Project 7:15 - Three Month Reflection

It is October 15^th, which means we are now a full three months into my uncertified life-coaching street cred enhancement A.I.T., “Project 7:15.”  (To reiterate, an A.I.T. is known as an Amazing and/or Inspiring Transformation.  All good life coaches, uncertified or not, have at least one A.I.T. on their resume.) Initially my goal was to go an entire year without binge eating cookies in the middle of the night; this soon evolved into not eating cookies at all and then avoiding all sugar altogether.

The first thing we need to know about Project 7:15 is that I have eaten sugar.  I have not eaten that much sugar, but I have consumed enough that I think I should probably come clean and tell you about it. 

About three weeks into Project 7:15, I was standing around a fire while a friend was making s’mores for our kids.  I was the passer outer, and there came a point when all the kids had been s’mored and she handed me a melting treat.  “That’s yours,” she explained, going back to the task at hand.

As you might imagine, this put me in something of quandary.  I couldn’t exactly just drop the s’more, obviously, because that would be beyond stupid.  It was Hersey’s chocolate.  I also couldn’t give it back and say something lame, like, “Yeah, I trying not to eat sugar for a year,” because she was busy making more s’mores.  So I ate the s’more.  As you might imagine, it was delicious, and, more importantly, the experience reminded me of a truth I had known since first grade. Sometimes food is not just food.  Sometimes food is community.

Nothing necessarily was gained by my eating the s’more, at least not socially, but had I not eaten it, especially since I had already touched it, something would have been lost.  I would have been one of those annoying weirdos that eventually are no longer given the task of handing out s’mores.

So, Project 7:15 was adjusted in that moment, and instead of dismissing all sugar for an entire year, I chose to dismiss all sugar that carried with it no community.  I dismissed random sugar.  So, since then, I’ve eaten a piece of birthday cake at my niece’s birthday party, a gift of a homemade candy brought in by a colleagues, a left over cupcake delivered by a student, and perhaps two or three other sweets that were basically handed to me by people I didn’t want to insult.

I also still have a piece of dark chocolate with my afternoon coffee and I still eat peanut butter with my oat meal.  Beyond that, however, twelve weeks into this thing, I have achieved three important benchmarks.

1.      Pants I haven’t worn in years now fit comfortably, which immediately enhances the wardrobe.  Instead of buying larger pants I simply now fit into pants I once wore.  This saves money and time, because I hate buying pants.

2.      My brain works better.  Although I only get about five or six hours of sleep at night due to my job as a parent, I still have a decent amount of creativity, something that wasn’t as obvious while I was still eating random sugar.

3.       And, perhaps most importantly, I don’t really miss sugar the way I did right at first.  I can get my kids donuts and have zero desire to buy myself one.  The smell of sugar, once intoxicating, is actually now kind of gross.

Thus, now Project 7:15, instead of resting on its laurels, will double down on its success and be even more amazing and/or inspirational.  Why?  How?  Find out in a month.  Until next time, remember, “The life coached well today becomes the legacy lived eventually.”