My no chocolates, candy and trash food challenge

In hopes that this set of upcoming reflections and experiences will help someone pursue and reach the goals they have always thought to be difficult to attain. Somewhat jokingly but also seriously I am sharing my experience on this challenge. My mood, routine and behavior in these writings was the feeling and turmoil I actually went through.

I'm just below the threshold of turning 30, at almost 171cm (around 5'6") with 70.5kg (155.5 lbs) on me which is just below the excess weight if measured by universal BMI (if we look purely at numbers and not overall physiology and looks). Married and with a 5-year-old son. Not complaining about my life, happy with myself and family, working out occasionally and eating whatever I want with once in a while 'party' weekends (by this I mean that some drinking is involved though I'm not the guy who wakes up at 5 AM in a 'Neverland' asking how did I got here).

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This would very concisely summarize who I am. Although boring and at first useless, these details matter based on what I will share in my later posts and experience.

Here it goes...

Once upon a time when it was this casual working day on 13th of March A.D., my colleague and friend struck up a conversation with me, 'I will be on my no sugary food and drinks month. It's kind of a mundane and tricky program I'm going through now and it would be easier to have a buddy on this one. Do you want to join in?'
Me, the person I am who likes challenges and test my own limits, agreed on this. I mean what could go wrong here? After all it was just one month... Well a bit more actually as it turned out it's almost five weeks. Still, I jumped right into this.

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I've never said no things I ate and didn't care much as to what type of food I was consuming even if it was trash (say burgers, chips, ice cream, chocolates, fizzy drinks, candy, etc.). After all I was able to live through three weeks without coffee (trust me this was a pretty big deal to me) and I'm in my fourth year of not consuming chewing gum (that's a separate story in itself already).

First day was fine. I felt energized and motivated. I was full of hope and ambition until... lunch time. Hunger was swallowing my stomach and I did not take food from home. We had some cake and candy at work to get my brain at peace, get those endorphins flowing and be all jolly as usual, but we also had the agreement. Integrity above all, I said to myself. At that point I understood how addicts feel. I was able to contain myself for a whole 30 minutes. The next four hours until the end of the working day were spent in excruciating pain. No, not of hunger as I had my lunch (I reckon that was some sour yogurt with oatmeal type of cereal) but of not getting my usual 'candy rush'. Loyalty to the agreement and the word of mine was the promise I made. I couldn't let myself fall in disgrace on the first moment of weakness. The urge was suppressed eventually. My dinner later that evening was quite healthy with loads of meat and some rice. That helped me to get the mind off of everything else. I went to bed with a small but impactful sense of victory in a big battle that had just started...

To be continued...

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