Days 6, 7, & 8

Hi, my name's Laurie, and I'm a Sugar Addict. I've been clean now for 8 days.

I survived Day 6 which involved a 6 mile run + some bike brick workout, followed by my first ever ice bath (thanks Gaye!), Megan's soccer game, a birthday party and a BBQ - all without eating any sugary crap. Although of note, which I wouldn't even note except that Jay burst out laughing at me, is that I had an alcoholic beverage (some Mojito in a bottle which was nothing like a real Mojito) at the BBQ. Yes, I know that alcohol is pure sugar - but I'm not too concerned with my alcohol consumption since I have one drink approximately once every 2-3 months. That is really not where my problem lies. Earlier this month at Girls Night Out - I didn't drink anything but water while everyone else did, but I did indulge in the cheesecake and chocolate cake with everyone else. I've figured out that I don't like, in general, how alcohol makes me feel or perform the following day - I have not, however, learned that valuable lesson with ice cream and cookies. And for the record, I knew that my next day was a rest day, I'd busted my ass during my workout that morning and the drink wasn't even very good - I would have rather sampled one of those little cheesecake cupcakes or cookies that people had brought, or chased down the ice cream truck with the rest of the kids.

Day 7, Sunday, was easy no issues with the exception of when we went to lunch at Tokyo Joe's I have to start letting Megan have her cookie that comes with her kids meal. She usually doesn't eat it after her meal and it ends up in my purse and forgotten by her, but found and then eaten by me at a later time.

Day 8, Monday, I was too freaking busy to even consider stopping to eat any crap. But I did go to the grocery store and wasn't swayed by anything on display - although while waiting for my turn in the checkout I was looking, not so much longingly as curious, at the display of chocolate bars. And I was disgusted by the BBQ sauce (Jay uses it like most people use ketchup and mustard) to discover that the first ingredient in most brands was HFCS - really? Gross!! I knew it was full of sugar and not good for you but really, first ingredient is Corn Syrup. Nasty!

So I move on to Day 9 - plans to go out to dinner for a friends birthday, but nothing else too scary on the agenda - or maybe the fact that it will be any easy day should be a concern - too easy to slip into mindlessness and pop a little sugary goodness in before I realize what I've done.

So I leave you with my update from my run on Saturday. I ran 6 miles - I have never run that far in my entire life - my previous PR for distance was back in January of 5 miles (then I stupidly fell of the running wagon and have had to build it all back up again). And if 6 miles wasn't hard enough for me I decided to really try a different route out and mapped out a route with a lot of freaking hills (easy to do when you live right at the base of the foothills west of Denver) - I must have my head examined. My mile times for the whole run were terrible ranging from a "best" of 11:33 to a pitiful 12:53 at the end. My last mile had to look very interesting to anyone looking out their window watching me stumble my way back to my house. I felt like I was a drunk just trying to get one foot in front of the other, then at one point my iPod blessed me with the BeeGee's Staying Alive, and you just can't help but get some strut in your step when hearing that song - so picture a stumbling drunk, being dragged by a Border Collie leashed to her waist trying to imitate John Travolta. During the run my inner conversation was either: hearing my husband and his brother talk about their running (and my sister in law's) on the car ride to The Springs on Friday - my sister in law runs the slowest of the three which is still at least a 7:30 mile, and wondering how the hell people can do that (my best ever was a 10:32, which I'm very proud of as it was the 3rd mile of a 5k, but my goal is to hit single digits one day) to the other extreme of just amazement at myself that I watched, almost out of body, as I just kept laying it down - one foot in front of the other without stopping, not once, not on the really steep hills, not when I was so exhausted that I didn't think I could do it again but my legs kept turning over - for which I'm very proud. But one question - when the HELL does this "runners high" come that everyone gets so damn excited about???? I think I felt it for about 2 seconds when I stepped into my garage after the run, but it was gone again while I put on my helmet, bike shoes, etc and left again for a quick 15 minute ride. Afterwards I was just too sore and exhausted to be proud of my effort - this Saturday will be better!