Links I Love Wednesday

Welcome to a new feature here at Ten Percent – Links I Love Wednesday.

Many blogs have something similar on a weekly basis, and I always love scrolling through the lists! Since I do come across many interesting and (sometimes) relevant links every day, it would be my pleasure to share them with you each week and – bonus – have an ongoing reference archive for all of us.

This week's will be a little on the short side, but as I am better prepared the lists will become more substantial and fun!

***

Here is the New York Times article that inspired this feature – eating at restaurants can be challenging for those of us trying to make better choices. It's got great ideas about how to approach dining out everywhere from Dunkin' Donuts to the toniest steakhouse.

A wonderful take on swimsuit wearing.

Women dropping polite hints in western art history

Of course I love the idea of intentional self-care as part of an overall regimen.

A documentary coming later this year about one of my favorite bands.

***

In other news, I am experimenting again. After an online chat with a good friend, I decided to finally take the plunge and try not eating any added or obvious sources of sugar. I've been having sort of a problem with snacking on mini chocolate candies of various types, and other stuff like ice cream – anything sweet, really – and have been considering trying this for a while now. Her suggestion came up after I told her about how moody and sad and anxious I've been lately, and how horrible my PMS was this month. I don't know, something just kind of clicked in my head and I thought, "Well, let's see if I can do a week. I'm starting with a day." That day was yesterday, and it was the first day in as long as I can remember that I didn't have something sugary.

It went fine! Better than fine! I was pretty shocked.

There were times when I thought about chocolate or whatever, and immediately some voice in my head said, "Nah, you don't want that poison." And I actually listened to that voice and said, "Oh yeah! I sure don't!" Not to say that I consider any food (especially chocolate) to truly be poison of its own accord, but for now that's how I am framing it for myself because it makes it easier for me to stay away.

Here are some yummy foods with naturally-occurring sugar that I've been eating: Baked sweet potato, corn on the cob, raspberries, kiwi. I also had some greek yogurt, but that has some added sugar in the form of evaporated cane juice – I guess I am not going to be so hard core about it. I don't know.

I guess I am mainly doing this to mix things up a bit, and to temper my sweet tooth more than anything. I'm curious to see if it will have any other positive effects, or not seem to matter at all. After the first week, I'll think about whether to do another one or even plan for a month. Maybe I'll end up doing it for as long as I possibly can... or maybe I will just end up simply cutting back on the frequency with which I tend to eat the sweet stuff.

As always, a work in progress. I will keep you posted.