Livin' the sweet life

It is tradition around New Year in the United States to find some way to torture yourself for a few months (or a few weeks) before losing interest and going back to the old blissful self.  For some people it's learning a couple new languages, others P90X while doing a 100 day fast, stubbing your toe daily, running marathons, etc.  The only connotation is that must be painful and easily discontinued if you decide not to proceed with said activity.  I'm not sure how this tradition came about, but it is probably as a result of long-lived and misunderstood dare.

This brings us to Clarissa and I earlier this year.  Her family is a big proponent of this dare thing, and suggested this time to do a "no sugar" diet for the first three months of the year.  Being the strong, capable man I am, I was easily cowed into joining this sugarless cult in support of my wife.  Bacon was still allowed, and I doubt there will be a high number of sugary items in the case of a zombie apocalypse, so yeah, I'm in.  No pain, no gain, right?

Well, if anyone wants to see the results of the no sugar diet in graph form, you can see the results right here.  Clarissa was a warrior, and a fine competitor.  But if you notice, their are a few spots where I really gave her a run for her money.  I cite day 02/21 and 03/04 in particular.   I'm sure she'll recover though.

In the end, I think both Clarissa and I both learned some things about a no-sugar diet.  I list them in order below:
Zach:

• It's the 21st century, I consider myself enlightened enough to forgo goal setting.
• The best way to sneak sugary items is while at school.
• Don't tell wife about snuck sugary items

Clarissa:

• It doesn't get any easier as you go along.  Day 90 was just as hard as Day 1.
• Sugar-free ice cream is amazing if you find the right kind
• Sugar-free ice cream is a laxative.
• I DID lose weight, but I would rather have exercised more than miss Tawny's amazing desserts
• There is a BAD rebound period afterwards.  As pictured below, we've been going all out around here:

The Easter Bunny was kind this year.  Too kind.

For the record, Zach can fit 21 marshmallows in his cavernous mouth.

Clarissa can only fit 10.

 In the end, I think there will still be Twinkies in a zombie apocalypse.