The Shawzbear Chronicles

 

Boy, its been 30 days already? Gosh, that hardly seemed rough at all, could’ve done it in my sleep….not even really a big deal at…

 

Ahem.

 

Yep, 30 days have come and gone. And all in all, I feel pretty good! My constant ear infections seem to have gone away, I’ve got more energy for the kids..but the biggest thing is I don’t find myself craving the sweet stuff anymore.  Over the last 30 days I’ve been ice cream free, sugar in the coffee free, chocolate free Shawz…and it feels pretty cool to have made it.

 

Could I have done some things differently? Oh, sure…and going forward, I think I’m going to keep up the (mostly) mostly sugar free lifestyle. My sister has some excellent stuff on sugar, and how it affects our lives (www.jenniferrimes.com) and has been an inspiration to me and a good chunk of the reason I tried this in the first place! With all I’ve learned from her, and from personal experiences during the last 30 days, I think the next step is to start to eliminate processed foods as well from my diet. I’ve noticed how a burger, or fries, or even a bag of chips will hit me like I’d just had an ice cream cone, and it turns out that there are some very basic reasons why that is. Don’t tell Jen that I finally see that she’s right though, she’s still my little sister…and that would set a bad precedent! 😉

So the Shawz 30 day Sugar Sacking Challenge is complete, but where do I go from here? Well, I still have that Marathon to train for in one year, I’ve got 3 kids who have gotten use to “Yes, I Have energy to play tonight” Daddy..and I’ve gotten pretty used to feeling pretty good off the sugar rock…so I’d say things are looking pretty darn good! Or, as my good friend Matthew Mcconaughey would say…

 

At the end of day 26 here, and can’t really say how things have went.  As I look towards the last days here…I kind of wonder if there has been much of a change in my health? Whether the other environmental stresses have more of an effect than the sugar did. I mean there have been some good things that have happened since I gave up the white stuff. My ears have cleared up for the most part (short of a mild ear infection I had after swimming). I have more energy, I think? Also, Baskin Robbins has finally lifted the restraining order they had on me…

I’ve been surprised by a couple of things that DIDN’T happen however. For one, I’ve still had a hard time losing weight, this however could be because of the high stress job, the travelling out of town, and the other foods I haven’t cut out…gluten, dairy and deep fried butter.

I also haven’t had my mood even out all of the much…I can be a grumpy son of a gun one minute and overly cheery the next. That again might be more related to stress and work…and JUST maybe my inability to cut down coffee. Just a wee bit related to that, maybe…

In the last few days here, I have to admit I’ve been re-evaluating my career path so far. The job I have has been good to me so far, but it does take me away from home, can have moments of extremely high stress and is not really conducive to regular eating habits. There’s also been another position come up in my webz surfing that has peaked my and Mrs. Shawzbear’s interests…stay tuned for more as it unfolds 😉

Still waiting for that “Hey I’m free of sugar and now everything is awesome” moment. I’m in the middle of day 23 (I’ve been writing these a day behind) and I’ve got a wicked pounding headache, I’m dizzy, moody, irritable…did I mention irritable ? Great time for everyone in the neighbourhood to start putting up GIGANTIC political party signs on their FREAKING LAWNS…2 months before THE RAZZIN FRAZZIN ELECTION!!!! I MEAN HAS THAT EVER WORKED….HAS ANYONE EVER LOOKED AT SOME RIDICULOUSLY LARGE YARD SIGN AND SAID “Huh, I was going to vote for the other party but that monstrously large sign blocking the sun out has convinced me to vote for that party…because they must be the right choice…because…they have HUMONGOUS SIGNS!!!”

Sigh.

Now either I’m actually just a grumpy old man, or I’m hitting another detox stage…I didn’t just kind of eat sugar before…I was an absolute sugar hound. I love sugar like Dean Martin loved the gin. Like the Oilers love first overall draft picks. Like NFL players like committing violent felonies. Like Joannie loved Chachi…

 

I can honestly say I can make it 7 days here now…a person can do just about anything for a week. But what are the days after that going to be like? I’ve already proven I can’t do “just a little bit” of sugar. I don’t have that kind of personality, anyone who knows me will tell you that. It’s one thing to make grandiose plans, but when you have a job that can go into DEFCON 5 levels of stress in a heart beat…how do you deal with it then? Will I still feel like “I deserve” a blizzard at the end of a stressful day?
I don’t know. Maybe sugar isn’t the only problem here.

