We are halfway through November and I at the beginning of the month I had challenged myself to make some changes this month. I might spin this as a healthy Eating thing, but in actuality it’s a healthy drinking thing. My two goals were to not drink coffee and not drink alcohol. Now that it’s been two solid weeks it’s time to check myself.

It’s definitely been a mixed bag of results. As far as alcohol is concerned, I caved in the first week probably because of some social situation. That’s the toughest part, abstaining in some situation that you would normally indulge a little in. I’m trying to minimize those instances this month, partially because I’ve got a lot to get through and partially to support my “healthy drinking” goals.

My fallback position with regards to alcohol has been to continue to minimize. Normally I would have a glass of wine with dinner (or two or three) and I’ve been successful cutting that out so far. I want to say that’s been easy, but it has been a challenge at times. After Long days working and trying to get it all done, I just want that glass to help unwind. There have been a few times that I really wanted to reach for a glass, but I resisted. I’m going to consider that a success. I’ve also been able to minimize in the aforementioned social situations, keeping my intake to one serving. So not too bad

I think my overarching goal is to just cut needless calories, since I don’t have a drinking “problem”, there’s really no other reason to challenge myself in this way. The same is true with coffee. Hell, j don’t even like coffee, I just like the caffeine and cream and sugar.

Getting Coffee has become less of a social “event” since I stopped hanging out with Joshua so much. Instead I found myself substituting my usual mid morning snack, a serving of oatmeal, with coffee. My rational was the extra boost of caffeine and less calories. But I think that with the added cream and sugar, the calorie count was pretty much a wash.

I’ve switched back to oatmeal now and it’s been good. I have also been wanting, literally for years, to cut out caffeine and so this is a step in the right direction. In fact, I’m doing better than I anticipated on this front. A while back I cut a bunch of my caffeine tablets in half and had rolled into the month only talking a half a pill in the mornings.

Today marks day 3 of not having any at all. One morning I just forgot to take my morning “meds”(which is just the circumin, allergy pill, vitamins, and typically caffeine) and then I got busy. Later in the day I realized it and was sort of shocked. I felt ok, and didn’t have any more or less energy and also didn’t have a headache. I think the tapering off was what kept me from having a withdrawal headache. Bonus plan!

After that I just decided to nix the caffeine altogether and see how that was. I do miss that boost of energy, mentally and physically, but I’m going to continue on this path and see how it goes.

As for the rest of my aspirations for healthy eating, I’m really not trying to do too much at once. My main struggle is snacking in the evenings and that has been very hit and miss. Though, as I thought about it this morning, if I can do just the few things I’ve talked about in this post, I’m doing good. Every time I try to do too much, that ends badly. It’s baby steps, and then see how it goes.

There are about two more weeks left in November. I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing and try and guage at that point whether it’s made a positive impact. It could all be just crazy nonsense for no reason, but that attitude does not help. I have to believe these changes are for good or I will definitely fail. The mind is our own worst enemy.

Cheers to Staying the Course,

~Miss SugarCookie