Monday Postcard 21 – 7 Day Challenge
Let’s get this new week started! I can hardly remember when I was so excited for a new week to start. Those of you who follow me on Instagram will have seen in my Stories that I did a challenge of one week without sugar, carbs and coffee. Sounds tough for you? Well, let me tell you how it was…
The reason for this challenge was a post by a friend of mine who updated us on Facebook about his week of saying no to sugar and coffee. I was intrigued and when I commented on his posts, he encouraged me to try the same. I recently had a really imbalanced diet – sometimes, I had three to four coffees per day. And when I thought about what I was eating, I realized that the majority of my dishes is carbs. What can I say, I love pasta and cheese. And when I work from home, I often do not have the time to think a lot about what to cook. Hence, pasta it is. When I told my boyfriend about this plan he dared me: “I don’t think you have the willpower to do that.” Yep, and that is how I signed up for it. I love proving people wrong as much as I love pasta.
Day 1
As expected, this was one of the toughest days as I had to change all my habits. I especially missed my morning and afternoon coffee. I was really committed and cooked some meat at home. Unfortunately, I did not balance it out with enough vegetables.
Day 2
This day was actually worse. I had a terrible headache. When people had told me about those headaches when going cold turkey on caffeine, I thought they were exaggerating. Unfortunately, they were not. Furthermore, because I wanted to avoid the smell of coffee, I did not go to my favourite café. It is a very small coffee roaster and they only serve coffee – and cake. Neither of which I wanted to see. There I was sitting with a juice, a massive headache and a ton of work, unable to focus. And again, I did not eat enough veggies.
Day 3
Initially, I felt better, I even had plans to go to the gym. However, I started to feel really sick by noon and basically spent the day in bed. I broke the no carb challenge and had some toast to give my body the chance to recover.
Day 4
Feeling much better again, I somehow made it through the day and ate a lot of greens. I even went to the gym but I felt really weak. Usually, I run three kilometres and do my exercises. On that day, I barely completed one kilometre.
Day 5
I started to see the light at the end of the tunnel. As I felt really tired in the morning, I went to the gym right away.
Day 6
Even though I knew it was going to be over soon, this day was unexpectedly tough. I went out for brunch and the menu had literally two options with no carbs – salad… Furthermore, seeing everybody enjoy their coffee was even worse.
Day 7
Finally, finally. I woke up knowing that I made it through the week. And to be perfectly honest, it was not a full week. I started to stop the challenge at brunch and enjoyed my very first cappuccino and french toast. You can imagine my happy face.
What did I learn from this?
I do have to admit, I might have overdone it and should have listened to my friend who recommended “only” staying away from coffee and sugar. I do not think that my body is suited for a low carb diet. Even though I read that it takes two weeks for your body to adjust to a low carb diet, I do not want to take this further. Unless it is your job to have a perfect body, i.e. as a supermodel, and if you need to focus the whole day, I do not recommend this drastic change in diet. Moreover, I quantity-wise I was eating much more than usual. And while I did feel a bit “lighter”, I did not see a lot of impact on my body. But that was not my goal for this challenge anyways. And what is a perfect body anyways? I would rather feel energetic and happy and not have a toned body but enjoy my life.
What shocked me was the effect of going cold turkey on caffeine. Obviously, we do get addicted to it. Furthermore, I think I will be more aware now of how to balance my diet. Staying away from sugar was surprisingly the easiest task.
“The mind is so much more powerful than what we give it credit for.”
This quote by my friend who encouraged me to do this challenge kept me through the week. I am proud about my willpower. And this experiment shows that we can achieve a lot if we really want it.
And, of course, I am thrilled to have proven my boyfriend wrong 😉 But now, I am off to … my favourite coffee place to increase their revenue again and enjoy my coffee!
Have a great week!