I quit sugar 75 days ago // my struggle story // epic fail and weekly meal prep

I was a ballet dancer since I have turned 6 years old. Ballet requires a lot of effort, my training session lasted 4 to 6 hours daily which in turn affect the appetite. We were hungry all the time and eat three chocolate bars after dance session did not seem a big deal at all. I stopped dancing professionally at age 16 but old habits of eating sugar stayed with me. I would start my day with store bought breakfast cookies or a cheesecake, then milk chocolate as a snack and finish up dessert with after dinner. Days when I ate store bought oatmeal cookies instead of chocolate I considered “healthy”. In my late 20-s I cracked my first tooth. It gave up on me in the middle of chewing lunch. I remember how embarrassing that was because I knew why that happened. I knew I am overeating sugar, I knew it a problem and how unhealthy that is. It just felt I couldn’t do anything about it. Cracked tooth became my first signal that life needs to change. I have decided to stop eating sugar after 4 pm. And the very first day of my commitment I got extremely hungry by 5-30 (mind you, at 3-45 I ate oatmeal cookie, I ate sugar right until 4-00pm). The intensity of hunger was almost scary. I was walking back home so hungry I thought I will pass out and NOTHING I thought of I could have. I thought of yogurt (sugar), boxed smoothy (sugar), i came home to realize EVERYTHING I HAD IN MY FRIDGE from dressing to remade meals had sugar - this was first time I actually read ingredients of food. I tried to do better with not eating sugar after 4 pm but I almost always forget about the commitment almost automatically getting my hand in a box of cookies. But this behavior got me thinking of how much I depend on sugar. I got my time to just observe myself as if this isn’t me but somebody else diet and I got fed up quite literally. Four months later I knew I can stop eating sugar. First step was to meal prep and set a menu. Green smoothie for breakfast, packed salad from house and NO SNACKS in the house. Exactly zero snacks and sugars. I set a structure of the day: smoothie, workout, go to work, walk back home from work and eat homemade snack. That month was very strict: no fruits, dry fruits or sweet vegetables. Even green smoothie had green apple in it instead of banana. And that month showed me how amazing I can feel, how much weight I can drop effortlessly, how clean my skin can be and how quiet my mind it is naturally if I am not stimulating it which sugar. I absolutely loved those 30 days and I never got back into my old habits. And 30 days began my healthy eating journey.