Well, I managed to finish my 100 days of real food 10 day pledge. How did I do, you ask?

Not so well.

I made it seven days. The unfortunate eighth day landed on a Saturday, a day that is almost impossible to control. We often go out to eat on the weekends and on that particular day we went out a lot. First, to check out Le Pain Quotidien, which just opened up the street from us. They have a bread basket option with spreads. I didn’t realize they had 14 different spreads! I was unable to keep myself from sampling them.

And that wasn’t the worst of it. After dinner out that evening, where I actually did manage to order something sugar and white carb free, despite the fact that we were eating at a pub – The Four Farthings Tavern and Grill, Adam suggested we take the kids to Insomnia Cookies for dessert. The set up is that you pick 2 cookies, then your choice of ice cream and make your own sandwich.

Sunday I was back on the wagon again. Committed to do it again, at least until the weekend.

I really enjoyed going to sleep every night without berating myself.

I also really enjoyed having very simple rules to follow. It kept me from eating the kids leftovers, from having chocolate for lunch instead of real food then starving all afternoon, and I really felt like I was doing something something good for myself each day.

This is not to say it wasn’t hard. Especially the first three days. Those were very hard. I spent a lot of time roaming around the kitchen looking in cabinets for a sweet fix.

I didn’t expect was how much food I had to pass up either. At my book club I had to pass up the vodka lemonades, the homemade plantain eggs rolls doused in sugar. That was tough because I love to try new things and I had never seen that before. I also had to pass up the beautiful gluten free cake. So much sugar and white carbs in an average day!

Or just how hard it would be to go out to eat and order directly from the menu without asking for substitutions.

Replacing snacks was so depressing. I was surprised that, because I had no sugar or white carbs to snack on how little I snacked. Even if I thought I felt peckish I would look at my options and opt to just wait until dinner. How many nuts and fruits can you eat before you are sick of them? As a result I was hungry for dinner for the first time in years.

And when I ate I would almost always be hungry afterwards. The old me would reach for sweets. The new me looked at the clock, noted the time then reassessed 10 minutes later. Most of the time I wasn’t hungry anymore. If I was, it was dried fruit and nuts again. Maybe cheese and some Ak Mak Crackers.

As austere as this commitment is, I think I want to adopt it as my new lifestyle. Maybe not every day, on the weekends I can relax a little, but keep it at least five days a week when I’m at home and can control my diet.

Did I lose any weight? Actually I did lose some. Around 3 pounds. Which is pretty impressive for just one week.

Now, please talk me out of moving onto animal cruelty next. I’ll seriously have nothing left to eat!