And I thought I was being healthy!

I've done a bit of an overhaul of my food and drink habits over the past few months. I decided it was a good idea to get unaddicted to caffiene and also to cut out artificial sweeteners out of my diet as much as possible.

The caffiene break is probably not permanent, but since I'd repeately told my husband that I could easily stop with the caffiene any time, and yet I never ended up doing it, I thought it would be a good challenge to push myself through it. A couple of months after that decision, I'm glad I made it; it's nice not to NEED caffiene in the morning and to know I won't get a headache if I don't have any for a day (or a week). I still drink coffee, but I just opt for decaf. And I do drink iced tea occasionally, but that to me is fine, since tea has way less caffiene in it per serving than coffee.

As for the artificial sweeteners, again, I wasn't crazy concerned about them, but I had read a few studies that tied artificial sweeteners to more cravings for the real sweeteners (i.e., anything with sugar), and that, in turn, had been tied to weight gain. And since I already crave anything sweet like a mad person, I thought this could be a good thing for me. This was a huge deal considering it meant giving up my beloved diet coke. I thought I'd be so unhappy without, but I'm actually pretty used to not having it now and don't miss it too badly.

To replace the artificial sweeteners, I subbed in Sun Crystals, which is made with sugar and stevia (a naturally occurring sweet plant) and is only 4 calories per packet. It's been great. Not quite sugar or splenda, but good.

Another item I subbed in was agave nectar. And that's where the title of this post comes in. I thought agave nectar would be a good substitute for sugar or honey and I was using it in my coffee on occasion. Then I saw this article today. Looks like agave nectar might not be such a healthful alternative after all. The article pretty much equates it with high fructose corn syrup. Not what I was thinking of when I decided to try to use something healthier than artificial sweeteners. I'm going to check on this with my mom (a nutritionist), but until then, I think I'll be laying off the agave nectar.

Other than the agave nectar issue, the changes have gone really well. But I can't lie, I still crave a diet coke every once in a while.

Pre-Christmas Trip

On the Saturday before Christmas, Wyatt and I headed out for a mini vacation. We went to Hot Springs, Arkansas. Why Hot Springs, you might ask? Good question. We had both been there before, and it is truly a beautiful part of the country. It is a great place to go to get away and enjoy nature, and not too far of a drive from Houston. So, Wyatt found a great Bed and Breakfast, and we took off.

We arrived on Saturday and stayed until Tuesday. Here are a few pictures from the trip.

The lake behind our lodge.

One of the lovely stores in Hot Springs.  Wyatt insisted I take a picture of it, and I'm glad I did. 

Us at the Christmas light show at Garvan Woodland Gardens.  It was truly impressive!

And one of us behind the lodge.

On Tuesday, we took a slight detour on our way home and stayed at Wyatt's Granny and Pawpaw's house in Hemphill, Texas. We had a great time visiting with them, and we also enjoyed Granny's delicious macaroons and fruit cake cookies. It was a great visit and overall a great pre-Christmas trip.

Another update...5 months later

So, I am way overdue on an update. I can't believe it's been 5 months since I last blogged. You might think I fell off the blogging wagon because I didn't have much to say, but quite to the contrary, we have had a TON going on, and I guess I've been so busy, blogging got dropped off my list of things to keep up with. But, I am now back, and am going to aim to blog at least once a week for 2010 (hopefully more, but I'm keeping my expectations low).

So, to give you a quick update of what's been going on in Smith land, we did finally close on the house on November 17th. It was a crazy process. Long story, but it was truly a miracle that we were able to close on the house. We had so many roadblocks in the process, and we had many moments we knew the deal wasn't going to go through unless God answered some serious prayers. So, we are glad the house is closed on and happy that the renovations are progressing so far. I have a lot of pictures of the progress, so I'll post some before and after shots in a post soon. We're thinking that the house will be completed in April, so we're moving along.

As for the Shred, I didn't end up making it through the full 30 days, but I did make it to about day 18. I love the program and was getting good results with it, but my knees started hurting a lot (probably due to the ridiculous number of lunges I was doing), so I decided to take a break from the program. On the positive side, though, even without finishing the Shred, I met my weight goal in December. No shortcuts or tricks, just a whole lot of consistent working out and not a whole lot of food that my body didn't need.

Also, I've updated the blog even more since my last post. Again, I used Shabby Blogs to make the changes, and I think it turned out well. I'm still planning on making a few more changes (want to change the header and my signature), but I'm at the limit of my blogging skills right now, so I either need to meet a blogging genius or I need to learn some more before I'm able to finish.

That's all the updating I'll do for now. Be expecting more frequent posts in 2010.