This past Friday, I went down to DC again for my second attempt at getting my Australian passport. They didn’t like how my pictures looked so I had to walk 30 minutes roundtrip to get new ones taken. We had to wait another for the embassy to reopen before my application was finally accepted. I should be officially Australian again in just a few weeks!
Brady and I met up with my friend Steven at City Center while we were waiting for the embassy to reopen. It was in the lower 40s but it felt 20 degrees colder! brr. After the embassy, we all went to the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle. It was my first time there and it was astounding. Every surface was a piece of art. We spent some time looking around the cathedral, ate some Thai food and took the metro home.
Setting up the Christmas tree with a toddler
Saturday was a rest day before a big workday on Sunday. The house was overdue for a good clean so we spent the morning cleaning and getting ready to decorate the tree. We spent 4 hours in the backyard clearing out the last bundles of branches from out downed tree branch this summer as well as clearing leaves.
Our weekend was capped off with some holiday cheer as we put up our Christmas tree. One week earlier than we did last year haha. I don’t need permission to celebrate the season earlier but apparently I’m happier for it! I have no idea how well this is going to go with a strong-willed toddler but so far it hasn’t been the worst. We still have ornaments to put up but we’re waiting to get some string because I heard a horror story about ornament hooks and toddlers…
Enjoy a little bit of my Christmas cheer! ๐
A week without sugar challenge recap
A week ago, I mentioned that I would be taking a week without sugar. I finished the challenge last night and thought I would share the results. Days 1-3 were very hard in the afternoon. Like very hard. I hate to drink a lot of water and tea to distract myself from having a little sugary pick-me-up. I think I even dreamed about accidentally eating sugar one of those nights.
After a few days, it was still a temptation but I didn’t feel quite as desperate anymore and by the weekend I wasn’t craving anymore, only missing out because I wanted to have a treat while on outings. I had my first piece of chocolate on Sunday night and I was actually disappointed. It wasn’t as fantastic as I thought it was going to be due to the change my taste buds had gone through.
Actually, the funniest thing to me was finding this in my Facebook memories from when I was a senior in high school, 10 years ago.
I literally laughed out loud when I saw it. It’s not like this is something I do regularly. In fact, I don’t think I’ve done this since then. I guess maybe there is a link between this time of year and overindulging that makes me want to take a step back. Who knows but I thought that this was hilarious.
What’s the outcome of this experiment? Taste bud adjustment and sugar cravings reduction are both positive outcomes. I also lost 4 pounds without cutting calories or working out at all. I even ate out once per day for most of the week too. There were small amounts of sugar in some of the foods I ate, but I tried to be mindful where I could.
Now the question is, how do I move forward without falling back into old habits? For the next week, I’m going to try abstaining from sugar Monday-Thursday and then allow myself 2 treats between Friday and Sunday. Then I’ll reevaluate again!
Happy Monday!
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