What I learned on my day off.

So, on sunday the cast of my uni show and I all got together and had a cast meal. Here is what it looked like:

And that's not even all of it! The mains were sweet potato chilli, fish pie, honey and mustard chicken, and of course my director's famous pulled pork. And as you can see, many beautiful side dishes. And THEN there were two options for pudding: lemon cake and banoffee pie.

Needless to say I gave myself the day off from my challenge!

And this is what I learned:

1. I can still eat horrendous amounts of food. Despite the fact that I was actually in pain, I kept getting up for more because it tasted so damn good. I'm pretty sure I ate the most, with a grand total of three savoury platefuls and two portions of both puddings! So I have proved to myself that my monster appetite can come back any time it likes.

2. The sudden amount of sugar was a shock to the system. I wasn't sure what exactly did it, but something I had early on in the meal affected me quite badly! I think it may have been the white bread or the pulled pork. My stomach was in agony, it completely cramped up. Then, later on in the day I was waaaaaay too hyper. Sugar does interesting things to you.

3. Pudding makes me hungry again. I knew this already from past experiences, but this was my final proof. I ate so much of the savoury food I was ready to explode, and then I helped myself to lemon cake and bannoffee pie (both are amongst my favourite puddings ever!) and suddenly I didn't feel so full anymore. Which made no sense as I had just piled massive amounts of fat and sugar into my tum. I went back for more in the end, and my second pudding portion was as big as the first!

4. I can easily regain self control. In the past I would have gone 'in for a penny, in for a pound' and spent the rest of the day indulging, but as soon as the meal was over I went back to my routine, and it hasn't felt any harder since. So now I know that when I do indulge, it doesn't have to completely change my habits. It really can just be a treat.

Some positives and negatives, enough to make me think of trying to keep this no sugar thing up most of the time, with the occasional indulgence. We shall see how strong my resolve is at the end of the month.

Only five more days!