2024 Resolution — How Things Are Going (Month Five!)

We’re now five months into 2024, and I’m five months into my resolution for the year of not eating sugar. I can hardly believe that I’ve made it this far without sugar. (I explained what I mean by “no sugar” in this post.) Going five months without eating sugar is quite the feat for me, but at the same time, I got past the hard part a long time ago. It was really just those first couple of weeks of the year that were difficult. Once I got past those cravings, and into my new normal, giving up the sugar hasn’t been difficult at all.

That’s not to say that I haven’t had moments of difficulty. There have been about two separate occasions over the last five months when I’ve been really tempted. One of those times was an emotional response. Eating has always been an emotional comfort for me, and there was one time when I was feeling really stressed and wanted so badly to bury my face in cake, or cookies, or ice cream, or something sugar-filled. And another time, it was simply because people brought an abundance of sugary treats to our Wednesday night gathering, and they just all looked and smelled so good. But both times, I got through it without giving in, and I was so thankful and amazed at my newfound self-control.

Just because I’m not eating sugary treats, that doesn’t meant that I’m not eating anything sweet at all. As I shared last month, I’ve added some fruit back into my diet. I don’t eat a lot of fruit, as I’m still trying to keep my net carbs relatively low, but one piece of fruit a day seems reasonable. I also still enjoy my tea every day (sweetened with stevia), which I’ll never give up. It’s my favorite beverage, and it goes a long way towards meeting that need for something sweet.

Also, a couple of months ago, I shared with y’all about my new favorite electrolyte drink called LMNT (as well as a book called The Salt Fix that makes the case that rather than getting too much salt, most of us are getting too little salt). If you missed that post, you can read about it here in my two month update. Well, since then, LMNT has come out with a new bubbly version of their electrolyte drink, and oh my gosh, I LOVE IT SO MUCH!! The grapefruit is my favorite flavor, and I can’t get enough of it. I have to use so much self control to keep to drinking only one a day, because if I had my way, I’d drink nothing but bubby grapefruit LMNT all day long every single day. 😀 Anyway, if you’re looking for a delicious electrolyte drink without all the sugar and unnecessary ingredients, check out LMNT. I love both kinds — the packets and the new bubbly drink — but the new bubbly drink really helps to satisfy my sweet tooth as well as any soda cravings. It’s the afternoon treat that I look forward to every single day.

I feel like every month, in addition to sharing my progress on my 2024 resolution, I also take this time to share with y’all what I’ve learned about health and wellness in general in the last month. So let me share with y’all the thing that has had the biggest impact on my wellbeing this last month.

I follow several doctors and health/wellness/fitness people on Instagram. (I still haven’t been able to find the lymphatic specialist who I follow, but I’m keeping an eye out for her for those of you who asked.) Anyway, one of those people I follow is Dr. Tyna Moore. Until a couple of weeks ago, I only followed her on Instagram and had never taken a look at her longer interviews that she doesn’t with people on YouTube. But about two or three weeks ago, I came across one interview that really caught my eye, so I listened to it. And then I listened to it again. And then I listened to it a third time. It was all about how light affects our health and hormones.

For a while now, I’ve been struggling to get through my days. The alarm would go off in the morning at 7:50, and I’d hit snooze. Then snooze again. And again. And again. And then sometime around 8:40 (maybe later), I’d begrudgingly roll out of bed, feeling exhausted and dreading having to get started on my day. I’d spend the morning doing things I needed to do — get Matt up and onto his Theracycle, write a blog post, get Matt off of his Theracycle and into his recliner, make lunch, and eat lunch. And by the time I had all of that done, I was exhausted, and would often fall asleep in my recliner as soon as I was done eating.

Then around 3:00 or 4:00, I’d start working, but I would struggle to stay focused. I’d often take a “break” to scroll Instagram, only to realize that 45 minutes had passed, and I had wasted all that time doing nothing but mindlessly scrolling. Then at some point around 9:00pm, I’d get a surge of energy, and work until 11:00pm. Then I’d close up for the night (wash brushes, put away paint, put Cooper outside for the last time, get Matt ready for bed, etc.), and then finally crawl into bed around midnight. We’d watch a show while I worked on the computer for about an hour-and-a-half, and then we’d finally go to sleep around 1:30am. Then at 7:50am, the whole process would start over again.

