OK, so the thing about giving up sugar is that, well, it's everywhere. It's tradition when you have a meal with a guest that you end it with a dessert - a sugary, sweet, often chocolate, ooey, gooey dessert (and if it includes ice cream, even better!)
Last weekend, my mother's church had a a ladies' tea social. I had promised her I'd go over a month before the program started, so bailing was not an option. I arrived, figured that tea wasn't going to be bad for me - (I actually like unsweetened tea - no sugar, no sweetener), but then the food came out. A plate of delicious warm chicken salad (that was passable), a fruit cup (fruit is OK with a meal, right?) and then a blueberry muffin. I ate slow, took my break, and was doing pretty good, and only ate 1/2 the blueberry muffin. Then they brought out a slice of cake for everyone.
The moment I put the cake in my mouth, my brain went CRAZY. My taste buds sang. I'm not kidding - my brain interpreted a singing noise! I thought, heck - half of a 2 inch by one inch square won't hurt, right? I'll skip the frosting and just eat the cake.
And I did stop after 1/2 the slice. Portion control was in check.
Between the cake and blueberry muffin, the next half hour was STRANGE. I have never had this reaction to sugar, even when I was a kid. I sat, listening to the guest speaker, while my face felt flushed and my brain had a slight pounding sensation. I felt like someone who had dropped acid or something (not that I've ever done that, but if I could imagine it, this was it.)
About an hour later, the effect wore off, and I was back to being my regular self. That evening I went to dinner with my mom (we were celebrating her birthday as well), and then we went to a movie. It was so strange to go to the concession stand for two bottles of water and nothing more - no popcorn, no drinks, no licorice. But I didn't feel bad - it just felt different.
After our class on Monday, I swore off sugar. After the last "head trip", I didn't feel like it was a good idea. Then Friday came.
You see, Fridays we eat dinner with my in-laws, and that usually wraps up with ice cream, cookies, cake, pie, or something like that. My mother-in-law had just come from the local Mexican market where they have these fantastic Neapolitan-type sugar cookies - strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate in a triangle shape. She also had some "pan dulce", or sweet breads. I wasn't interested in the sweet breads, but when I saw those cookies after dinner, I had to get up and go outside - the urge to eat them was so strong, even though I was comfortably full from dinner. I reasoned with myself - I don't have to eat the whole thing, just one bite from each flavor, right? After all, a little sugar won't put me over the edge...
After I left, she put the cookies away so they weren't in site. We watched TV for about 15 minutes, then my father-in-law suggested a walk. Since I knew the cookies were still in the house, I jumped at the chance to get out of the house again. My husband and mother-in-law joined us, and we spent 20 minutes walking around the neighborhood, talking to neighbors, and laughing and enjoying our time together.
As of this morning, I'm proud to say that I swore off the cookies. I'm on my way to one week without even a bite of sugar. And the time spent walking and talking with my family was far better than the three bites of a cookie ever would have been.
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