The Sugar Hangover. A Story.
The Sugar Hangover.
First, I have to tell you that I have a housemate. We share a beautiful home backing the forest and our dogs are best friends. He has a girlfriend. They belong to the category of strange people who don't watch their weight, eat whatever they want, and therefore do unfathomable things. They bake trays of brownies and top them with chocolate icing. They buy sweets and leave them in the house.
My housemate learned the rules pretty quickly . If it's chocolate and he leaves it in the pantry, at some unsuspecting moment I will find myself circling like a vulture and inevitably I will strike. It's not known how long the prey will sit untouched before I strike. But I will.
He doesn't care if I snarf down his sweets. But I do. A Lot. So, like any good male who is capable of being trained by female neurosis, he keeps most of that shit in his room.
However, he can't keep ice cream in his room. Or the chocolate syrup he uses with the ice cream. Or that half of a tray of leftover brownies covered in chocolate betty crocker icing baked lovingly by his girlfriend.
I realize that sugar is poison. I have known this for years and have seen its effects quite clearly on my body. When I eat sugar, I bloat up like a balloon. It's that simple - the fat grows around my belly and I jiggle. I won't ever feel like I'm eating too much and will often have that hard to explain feeling that is not really hunger. It's called a craving.
Knowing that sugar is a poison doesn't make it taste any worse. Honestly, I love sugar. Chocolate chip cookies are the preferred form - the most perfect embodiment of sugar and fat, and little bites of milk chocoloate (read, a bag of Hershey kisses ) or anything similar, comes after.
I am writing this with a whopping sugar hangover. A sugar hangover feels like an alcohol hangover without the "I've been hit by a truck and can't get up" feeling. Foggy, woozy, nauseous to a degree, my body is off kilter and wierded out, working furiously to digest this poison and get my insulin levels back to normal.
Last night, after a day of eating pretty well, playing tennis and working out at Crossfit, I found myself face to face with that leftover tray of brownies. In the past, I have practiced ‘ruin the food' techniques to ensure I don't snarf. That can be shoving it all down the disposal, mixing whatever it is with whatever else is leftover that's gross, or just running it outside to the garbage can.
I thought about all of it. I did. But OK... c'mon... it's not healthy to TOTALLY sacrifice my love of sugar, is it? Isn't that just totally perfectionist and completely irretreivably neurotic? Just one bite..
On the morning after a half of a tray of chocolate brownies smothered in chocolate icing, I am inspired to write this story as an opening to anyone who suffers the same addictions. PLEASE COMMENT! SHARE YOUR SUGAR STORY! I have to say, BOY DID THEY TASTE GREAT! No regrets... unless I find myself scavenging sugar for days while my body tries to normalize. I have been there before.. and that is a possibility I have yet to face.
Cheers! - Eileen
Comments(6)