But after watching that video (three time), I decided to put some of her suggestions into action, and let me tell you, it has been life changing! For the last two weeks, I’ve been waking up (without an alarm!) at 7:00am. I get up and go outside, put my bare feet in the grass, face the sun, and just soak up the morning sun (even on overcast mornings) for a minimum of 20 minutes. And then I go inside and get Matt situated for the morning, make some breakfast, and then get my day started. And then at sunset every day, I turn off all of the overhead lights in the house, and put on blue blocking glasses.

Since I wear glasses, these are the ones I bought for myself (affiliate link). But Matt rarely wears his glasses, so these are the ones I bought for Matt (affiliate link). And let me tell you, these things make a huge difference! Within about 30 minutes of putting them on, I can feel myself relaxing, like my nervous system is just being washed with calmness. And then I start closing up for the evening at 9:00, and I’m in bed by 9:30. We still watch a show (we’ve turned down the brightness on the TV in the bedroom), and I still work on my computer (with the brightness turned down), and by 10:45, we’re ready to get to sleep.

These changes haven’t just been a matter of shifting my schedule a couple of hours earlier in the day. If that were the only difference, I don’t know that it would be worth the effort. But since I started doing this — up early in the morning, feet in the grass, getting early morning sun, overhead lights off at sunset, and blue blocking glasses on at sunset — I feel so much different. I’m sleeping so much deeper at night. I wake up feeling rested and ready to get up and get my day started. I feel energized and focused all day long. By the end of the day on Saturday, I realized that I had gone all afternoon and evening without looking at my phone even once. I was just so focused on working on my project that scrolling Instagram hadn’t even crossed my mind.

Since I started doing this, Matt has noticed a huge difference in me. On about three different occasions, he’s said, “I’m just so impressed with you lately! You have so much energy, and you’re getting so much more done these days!” I told him that I literally feel supercharged. I don’t know how else to explain it. Supercharged. That’s the only word that comes to mind. I look forward to mornings (which has NEVER happened to me before now) and having my 20 minutes in the sun with my feet in the grass, and then I look forward to getting my day started after that. I wish I could express to you how radically different and uncharacteristic this is for me. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a night owl who hates mornings, and I have a feeling that I’ve damaged my health an hormones as a result. But I think I’m well on my way towards rectifying that now.

While Matt has not been going outside with me in the mornings (although we’re changing that as of this morning), the blue blocking glasses and turning off the bedroom lights at sunset has made a huge difference for him! He has always struggled to sleep well at night. He either struggled to fall asleep, or struggled to stay asleep. But about two days into this new normal for us, he started falling asleep very easily, and sleeping deeply all night. I have a feeling that this will have a huge impact on his health as well.

So with all of that, you might think that I’ve seen a real difference on the scale this past month, right? Well, no. 😀 I’ll be very honest with you. With all the stuff I’ve learned and put into practice — everything from The Salt Fix, LMNT, early morning sun, shutting down with sunset, etc. — I feel like what I’ve really learned is how to enjoy pretty much any food I want to eat without gaining weight. 😀 That’s not really the lesson I wanted to learn, and yet, that’s how it has worked out. And that would be a great lesson to learn and put into practice if I had already lost all the weight I need to lose, and was just looking to maintain. But I still have about 75 pounds to lose, so I’m way premature in putting this newfound knowledge and freedom into practice.

The bottom line is that I got lazy over the last month. I did lose 1.5 pounds over the month, for an overall weight loss of 27 pounds since January 1st. But I really wasn’t disciplined at all during the month of May. I enjoyed the fact that I didn’t have to really watch what I ate, and the scale stayed the same. I didn’t have to exercise, and the scale stayed the same. And I think it’s because I’m getting my circadian rhythm back on track, and that’s helping to stabilize all of those hormones that do all kinds of important things in our bodies. And because one of those hormones is insulin, I’m able to be a little more relaxed with my eating without seeing the number on the scale go up.

But this month, I really need to get back into the swing of things. I need to get back into “weight loss” mode so that I can reach my goal. I need to be way more conscientious about what I’m eating, and way more diligent and disciplined in working out. That’s the only way I’m ever going to reach my goal. So here’s to a much more disciplined June! (June is also my birthday month. My birthday isn’t until the end of the month, but I’m still not sure what I’m going to decide about birthday cake. It’s my favorite sugary treat!)

Anyway, I’ll leave y’all with this January 2024 vs. May 2024 comparison.