Nope….

So if you were a thirty-something year male who was trying to go 30 days without sugar and had a propensity for not finishing projects you started…what would be the best environment for success? If you said “Boy Shawz, I’d head up by myself to go work in a super high stress environment in a small town about 15 km from the North Pole”…you’re either an extremely sarcastic person (my kind of people) or a masochist (also, my kind of people)
 

 
I had the best intentions going up, I really did. I made plans, spreadsheets, flowcharts, snapchats and instagrams (I may not use technology right) I was going up for 4 days, and would expense groceries, and when eating out would just eat meat and veggies. I would pack my running gear and get short runs in Wednesday and Thursday.  I would drink enough water, get enough sleep, take my vitamins, say my prayers….
  

So, how’d it all go? Great, for approximately 2 hours or so.
After getting approximately 4 hours of sleep the night before, I proceeded to buy a Large coffee (I’m Canadian, so for our American friends, that’s about a gallon) every two hours. Which meant I didn’t drink water. Like..at all. So, I got a bad case of the jitters, made worse by the fact that during the drive, I received emails announcing my workload had been doubled since they found a few things for me to do…while I was “up there anyways” 

 

 
So, for the next 3 days, I ate primarily at anything with a drive through. I drank copious amounts of coffee. I stayed up way too late, because I was watching videos on you tube of guys playing 80s video games. Oh, and did I mention I didn’t run…because, there was nothing in any of my planning that mentioned PACKING ANY RUNNING SHOES.

 

 
So…what did I learn? That the best planning can go awry if you’re not careful, and that allowing your emotions to dictate your eating habits can be a slippery slope. I stayed away from sugar, but may as well have been eating it with all the fast food I ingested. But it’s important to not let that derail things, and just get back in the saddle! (That’s Western Canadian speak for not giving up, but getting back in the game) Old Shawz would have just gone back to eating ice cream, because of hitting that road block.    Every journey is going to have some hurdles, but you can’t take any wooden nickels unless you’re willing to get blood by beating a dead horse you counted in a bush before it hatched 😀
  

wow, it’s um, been 3 days already? Not too sure what happened to make me completely lose track of time…busy with kids? Working copious amounts of overtime?
 

 

Ahem. 
Anywho, other than sitting on my duff for the last half of it, I was legitimately excited for today’s weigh in. After 4 pounds last week, and cutting out “cheap” carbs (for the most part!) I should be good for a couple more at least! So I practically leapt out of bed this morning, and hoped on the scale. 243.5 lbs. I had lost half a pound. Well, a little lost is better than some gained right? I can hold my head high that I’m getting healthier and..
 

 
I’m sorry…what!?!? I haven’t had a sniff of ice cream, doughnuts, candy…for what now? I could be eating ice cream RIGHT NOW!! I could have it in my mouth hole, while shooting whip cream from both hands like a gunslinger….oh whyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!
  

Sigh. So, ice cream driven sadness aside, I’m taking a 4 day road trip for work up North tomorrow. Long hours and 4 days of restaurant food would normally be rough, but seeing no loss on the scale makes me want to fall off the wagon pretty bad. But I’ll take it one day at a time, give it everything I have, give 110 percent…and probably take no wooden nickels too 🙂
  

I need a blizzard…stat.
  

The last couple of days have been the kind country singers sing about. The kind pessimists don’t think are likely, the kind Maple Leaf fans…well, they might just expect it…
  

Without getting too technical, I had some horrible days at work. So, this was another big test in the journey here…where I would normally have turned to ice cream, candy and cake. Sweet, sweet cake. Lucious, chocolate cake, dripping with caramel sauce…
 

 
So, the challenge today will be to find something to replace sugar with. Maybe go for a good run, play with the kids a little extra today…maybe try out this meth the kids are all talking about. I had a list of chores that I was going to take care of today, none of which are getting done today…and that’s just going to have to be ok. The best laid plans occasionally go to the wayside…the main thing is to not let my regular coping with sugar instincts take over.

