Here I am, sitting at my desk at 11:00 p.m. on Monday, September 8th, struggling to stay afloat with my work for the week and feeling way too stressed out about life. Lately, I’ve been so caught up with maintaining my school work, my job, my internship, my responsibilities to my sorority, service and a number of other extra-circulars, that I have neglected my personal health and well being.

Part of this means I’ve been cutting down on the amount of sleep I’ve been getting each night, not going to the gym like I used to and eating absolute junk because it’s so much easier to grab-and-go between activities than, say, a salad is.

So, in order to better myself one step at a time, I came up with an idea: I’m going to go the next week without eating carbs.   

A typical day's worth of food includes French toast sticks from DX for breakfast (sometimes two orders); a sandwich for lunch; a West End salad for dinner, with extra croutons of course; and a big, chocolate chip cookie for dessert.      

The following is the day-to-day account of my week-long endeavor. 

Tuesday, September 9th- Day One: 

The first thing I saw when I woke up this morning was half a West End chocolate chip cookie sitting on my desk, left over from the night before. Luckily, my level of self control was still pretty high at this point, so I folded it back up in its little baggie and told myself I would give it to my friend Austin when I saw her in class later. Unfortunately, that wouldn't be until 2:00 p.m., so every time I opened my backpack, I was hit with that mouth-watering smell of chocolate chip cookie. It's okay, I decided, I will preserver. 

After getting dressed, I went out on a mission to have a low-carb breakfast. I didn't dare consider walking over to ABP just to be tempted by the long wall of pastries. Instead, I decided to explore what DX and Deets had other than bagels, breakfast biscuits and French toast sticks... unfortunately, it wasn't much.

I walked away with a few fruit cups with the realization that this week, the enemy is carbs. I will be surrounded by the enemy every time I walk into a dining hall, and I must be strong. More tomorrow, wish me luck.

Wednesday, September 10th- Day Two:   

After eating my third salad in two days for lunch, I was dying for something sweet, which is pretty much impossible when you're not eating carbs. My friend, Harrison, and I decided to check out The General Store after lunch to see what I could eat that would satisfy my sweet craving without breaking my day and a half streak of having relatively none. 

We realized this was a futile mission after walking up and down the aisles and examining the nutrition labels on various items that I would have previously indulged in without giving it second thought. Upon leaving the store empty-handed, I found myself even hungrier than when we walked in just a few minutes before. 

After lunch, Harrison and I took a walk down to the local Farmer's Market, which was cool because instead of being tempted by all the junk food at The General Store and in about every dining hall, I was surrounded by beautiful, locally grown fruits and vegetables. It's amazing how much prettier this food is compared to the pre-packaged, preservative-filled junk I normally eat day-to-day, so I appreciated that. 

But you know how there's always that one person who can ruin something for everyone? Well, that came in the form of homemade sweets, like muffins, croissants and cookies, which of course contained chocolate chips (my weakness) and were sprinkled with powdered sugar. So while I was able to appreciate the beauty of all the colorful fruits and veggies for a while, the enemy, once again, began to taunt me. 

I left the Farmer's Market feeling hangry. 

Thursday, September 11th- Day Three:   

Today, I learned the hard way the importance of eating frequently when you're avoiding carbs. I had some strawberries in the morning for breakfast, but found myself running around all afternoon trying to get stuff done. By the time I got to class at 12:30, I really thought I was going to die of starvation.

After my first class, I rushed to the grab-and-go section of Turner in the 15-minute break I had before my next class, and rather than a bag of chips or my go-to favorite, a soft, peanut butter cookie, I picked up a cup of Greek, nonfat yogurt. My friend Austin, in complete awe, watched me scarf it down in less than minute. I scrapped the yogurt container clean with my spoon, and despite probably setting a new world record for the fastest consumption of yogurt ever, I still found myself feeling miserable and suffering from the shakes when all was said and done.

Perhaps my proudest moment of my week so far, however, occurred as I went to Cabo Fish Taco on a dinner date that was planned long before I conceived the idea to not eat carbs for a week. While a basket of chips sat in front of me on the table the entire time, I didn't consume a single chip. 

The fact that I got a salad for dinner with grilled chicken proved to make my dinner at Cabo the most unsatisfying meal there to date. But I'm still proud of myself for not cheating on my mission, considering the enemy literally stared me in the face the whole time I picked at my salad. 

After this dinner, my friends and I decided that if I can make it through this week, we will return to Cabo for a dinner that we are referring to as the "CARB-o" Fish Taco trip, where will will order extra chips, tacos, burritos and all the carb-filled sides we desire, which provided me with a little more motivation to push through this week.

