Giving 2017 a Sweet-Free Start


(jketoscribe) #61

Proud of myself because yesterday was TOUGH. My daughter woke me up at 2:30 a.m. to tell me our dog had been skunked. It turned out the dog was not skunked, but a skunk sprayed our house–it seems. The horrible skunk smell permeated the entire house and everything in it. It was very strong. Apparently, it’s skunk mating season, so it may have even been two skunks.

At least when the dog got skunked and ran into the house to rub her face on every carpet and upholstered surface in our house we knew where she had been and could clean those surfaces. But this was the ENTIRE house–every room, every surface. To make matters worse, it was very cold and raining heavily, so opening windows on the non-spray side was dicey. And then when we let the dog out in the morning, she must have rolled in the scent. After we gave her a peroxide and Dawn dish soap bath–she did it again! (She’s now going outside on a leash so we can supervise). So I came to work stinking of skunk, and continued to smell and taste skunk all day no matter what I did.

Eau du Skunk is bitter–apparently a sulphorous compound. All I could think of was something sweet to counteract it. I was dying for a piece of sweetened dark chocolate. I did drink my Good Earth Tea, which is sweet, and that helped. But OMG I wanted sweet chocolate!!!

I resisted, I won, despite the great excuse ;o) Proud of myself ;o)


(Jacquie) #62

@janknitz Well done you! Talk about stress! We have skunks in the area (porcupine, coyote, deer rabbits and bobcats who eat the rabbits) so Karma, our standard poodle, is always on a long lead except if we’re in a fenced in area. Standard poodles are hunting dogs. Karma’s mother killed a skunk and I think Karma would, too.


(jketoscribe) #63

Still struggling but so far I’ve been good. I keep thinking up excuses to cheat, come right to the brink of cheating, but then at the last minute I turn away from cheating. Lately I’ve been fantasizing about having one cheat a month (not talking about real sugar–just some erythritol or xylitol) but I know it’s a slippery slope. I’m nearly at the 1 month mark here. I hope I keep going.


(jketoscribe) #64

So I made it 30 days (not counting the diet soda oopsie!). It was by the skin of my teeth some days, not easy, no lie.

I want to continue, but I’m not sure I will. I think I had some other cheats (mostly rice) in part because I was craving–rice tastes like sugar to me now.

Sometimes I really, really, really want something just a little sweet. The rational part of me knows it’s a slippery slope, but the emotional part of me is very happy to slide right on down that slope!

I’m going to play it by ear from here, with a goal of continuing as long as I can stand myself. Anyone else?


(Jacquie) #65

I’m in. I was thinking of posting for a sweet free Feb. but then thought I’d play it by ear, too. Sweet has always been an issue for me (sugar way back but also with AS’s) and I have trouble with portion size. I hear you about it being slippery slope.


(Lucrecia) #66

Great idea! Going to do this.


(Donna Peterkin) #67

Is Torani sugar-free bad? I’ve read that because it uses liquid Splenda, it’s ok to use it.