Health Challenge: No Halloween Candy For Me

It’s that time of year again- weight gain season!

In the spirit of diabetes prevention, weight loss, and overall health awareness, this year I will be making a pledge not to eat any Halloween candy at all. That means no stealing from the kids’ buckets, no sneaking pieces from our give-out stash, and especially no crushing candy into vanilla bean ice cream. Starting now, a week before Halloween, and going until the kid’s stash is depleted (probably February), I will not eat a single piece of Halloween candy. It’s just one simple challenge, but it will help prevent the sugar-addiction-snowball-effect that happens to me every winter.

Who’s with me?

Junk Food Culture

The last couple of years have been rough on my family, nutritionally speaking. Between having babies, moving, and remodeling our kitchen, my husband and I have each packed on at least 20 lbs of extra weight. We both have diabetes and cardiovascular illness in our genes, and I could see we weren’t headed down a good path. After doing a bunch of research, I came up with a few points of food-doctrine to improve my family’s nutrition:

1- Sugar is the devil and needs to be avoided or limited.
2- Refined carbs act the same as sugar and should be limited.
3- There are good fats, bad fats, and neutral fats.
4- Not all calories are created equally. Cut sugars and refined carbs first.
5- Eat lots of veggies. Eat protein at every meal. Eat some fruit. Eat carbs that metabolise slowly.

When I grocery shop, I only buy things that fit these criteria. I keep my kitchen pretty clear of naughty foods so that when I feel snacky, I don’t have food lying around that I shouldn’t eat. After months of experimenting with meal plans and refining what works for my family, I feel like I’m finally in control of things.

I don’t have control over what other people give me and my kids, though. I feel like I’ll be rude if I tell the person “no thank you, I’m not eating cookies anymore”. Furthermore, I really don’t have the willpower not to eat them when someone gives them to me- and I tend to eat the entire plate in one sitting.

We live in a culture where sweets are used as currency. When you do someone a favor, you’re paid back in cookies. At every social gathering, there’s a whole array of cake, brownies, sugary punch, candy, etc. Girl scouts come every year and actually make you pay for cookies that will kill you, and you can’t tell them no because the kids are so cute and the cookies taste so good. Junk food has infiltrated every aspect of my community and is really putting a damper on my plans to not get diabetes.

So lets make a truce, ok?

I’ll still watch your kids for you, drop off a meal for you, help you move, come to your party, and do all the usual friend-favors and social things that go along with being part of a community. In return, I may ask for a favor of equal value, or expect you to pay forward the good deed. I might even settle for good Karma. But please, no more cookies.

30 By 30

Ever since I read The Happiness Project I’ve been thinking about making goals and accomplishing things that will help me be a happier, more complete person. Some friends who are my age are also working on their lists, so in a way, posting my list makes this a group experience. My list is unique to me, but I hope reading it will help inspire my reader(s) to make some goals of their own.  

Health:

1. Run a third marathon

2. As part of training for the marathon, follow Matt Fitzgerald’s marathon diet plan and get my food intake under control

3. Get my body to a fit 180 lbs or less with high muscle density

4. Work out at least 60 minutes a day MOST days of the week as a habit

5. Do yoga at least once a week

6. Stretch a little every day

7. Do 10 minutes of basic physical therapy core exercises every day

 

 

Media:

8: Read one non-fiction a month (or fewer if the books are long)

9: Read collections of Christian Apocrypha including “The Forbidden Books of the New Testament“, “Bible O.T. Apocryphal Books”, “The Apocrypha or Deuterocanonical Books of the Bible” and maybe some others if I can get my hands on them.

10. Read the Mormon canon in its entirety with the fresh perspective of reading as an adult, not subject to the interpretations of any class or teacher (like seminary, institute, and college religion courses). This time around, my focus will be on learning what the scriptures mean TO ME rather than what they mean to everyone else.

11. Finish the Dune series

12. Read the Ringworld series

13. Write more fiction stories on my blog for practice

14. Outline one or more science fiction novels, maybe write one

15. Watch through the original Star Trek series and all the movies

16. Watch all the James Bond movies

17. Watch through the original Battlestar Galactica

18. Watch Citizen Cane and see what all the fuss is about

19. Finish playing Zelda: A Link to the Past

20. Get a radio in the kitchen that I can plug my phone into so I can listen to music with ease

21. Play musical instruments every day, even if its just for a minute with a kid on my lap

22. Read to the kids every day

 

Activities

23. Find a group musical outlet whether its a band or just a group to jam with.

24. Start teaching drum lessons again one or two days a week. 

25. Remodel kitchen and downstairs bathroom

26. Do a fun girls-only overnight adventure (Austin anyone?)

27. Play on the Texas beach

28. Go camping

29. Learn correct form when swimming front stroke (with my head in the water and turning my head for breath every other stroke).

30. Write my 40 by 40 list

 

I hope this was inspirational to my reader(s). If you have goals or lists of goals, I’d love to hear about them! Leave a comment and check out my friend’s 30 by 30 on Makeshift Musings.