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Life Update

Sorry I haven't posted in a very long time because I was studying for AP exams from Spring break until now! Now that AP exams are over, I am slightly more relaxed. Sure, I have to study for my SAT subject tests and for finals, but I managed to relax a bit more this weekend.
Some changes and development that happened over the hiatus:
Change in diet 
Remembered that I posted a few blog posts complaining about how I eat junk food and feel like I had no self-control? Fortunately, I have solved that problem. I wouldn't say it has been 100% solved, but there have been great strides made (in my opinion). For the past 2 weeks, I have adopted the no added sugar diet. Technically, I did not quit ALL added sugar because my mom sometimes adds sauce in her cooked dishes that contains added sugar. However, I have stopped eating those supposedly snacks in the pantry, such as granola bars, chocolate, crepes, etc. So far in my life, I have never made such choice with full determination. I have attempted this diet before, but I wasn't resolute on the idea.

 I think what motivated me to stop eating foods with a lot of added sugar is because I felt drained and mad at myself for making these daily choices. Sure, I may be exaggerating how unhealthy I am, but at some points it was pretty frustrating to choose a snack over a healthier food. As a result, I wondered how much of a difference would quitting added sugar make on my life. Another thing was that I thought back to the time when I watched the health documentary Fed Up. Although I wouldn't follow Fed Up's advice word for word, it still gave me the drive to rethink my lifestyle choices.

What I learned from this 2-3 weeks experience is that there is no real good excuse to eat snacks in the pantry. Prior to this change, I used flawed logic reasoning by thinking that if no one ate the snacks, then it would expire and then turn bad and then that would be food waste. In truth, I have not seen any actual bad incident of having to throw a box of dried food into the trash because I stopped eating them. By some point, my parents will realize that because no one is eating it, they will stop buying it.
One of the most positive benefits I got out of this is that I feel more self-disciplined. You probably heard this quote, but self-control= happiness. Initially, it was quite hard for me because I had to read the ingredient labels to check how much sugar there was, but in the end it was worth it.

I hope this blog post will make you rethink your current choices. Of course, it doesn't hurt to have a cheat meal once a month or so.

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