1 year without sugar challenge

Ir turn 38 in one week.  I can’t believe I made it this far! Seriously, I feel like I have been through a lifetime of events, but at the same time I’m not ready to go just yet. 

Although I have learned so much, this does not mean I always follow what I have learned. 

I want to go into the 2nd half of my life with a fierce devotion to trying to stick to everything I have learned thus far.  About health, diet, exercise, relationships, career, mental health, and so much more. 

I know, I can’t be perfect. 
I will fail, but I want to strive to really live what I know.  

I want to experience the fruit of sticking to the truths I have been taught through so many different trials. I feel like I have spent the last 38 years in a laboratory with me as the subject. Isn’t that what it’s like for all of us at some points?

Experimenting with so many different ways of life.  I finally feel I know my recipe to feel my best, now sticking to it is the challenge. 
 
I know I have more to learn, I will never stop learning here until I take my last breath.  I feel this year will be about learning what can happen when I stick to the hard things. The things that make me give up something about myself.  A comfort, a habit.  The things that make me anxious and the slight fear of the unknown.  The “things” I know I must do.  The things I know I will regret on my death bed if I don’t do.  Such as finishing my eBook about IC healing.
 
Women need to know healing interstitial cystitis is possible! 

There is NO WAY I can heal from that and not share the hope with others!  As much as I have wanted to finish writing about it, I get so busy with actual life, family, and career it gets put last. I need to make time!
 
I applied to a master’s program this week for counseling.  I guess I have to much free time on my hands.  HA!

This has been something I have known I wanted to do since I was a child.  When everyone would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would tell them a psychologist and a writer.  I don’t know if I even knew what that meant as a 9-year-old, but it was already in me somehow!  I have always been fascinated with psychology and mental health.  I have had plenty of my own challenges with depression and anxiety and my mother was a chronic hoarder who also live with major depression my entire life.  My dad was an addict, so I guess you could say I was thrown into the school of mental health from birth. 

While healing from IC I learned so much more about diet, lifestyle and how it effects not only physical health but mental and emotional health.  I have learned so much about what is required to heal and change.  It is my dream to one day help others heal from mental health issues in a holistic way. I would like to pair up with a holistic doctor and work with clients who are willing to change their lifestyle to get well.  I would provide counseling and send them to someone who can test them for food allergies, inflammation, candida, and a host of other issues I know causes mental health and addiction issues.  Getting well from anything requires completely getting well, not just focusing on one area such as talk therapy.

Anyway, I don’t know if I will get into this program but time will tell.  I graduated with my bachelor degree in psychology a few years ago and always intended to get my masters.  So we will see if I get in:)

On another note:  As a birthday gift to myself, it is my intent to heal my sugar addiction once and for all this year. 

I am ashamed to tell you, I have been battling this for 10 years.  Yes, for 10 years now I have known I have this addiction.  I am a complete sugar addict.  With withdrawal symptoms and the entire addict cycle.  For so many reasons I need to heal this.  I am a wellness coach and I want to be able to offer other people the hope that they too can heal sugar addiction, much like they can heal IC.  Sugar addiction has been harder for me to heal than my smoking addiction was.  It’s true.  Its a beast for me.
 
So, I am giving myself one full year without sugar.   I am going to blog about it, and document it.  I am doing this to hold myself accountable and to show the world essentially what it’s like to give up the white drug for a year.  I have seen plenty of bloggers give it up for 30 or 60 days but haven’t found a whole year just yet.  I think I need this long to break the addiction, so far I have never made it past 45 days.  SO, tomorrow I will start this process.  For now, I will go have my last chocolate turtle and bowl of ice cream. Ha!
 
Wish me luck!

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