Mind, Body, & Soul: An Explanation

8. Bike the Grand Rounds.
The Grand Rounds Scenic Byway is a linked series of park areas in Minneapolis that takes a roughly circular path through the city. We live south of Lake Harriet, so we are very familiar with the chain of lakes. We've also biked Minnehaha, and we both think it would be fun to do the whole thing.

9. Bike somewhere 50+ miles away.
There are tons of beautiful biking trails in Minnesota and now that we have nice road bikes, we want to check them out. We are up for the challenge!

10. Finish all 7 stages of my workout routine.
You can get all the details about #10 here.

11. Get a massage.
One of those guilty pleasures that I love but never treat myself to because, well, they can be expensive. Especially if you get sucked in to getting them on a regular basis. But everyone deserves to get pampered every once in a while, and I know I am going to love crossing this one off my list.

12. Get a pedicure.
In my almost 26 years of life, I have never once gotten a pedicure. I know some women get them all the time, but it's one of those indulgences I never got into. So I figure, what the heck? Sometime within the next 1001 days (well, 794 days) is as good a time as any to get my first one.

13. Eat dinner with the television off for one week.
Like I said in my post, what's the point of having a nice dining room table if you never eat at it? This is something that was completed a while ago and, while we don't eat every meal at the table, we do eat there much more than we did before.

14. Go a week without eating any sweets.
This was an incredibly difficult task, but I am so proud of myself for sticking it out. You can read about it here and the follow up here.

15. Quit taking Tylenol PM.
This one's been a long time coming, so I'll just let the post speak for itself.

"Kicking My Addiction" Update

Yesterday I talked about going cold turkey for a whole week before my health assessment in hopes of getting my triglyceride level below 100 mg/dL. Well, the results are in and I am pleased to say that my triglyceride level was at 84 mg/dL! I was a little worried that my efforts would be in vain, but it turns out I didn't put myself through hell for nothing! And if these results don't give me further encouragement to stick to one "sweet" a day, I don't know what will.

Kicking My Addiction

"Hi, my name is Laura and I have a serious sweet tooth."

Number 14 is the item on my list that I have dreaded since day one. Under normal circumstances, this probably would have been an item I would have waited until the very last week of the project to complete. However, I have a health assessment at my husband's work (that will be number 3 in the last year). So what does one have to do with the other? Let me explain.

In prior years, the results of my health assessments have come back with a slightly elevated triglyceride level. 100 mg/dL or less is recommended (though the internet says anything below 150 mg/dL is normal), and in April of 2009 I was at 129 (I was around 160 the previous 2 years). The number one suggestion for lowering this is to consume less sugar. So I figured my upcoming health assessment would be the perfect time to cut back on my sweets and see if my results come back better.

Anyway, back to my sweet tooth. My biggest problem when it comes to sweets is my inability to stop myself at one. I set out to eat one [insert sweet here], and I tell myself "Oh, I can have just one more" but it never turns out to be "just one more." Which, I believe, is the root of the problem. If I stopped at one like I intend to in the beginning, I'd be fine. But I have no self control when it comes to sweets.

So, I'm sure you really want to know what exactly I didn't allow myself to eat this week. All your typical baked treats such as cookies, bars, cake, etc were banned, as well as candy of any kind. Breakfast baked goods were, for the most part, also banned. I did eat a muffin one morning for breakfast, which maybe should have been a no-no, but when compared to the other options out there (doughnuts, danishes, bear claws, etc) it really was the lesser of many evils. Plus, it was a cranberry muffin without the yummy sugar crystals on top, so it was probably one of the "healthier" muffins out there too. You know, versus chocolate chip or something. So, I really don't regret that muffin, which would have been completely avoided all together if a meeting at work would not have had leftovers. But whatever.

I'm not going to lie and say not eating sweets was a piece of cake. Because, well, I didn't get any cake, did I? It was probably one of the more difficult things I have willingly made myself do, and you can't even begin to know just how proud I am of myself for not caving when I had the opportunity. And believe me, there were plenty of tempting opportunities.

The first was when my coworker brought in dark chocolate to share with the office. This wasn't too hard to avoid since I am not a big chocolate person. The fact that it was dark chocolate made the decision even easier.

I got together with friends Saturday night and had to not only avoid the chocolate chip cookies, but a beautiful cake from Lund's. I had to sit with those two items under my nose for almost 5 hours. I drooled over them, yes, but I munched on fruit instead. My friends may have given me shit for not eating a piece of cake, but I stood my ground.

Lastly, I baked cookies this weekend for Valentine's Day. While I really like eating cookies, I am notoriously known for snitching cookie dough. And I'm not talking about just licking the beater clean. When it comes to cookie dough, it's more along the lines of "one for the cookie sheet, one for me." It's not really that bad, but I do like me some nummy cookie dough. So not only did I avoid tasting the baked cookies (my husband eating 4 or 5 of them has assured me they are good), I avoided eating any dough Saturday when I mixed up the cookies and Sunday when I baked them. That was twice the cookie dough temptation right there and I resisted.

So, after a week without my beloved sweets, I feel great. Sure, I miss them and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't craving them all week long. But I have proven to myself that I can go completely without them and, next time I reach for that second cookie, I will know I can find the strength to stop myself.

The bottom line is this: there's nothing wrong with treating yourself to whatever it is that you crave, as long as it's all in moderation. In fact, I think to completely deprive yourself of what you love actually does more damage. Not to your body, but to your general well-being.

Now, I'm sure you are all wondering whether I broke down and had something immediately after the week was over (which was technically at 3pm yesterday) and the answer is no. In fact, if we weren't having cake at 2:30 today (we're having a mini Valentine's Day party at work), I definitely know I could have made it longer.