A Personal Update (My Year of No Sugar, Weight Loss, Castor Oil, Etc.)

A Year Without Sugar? Almost!

As most of you know, I made a personal resolution at the beginning of 2024 to go a whole year without eating sugar with the exception of six free days. So how did I do?

Well, I did better than I thought I would, but not as good as I wanted to do. The fact is that I did great for most of the year, and I came so close to accomplishing my goal. But for some reason, when December rolled around, all bets were off.

You may have noticed in pictures of our living room and my studio that I keep Starbursts around. I love having sweet treats for guests (and they do enjoy them, which I love to see!), and I love Starbursts particularly because they’re pretty and colorful in the bowl. I keep a bowl on the coffee table in the living room…

And I keep a bowl on the corner of my desk in the studio…

For most of the year, I was able to walk right by the bowl without any temptation at all. In my mind, they were more of a colorful little decoration than a treat for me to enjoy. So I had all kinds of self-control for eleven months.

But for some reason, once December hit, all bets were off. It started off with me allowing one or two Starbursts a day, thinking to myself, “It’s fine! I have self-control now!” Then that increased to five a day. The next thing I knew, I was grabbing Starbursts every time I’d walk past the bowl. And before I knew it, I had plowed through half of a three-pound bag of Starbursts all by myself in a matter of about 2.5 weeks.

I don’t know why I started doing that. I went the whole year with Starbursts in the candy bowl, and I never touched them. They were for guests only. But December brought the “it’s the holidays” mindset, and I let my guard down. And then a few days before Christmas, that “it’s the holidays” mindset that I used to justify the Starbursts consumption also told me that it was okay to indulge in other sweets. So I completely blew it in December. I made it eleven months, and lost all control during the last month.

It’s fine, though. I’m still very proud of myself. At least I made it for eleven months, and I learned that I really could have a whole lot of self-control and determination when it comes to sugar. Before last year, I felt helpless and out of control when it came to sugar. I felt like it was an impossibility for me to say no to dessert when it was available, or to pass up sweet treats in the checkout line at the grocery store. But saying no to those things for eleven months made me realize that I really am in control. And I can say that since Christmas, I’ve regained most of that control back. I did have a few bits of carrot cake that my brother bought and shared with us during lunch on Wednesday, but for the most part, I’m back to saying no to sugary treats.

I won’t be making the same resolution for 2025, but I do plan to keep the sweet treats to a minimum this year, and I feel like my very strict 2024 has shown me that I can continue on without much sugar in my diet without feeling like I’m missing out. But this year, I won’t try to limit myself to only six “cheat” days for the whole year. I’ll allow myself to have the cake on birthdays and special occasions, while aiming to keep my normal daily diet sugar-free.

I feel like I can and will do that going forward. About ten years ago, my New Year’s resolution was to give up Dr. Pepper for a year. I went from drinking only Dr. Pepper all day every day to having none for almost an entire year. But I never went back to that Dr. Pepper habit. Ever since then, I’ll have the occasional small Dr. Pepper, but it’s not really part of my life anymore. And all it took was that one year of strict no-Dr. Pepper to break me of that habit. I plan to have that same result from my almost-year of no sugar.

My Weight Loss Progress

I ended the year 20 pounds down from where I started on January 1, 2024, and 30 pounds down from where I was in the summer of 2023. And just like my no sugar resolution, I’m both proud of myself, and a little disappointed in myself.

A twenty-pound loss (or a thirty-pound loss since mid-2023) is something to be proud of. At the same time, I feel like I could have done so much better had I really stuck with an exercise program. I stopped doing my kettle bell workouts at some point during the summer. And then once I packed up our home gym to have the floor and subfloor replaced, and all of our gym equipment got stashed in the corner of the sunroom, I seriously don’t think I worked out a single time for the rest of the year. I didn’t even so much as go for a walk or pick up a kettle bell.

So while I started off the year strong with my workouts, that only lasted about six months. Had I stuck with that, I feel like I could have made a whole lot more progress on my health goals during 2024. I am proud of my progress, but I’m also a little disappointed that I didn’t stay committed.

But I’m not going to get too down on myself for it. Twenty pounds for the year (and 30 pounds in the last 18 months) is still great progress. I still have a long way to go (about 70 more pounds) to meet my ultimate weight loss and health goals, but the beginning of a new year is a great time to get refocused and make a renewed plan.

To reach that goal, I do need to find a place to set up my little treadmill, and I need to dig my kettle bells out of the corner of the sunroom and place them in an area where I’ll see them and use them every day.

Castor Oil Update

Last year, I started having serious trouble with my skin. Not only was I dealing with dry, itchy, discolored patches of skin on my face and neck, but I was also noticing that my skin (especially around my eyes) just looked so old and wrinkled. I started using castor oil on my face every night before bed, and it made a huge difference!

But then my bonus sister started making a castor oil/tallow balm and asked us to try it out. Once I tried it, I stuck with it and never went back to the plain castor oil. So now, I use her castor oil/tallow balm every day on my face and neck, and I find it works beautifully underneath my makeup.

But when I started having issues around my chin area that the castor oil/tallow balm wasn’t helping, so I went in search of something to help those areas, and that’s when I came across this Rescue Balm. It has done a wonderful job at helping to soothe those problem areas (again, it was dry, itchy, rough patches), and it’s also incredibly moisturizing. So now my routine is to use the Repair Balm on my face and neck at night while I sleep, and then I use the castor oil/tallow balm during the day.

I’ve noticed a huge difference in my skin with this new routine. At the beginning of the year, I was so discouraged with the dry, wrinkled skin that I was seeing on my face. I know that wrinkles come with age, but I plan to fight them until the day I die. 😀 My new routine has made a huge difference, and I’m still seeing those fine lines and wrinkles minimized with these products. Here is a picture I took just this morning, right out of bed. No makeup, no filters, no retouching, no editing.

I do still use castor oil straight out of the bottle when I use my castor oil pack on aches and pains. Castor oil is magic in a bottle, and I’ll always keep some around. I’m just no longer using it straight out of the bottle on my face because I love the mixture of the castor oil with the tallow for my face.

I think those are all of the updates y’all asked for, but if I missed something, let me know! I’m looking forward to continuing my health and weight loss journey this year, and I’ll keep y’all updated along the way.