On Sunday, March 6th, 2016, I decided to try to give up sweets for a month just to see how I would feel and if I could even handle it. I made a list of what I considered a sweet. My list included: candy, cookies, donuts, cake, muffins, dessert, chocolate, soda and pretty much anything else that was generally unhealthy and sweet or sugary.
The first few days were really hard and made me realize how just how many sweets I ate regularly. Sweets are everywhere, especially on campus. On my first day of my challenge, I was sitting in the Campus Center with my friends and one of them ordered a donut that they didn’t want and tried to give it to me, and kept asking if I wanted it. During my breaks, I would usually grab something to eat from Starbucks and Au Bon Pain and do school work. I knew I had to start trying to find other healthier things that I could eat quickly.
It was a long four weeks, because during those weeks, I had birthday celebrations, family events, spring break, Easter, and a vacation. It seemed like all the time, everywhere I went there were sweets being offered to me, but I did not break down! Towards the end of the second week, I stopped even wanting it. Instead of having a Dunkin’ breakfast sandwich, I would get a vegetable omelette and rye bread from Johnny Rocket’s. Instead of having chicken nuggets from Chick-fil-A, I would get a salad or sushi. After the month was up someone offered me a cupcake, so I ate it and less that 10 minutes later my stomach and head started to hurt. The next night I went to a SET event and there were donuts so I had one, and the same thing happened.
Through these challenging weeks I learned that the body does better without added sugar. I had less headaches, less stomach pains and more energy. I discovered that there are so many other “quick snacks” to eat besides those with high amounts of sugar. There are so many healthy options. I learned that I don’t need sweets as part of my regular diet.