Friday, September 12th- Day Four:   

The enemy seems to be appearing in places I previously thought to be safe. Most Fridays after classes, I volunteer at a clothing bank in Christiansburg with my sisters and a senior citizen volunteer group. 

Before leaving the store when we were all finished for the day, one of the older volunteers, Margie, thrusted a box of cinnamon rolls into my arms, as well as a box of Hostess coffee cakes. She did this with very good intentions, of course, thanking us for all our hard work, and normally I would have gladly accepted the offer, but this was an act of pure torture. 

I graciously accepted the boxes of sweets from dear, sweet Margie, but on the ride home, I passed the goods to my sisters in the backseat and they immediately dove right in. The sound of wrappers being opened and the sweet smell of sugar quickly filled the little sedan we were all riding in, but despite feeling my tongue swell and water, I managed to hold my ground. In the game against carbs for the day, the score was carbs-0, me-winning. 

Saturday, September 13th- Day Five:   

Today was a game day, which means one thing in Blacksburg: tailgating. I knew going into the day, resisting temptation would be difficult, and boy was I right. The tailgate I attended had a spread of four different quiches, grilled sausages on potato buns, tater tots covered in cheese, bacon and chives, pigs in a blanket, ham and swiss biscuits and mini-brownies, among many other things. 

The hardest part of the day was resisting those tiny little brownies. They were so cute, baked into the shape of footballs with white icing on them to resemble the laces, and perhaps the hardest thing to forgo this week has been chocolate. But again, I did it! I mainly ate the quiche, minus the crescent roll crust, and the grill sausages, minus the buns, and felt pretty, darn sorry for myself the rest of the time. Not eating carbs had me down in the dumps, but I realized the end was too close to quit then and I had to prove that I could do this to all my doubtful friends (cough, Meghan, cough, Austin.)

Sunday, September 14th- Day Six:   

By today, I will admit that while my sweet cravings are raging stronger than ever, sometimes a good fruit cup will satisfy it. I've never been a huge fruit eater, so I'm hoping that I can continue substituting fruit for candy even after this week is over to continue healthy eating habits. 

However, just like with the Farmer's Market, there always has to be something that really challenges all the progress I've made throughout the week, and this time, it came in the form of guest speakers coming to our sister meeting with trays of cookies. 

There are literally only three or four weeks out of the year that we have a high volume of speakers coming into our meetings, but it can almost always be guaranteed that someone will bring treats, and of course one of the weeks happened to be during my no-carb week. Go figure. So when the tray of cookies got to me, I looked longingly at the frosted and sprinkle-coated delicacies but continued passing them along without taking one.

Monday, September 15th- Day Seven:

Interestingly enough, I've had an almost week-long headache, which I think is almost like a sign of carb-withdraw, but today it's gone. I think my body knows this hell week is almost over and if I can just hold out, I will be reunited with my favorite food group in the morning. 

I was highly tempted by various carbs items at a few meetings I had through out the day. There was a bowl of Sour Patch Kids at one meeting, and a plate of tater tots, tortilla chips and dip, and pizza bites at another. At this point, I don't even have the energy to get upset about this. I almost just laugh at it. Maybe I'm going insane. Maybe I'm just adapting to this new lifestyle. I may never really know. 

Throughout the week I've been asked two questions quite frequently: the first--why are you doing this? People often think it's a cry for attention or a fad-diet, of which it is neither. The second question is usually, what's the first thing you're going to eat when it's over?

Most of the day, I've been combing through the possibilities of the second question. I hate to pick one favorite carb over the other, and wish I could just consume all the carbs I could possibly ever dream of all at once (without going to D2, that is). I guess I'll just decide in the morning! 

Tuesday, September 16th- Day Zero:

French toast sticks. My first, carb-loaded meal was French toast sticks smothered in syrup, which were shortly followed up by a bagel smothered in butter, which brings me to the age old question: is butter a carb? Either way, it was all very good and being able to drink my staple drink, sweet tea, again was really just...life changing. 

I learned a lot by not eating carbs for a week, namely by becoming a lot more conscious about what I was putting into my body and what types of food our campus offers. It made me more determined than ever to continue eating healthy and staying fit, so that later in life, I don't have to revert back to this diet for more serious reasons in order to maintain proper health.

Most importantly, I proved that I could do it, despite all the doubts and all the adversity I faced throughout the week. I'm glad I challenged myself to this experience and that I'm still alive today to tell the tale, but more than anything, I'm glad the week is over.