Resolution

Today I saw my friend Nancy for the first time in the new year. She asked me what my big thing for the year was. She is used to reading in my blog around the first of year some declaration of something I am trying to do that year. Last year I chose not to buy anything new that was not a consumable or a gift. I did fairly well at that resolution. I told Nancy something I was doing, but forgot the biggest thing. In an effort to try and eat cleaner and cut sugar out of my life I have given up artificial sweeteners.

For anyone really close to me you might know that I love iced tea with lots of lemon or lime and a sweet ‘n low. This is my go to drink. I adore it. I hate sweet tea and other sweeteners don’t do it for me in tea. So the giving up of sweet ‘n low has been a huge trial.

I also am trying to stay away from sugar in general. So far this calendar year I have only had a tiny bit of honey twice in a salad dressing I made. It probably was so tiny I could have left it out.

After great study about the brain’s connection that anything sweet, full calorie or zero calorie still reads as fattening has prompted me to try and break my addiction to sweet ‘n low. Friends have tried to persuade me to give it up based on the death of some lab rats, but given my dislike of rats that had no affect on me.

I have stuck to my resolution, but boy do I miss the taste of my beloved tea. The good news is I have not had any cravings for sweets and have probably cleaned out my system from the Christmas sugar overload. Now I am looking for some drink that I love as much as I used to love iced tea.

I have been drinking tea with just lime and it just makes me miss the old way. I have cucumber and ginger water for afternoons when I don’t want caffeine. It is good, but not my tea good. So I am open to suggestions for no sugar, low or no calorie drinks.

I don’t want to add a natural sugar like agave or stevia because I think it has the same brain-sugar connection. I don’t know if I ever will get over the loss of sweet ‘n low, but I am going to try. For now I still have it for guests so don’t worry if you come over for tea. Giving up buying anything new was so much easier.