Pants Progress and Low Sugar Breakfasts

I’m finally feeling out of my rut, actually motivated instead of just going through the motions. Proud that I kept slugging along, even when it was the last thing I wanted to do. Perhaps the new challenge of cutting out (most) sugar has helped, or maybe motivation really is like a wave, and if you can ride out the low points and keep going, you’ll get to a high point again.

Today, I had a great, wonderful moment. It had to do with pants. Over the last six months, I’ve only been able to wear one pair of pants to work; the other days I wear skirts or dresses. My other pairs of pants either don’t button, or look obscenely tight. Even the pair I actually wear to work doesn’t fit quite right, and they’re definitely not flattering. Today one of the old pairs fit me! Actually fit, not just “can technically button” fit. It’s one of the first concrete proofs of weight loss that I’ve had, scale be damned. At work, I may have looked like I was wearing regular black slacks, but they were victory pants today.

It inspired me to finally take new progress photos, and created a page for them next to the "About Me." I aim to update it once a month.

In other news, the no-sugar challenge has been going well, and having this idea in my head that I’m doing this has made it much easier to bypass the candy at work. Today there was a huge platter of pastries next to my desk, and I didn’t have any. This is a huge accomplishment for me, since even during great weight loss weeks, I still usually “spend” 100-200 calories on little bites from these.

However, you know what has a lot of sugar? My breakfasts, it seems. When I decided to omit sugar from my diet (with the exception of morning coffee), I was focusing on work treats and extraneous evening snacks more than breakfasts. However, since I’m trying to cut sugar during the day, I figured I may as well make some effort to have less sugary breakfasts.

I’m not creative with breakfasts: virtually every morning, I either have a package of Quaker Instant Oatmeal, microwaved with milk, or a flavored Greek yogurt. My oatmeal gets 25% of its 160 calories from sugar, and my yogurt of choice brags a full 30 grams per serving - so about 20% as well.

On Sunday, I made homemade oatmeal. It still has some sugar, but about one-third less than the packaged kind. I’ve been eating that for the last couple of days. Other days I’ll try Cheerios and milk, frozen waffles with peanut butter, or rice cakes with peanut butter and no-sugar-added jelly. They’re convenient, low sugar, and will get me to lunch, and I’m definitely open to other suggestions. However, I’m less inclined to have eggs since they have such a strong smell, and I prefer to torture my coworkers in other office-fun ways anyway.

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