I’ll know to stop eating pasta.

But I will most likely have a piece a cake at my son’s next birthday party. And I will eat at least a few bites of Parmesan risotto the next time I go out for a celebratory dinner with my husband.

I don’t want to make up arbitrary rules about what I can and can’t eat.

I do want to pay attention to what foods help me feel good and what foods make me feel tired or give me a headache. I want to know when I’m hungry and when I’m full.

I want to be awake and aware with regard to my food. It’s all part of being awake and aware in general.

Where in your life do you need to be a little more awake and aware?