Competition

I've been off sweets now for 9 days.

I had the grand idea last week to give up something during Lent, simply for the sake of a challenge. I'm not changing religions or anything, I just like the idea of Lent.  It's like a spring new year's resolution that only lasts 40 days!
So, I chose to not eat sweets.  Its a tough challenge, but very doable and certainly its good for me.  I've been fluxuating around the same 3 lbs for over a year now and I definitely need to push myself more.  This challege can only be good for me.

After the first day, I invited my mom to join me.  I couldn't convince her to do a self vs. self challenge so out came the wagers. :)  That's right, I challenged her to a Rachel vs. Mom competition!

The wager: Pedicures. We will go together to get Easter pedicures.  If we are both successful, then it is just a fun excursion with each other.  If one of us fails, we pay for the other person's pedicure.

The Exception: Because we know our history with sweets, we decided to have one exception each for the days that is seems simply unbearble! Mom chose dark chocolate chips and I chose Red Mango, with fruit toppings only.  Both are things we won't eat in excess.  They are both about as healthy as sweets can be and still satisfy our sweet tooth on those dark days, which is much better than completely giving up!

So how is it going so far? Well, I feel much better without the sweets; and just importantly is the pride I feel when I know I have successfully evaded the food pushers that want me to eat this cake, and that cookie, and these treats. I can't deceive myself though. I know I miss the sugary goodness of Smart Cookie and the happy socializing I once did over sweets at church functions and at work. I've even had dreams that I ate candy, and for the next 24 hours I had to revisit what I did the day before to make sure it was in fact a dream.  But the sweets had to come to and end eventually, and I'm sure this change will be well worth it.

Interestingly enough, the socializing is just as good without the sweets!