Day 10! 1/3 of the way there, this would typically where I would celebrate success, perhaps with a cheesecake or ice cream confection of some kind..but not this time!

Nope, this time I’m going to reflect on some of the changes I’ve noticed in the last 10 days or so, and look forward to some other things to come. Its been 10 days, and I’ve already noticed a lot more energy and a better mood, which has meant my runs have improved again, my kids have been spending less time on “time outs” and less threats from my significant other for restraining orders!

One thing I have noticed though, is I seem to be a little more sensitive when I eat something a little more high glycemic. Like right now, I had some trail mix, which was something frugal Shawz thought was a great deal at the store, brought home, and noticed it was full of raisins..now, were raisins full of sugar again??

So right now, I’ve got what I can best describe as a racing heart and wicked freaking headache. Now don’t worry, I plan on doing absolutely nothing about this….after all, I’m a guy. But, it just goes to show that as your body start to adjust to not being bombarded with sugar all the time (which is in…absolutely….EVERYTHING!!) it will react the way it is supposed to when you do feed it high amount of sugar. As in, what the HELL are you doing to me?? 🙂

So, trail mix goes back in the cupboard,  and off to grab some almonds on the way to work. Hopefully, I’ll get a little more settled in a routine here soon, as opposed to constantly winging it. I guess, the most important part of all this is to keep learning, and to get constantly make better choices. Understanding that, as opposed to just throwing myself at this, might be the main thing to take out of today. 😀

Day 9 has come and gone, not too much to report…still feeling kind of bloated though, especially for someone who’s off sugar..(just call me Windows Vista, zing!) 
 

 
So imagine my surprise when my favorite nutritionist (who just happens to share a good deal of my genetic traits) wrote an article  that not only addressed those concerns, but gave some valuable insight into what you can do about it. So instead of coming up with another series of sweetener related puns, I thought I’d just post a link to it…(you’re welcome Internet) so please check it out, it’s a great read…and I promise tomorrow I’ll come up with something more entertaining…as soon as I can find something that rhymes with Xylitol!
How I gained 10 pounds adding only these 3 foods to my diet – Jennifer Rimes Holistic Nutritionist

Alright alright alright! 3rd day of the long weekend today…the August long weekend! A day where we celebrate a long history of…the month…of August? Ah, it’s no stupider than Boxing Day 😉
It also marks one week since I started, which means it’s time to weigh in! So as I stumbled out of bed, one kid on each leg…I stepped on the scale. 264 lbs, so I’d lost 3 pounds. You know, I’ll take it! Part of me was hoping it would be like biggest loser, where I hop on the scale after a week and drop 30 lbs, which would almost make up for Gilian yelling at me to be do another 30 burpees and then laughing while I puke and cry….But I’d totally be the one who binged in the kitchen after everyone went to sleep…
   

 

I also finally got my run in, and you know, it actually went really well. I pulled off 6 miles in just over 60 minutes, which is getting closer to my peak running times. I’ll see how the joints feel in the morning, but for right now I’m pleasantly optimistic 🙂 
Still doing good with the diet I believe…part of the slower weight loss could also be due to the fact that I haven’t given up higher glycemic carbs (white rice, corn, and the such) the next step would be to lower intake of those…and now that I’ve been doing good with the sugar, that might be something I add next week. I should also probably be cutting down on coffee…
 

 

Ah, I’ll figure it out in the morning…as my good friend says “Procrastination wins again!” Except when it doesn’t…but you probably wouldn’t care then…because you were busy doing….something…else. Hmmn…

As the first week comes to a close here, I have to admit it feels a little anti-climactic..(not, you know, last episode of Lost bad…but still!) Not a lot happened today, Sunday’s are very quiet around the ol’ Shawz house. So, please enjoy these Dad jokes instead of an entertaining article.
“What time did the man go to the dentist? Tooth hurt-y.”

 “Why did the chicken coop have two doors? Because if they had four, they would be chicken sedans!”

“Dad, can you put my shoes on? Nah son, they won’t fit me”

“Girlfriend – I’m so sick of you pretending to be a detective, we should split up. Man – you’re right, we can cover more ground them”
Thanks, and try the fish! 😀