Sugar

I don’t like food in general, but I do love sugar.  Sugar in any form will do.  Candy, chocolate, ice cream, custards, puddings…..yum.  I don’t care for sweet tea or coffee, which is strange for a human fly, but do love a good milk shake.  Upon occasion, I’ve been known to eat candy and sugar products in place of meals.  Nothing like having a handful of Hershey kisses for lunch, especially the caramel filled ones. 

As I was downing my third sleeve of Peeps the Saturday before Lent, I thought to myself, I need to stop; this can’t be good for me.  So that day I decided to give up sugar for Lent.  I’ll just stop eating all the candy and really pay attention to the sugar content in all other foods and try not to be so excessive.  Piece of gluten free cake, right?  That evening, I told my daughter what I had decided to do.  She looked at me and said “Mom, isn’t sugar your major food group?  You can’t eat much of anything else.”   Oh my gosh, she’s right.  It is my major food group.  I’m allergic to so many foods.  What am I going to eat?  After my mild panic attack, I thought ok, I can do this.  There are plenty of things I can eat……right?

Do you ever read the labels in the grocery store?  Do you know how much sugar is added to pretty much everything?  Unbelievable.  And do you know how hard it is to give up candy?  The very first night I was at my parent’s house for dinner.  I stood in the kitchen talking to my father absent mindedly tossing M & M’s in my mouth.  It was such a habit.  I collected myself and told myself to stop.  I did much better for the next week or so, only eating things that had low or no sugar added.  I even tried the sugar free Peep.  I’d like to say I took one for the team, the Peeps people need to pull those atrocities from the shelves across the world.  I didn’t even bite all the way into the fake Peep before I was dry heaving into the garbage bin.  While I realize people have dietary/health issues and there is a market for sugar free candy, sugar free Peeps are just wrong.  I immediately fired off a scathing e-mail to the powers that be at Peeps.  They must have been thinking who is this crazy woman??

Alas, I have fallen a bit off the wagon.  On the flight to Singapore a few short weeks ago, the stewardesses handed out ice cream bars and it would have been rude of me to say no, right?  Vanilla ice cream topped with caramel covered in what was like a Nestle Crunch Bar.  They were so good that my husband made me keep the package it came in to see if I could find them here in the States.  Of course not, probably for the best.  I have been good at work though.  Work is a place where I would have most of my sugar.  It’s really hard to walk into my supervisor’s office and not pick up a mini Reece’s or a Rolo.  Today I was in Target and figured, while I am here, I might as well get the kid’s their Easter candy. Well, our Target just upgraded to include a grocery store and they have moved everything, so I was all over the place.  Zip lock bags were not near the dog food aisle anymore and it took me a while to find the kitchen department.  I ran down my list and totally had forgotten to pick up a few stuffed bunnies.  (At work we are collecting bunnies to give to the kids at Connecticut Children’s Hospital.)  I had to wander the store again to find them.  For all my efforts, I grabbed a Reece’s peanut butter egg….I thought it would be better for me than three sleeves of Peeps.  Don’t know about that, but it sure tasted good. 

Well, Lent is almost over but my quasi sugar fast is not.  I really don’t need to be eating so much candy, no one should. I’m not saying I won’t eat all the kids stale Peeps or the left over Reece’s bunny in the four pack, but I am really going to try to monitor myself.  No candy at work, no Gummy Bears(the good ones in the gold pack)in the car, and no ice cream in the freezer.  I think I can do it, I think……