I need to learn to celebrate my birthday without using food as the main way I do it. I went all out on Saturday night, went to Vic & Anthony’s Steakhouse with my amazing husband. I had 2 martini’s, filet mignon, macaroni and cheese, broccoli and chocolate cake. I was not able to eat it all and had a huge doggy bag.

Overnight I kept waking up. My belly was so heavy. I was sleeping in fits and starts. At 6:30am I gave up and went to watch the men’s gold medal hockey game {Canada WON! Woot woot!}. I had more cake on Sunday and then more was brought in at work on Monday. And now I am having a hard time with my mind. It asks for things it didn’t before. I am getting stronger everyday at saying no, but it sucks and is hard! It reminds me of what I read in It Starts with Food:

Because the sweetness of sugar is addictive, eating an excess amount is easy. The more we eat, the more we get acclimated to high levels, and the more we want. Artificial sweeteners are also commonly problematic, as they are hundreds of times sweeter than the sugar found in nature but lack any genuine nutritional qualities.

Added sugars are one of the quickest and easiest foods to provoke an unhealthy hormonal response, causing disruptions in leptin and insulin levels, primary reliance on sugar as fuel, and accumulation of lipids in the liver, bloodstream, and on the body (as body fat). This drives systemic inflammation, a major risk factor for many lifestyle diseases and conditions. In addition, these sugars are calorie-dense, but nutritionally barren — the very definition of “empty calories.”

Sugar (and studies suggest some artificial sweeteners) also disrupt the environment in our gut, specifically altering the delicate balance of “good” bacteria and “bad” bacteria. This condition (called dysbiosis) can lead to digestive distress and inflammatory symptoms like fatigue, body aches, and joint problems, and can worsen pre-existing inflammatory or autoimmune conditions.

Well this lead to an epiphany for me–my knee hasn’t been feeling much better and I thought it would with me not eating legumes at all. So what if I am also sensitive to sugar and that is what is contributing to my knee issues? So I am going to do another science experiment–2 weeks of no sugar. See what happens with my knee. Is this the key to me not being inflamed?

So goal for my birthday in 2015: to celebrate my birthday by doing something other than eating rich food.