For the sixth week of the abstinence exercise, I was feeling much better about continuing to abstain from sugar since the previous week had been successful. Despite my birthday bringing much temptation to give into cakes and other desserts, I was able to stick to my healthy diet of not eating processed sugar. I was nervous to see my family on the weekend and spend time at home, because we will traditionally have birthday cakes and ice cream. I was able to share with my family members, who had forgotten all about my abstinence exercise, that I would not eat any sugar on my birthday. They were very surprised by this, and even tried to convince me otherwise, but I was able to assertively tell them I was sticking to my commitment. I felt very tempted …show more content…
I knew my family was aware of my attempt to give up sugar, but since they were not currently practicing this abstinence activity, I believed there would be some complications. I was asked if I wanted my favorite meal for dinner, which is an Italian pasta dish, and I had to decline this offer. My family could not understand why I would turn down my favorite dish that I have every birthday. I shared with them that most pasta sauce contains sugar, and they would have to make it from scratch if was going to be sugar free. I also shared that I was pretty certain that the regular, non whole wheat pasta, contained sugar. They were in disbelief and assured me that neither of those would have sugar in them. I asked them to check the ingredients list, and to their surprise, there was sugar added to these products. We were able to come up with a quick and savory dish to avoid any accidental consumption of processed sugar. I was also given an entire plate of different fruit to represent my cake (including birthday candles) and this made me feel very supported in my abstinence activity. I realized when eating the fruit for my birthday dessert, that I would much rather make this the new birthday tradition, and when I shared this with my family they all agreed that they liked this much better than