New Year Resolves

My son-in-law explained that the reason I'm no longer craving sugar is because of cell-receptors. It seems that our cells multiply receptors for whatever we've been consuming. I must have had millions of receptors for sweet things and that's why I always wanted more. But now that I'm limiting sugar, I really don't even want sweet things. It's not even a matter of will-power.

This phenomenon of "wanting what you've been having" has implications in so many areas of life. Whether good things or bad things, whatever it is that we're giving ourselves to is what we are going to desire.

If I rarely pray, I probably won't feel much inclined to pray. If I'm watching TV every night, that's what I'm going to want to do every night. If I'm eating healthy food, I will develop a taste for that and vice-versa.

I approach my New Year's resolutions with more confidence than in years past because of the success with giving up sugar. I'm counting on this principle of "wanting what you've been doing" to help me:

Rise 15 minutes early for prayer.

Jog 30 minutes a day.

Continue to limit sugar.

Don't eat while on the run; that is, sit down like a human being and eat food from a plate or bowl instead of nibbling, tasting, and snacking.

So Far, So Good....re: Sugar Addiction

I can be quite superstitious sometimes. I never thought I'd really break my mother's back if I stepped on a crack, but years of walking to school on sidewalks chanting that must have affected my psyche. Case in point: I think that if I say I'm doing well at not eating sugar then the next thing I know, I'll be plowing through mounds of it. That somehow pointing out a victory is sure to bring on opposing troops. (Years ago I read a book that theorized that Satan can't read our thoughts but he can hear our words, so be careful what you say because you'll just be giving him ammunition. I now see that's absurd, but the thought does occur to me.)

All that aside, I'd like to report that all is going well. My track record with resolves is abysmal, so I'm marveling at the fact that I've had so little sugar for more than two weeks. But this time it wasn't really a resolution. I just was graced with a tall, strong wave of resolve and I'm riding it as far as I can. Pat asked if I'd been praying to God for help, and I acknowledged that I hadn't, but that I've been thanking Him every day for the help that I know has come from Him.

My addiction to sugar mirrors my life. I want only the sweet, without the bitter. I want a constant flow of pleasure, of distraction. I want substitutes that are cheap and easy. I don't want what is really better for me because what's better tends to be so FIBROUS! I'm truly a product of the age in which I live, where the goal seems to be uninterrupted pleasure. I was seeking that in my former habits with sugar.

But my tastes are changing. As I've been choosing other foods, I'm finding them so much tastier than I did when my taste buds were jaded. Where I used to use 3 teaspoons of sugar in my coffee, now 1 is perfect, something I consider a treat, for which I'm thankful. The maple syrup on waffles yesterday was pure bliss, but will not be something I indulge in every day because I know where that will lead.

I made a cake yesterday and realized that before, when I made sweets, I probably consumed about 5 teaspoons of sugar just in the making. It's instinctive to lick your fingers, the spoon, the knife, and I did so yesterday without thinking, but quickly stopped myself because I could see how easy it would be to mindlessly start feeding the sugar monkey again.

Kicking the Sugar Habit

We didn't have a lot of sweets in my house when I was growing up. My mother explained that she had a mouthfull of gold because she was an only-child being raised by her grandmother who owned a boarding house that was within walking distance of drugstores with soda fountains . "If I wanted a chocolate soda at 10:00 at night, I'd have a fit and somebody would go buy one for me."

Despite my mother's efforts, I became a sugar addict anyway. My fondest childhood memories somehow almost always include sweets. The time we came home from the Christmas parade and our mother had tried to make fudge but it hadn't hardened, so we plunged in with spoons in hand, the fudge still warm, grainy, graced with the butter she'd used to grease the oval china platter she'd gotten from the Lion Oil Company.

The thin mints Virginia Bryant would buy from Dinstuhl's, so prim and proper, pastel-colored, the size of a half-dollar. They melted in my mouth at the perfect rate -not so fast as cotton-candy, another marvel, but faster than hard candy or Slo-Pokes. Lying propped up in my parents' bed watching TV, sucking on a foot-long, quarter-thick peppermint stick, rejoicing that it would last for hours.

Petit-fours at showers. Penny candy from the Handy-Pantry, lovingly and carefully selected. Sorting, counting, rating, and trading Halloween candy. Eating candy-corn one color at a time. Unrolling Swiss rolls. Eating a Hostess cupcake that had sat in the sun, warming the cream inside. Warming an ice-cream sandwich between my palms so that the ice-cream squished out just enough to lick a mouthful.

And I'm just getting started. It's ridiculous how much I can vividly recall about eating sweet things.

I've never managed to break this addiction. About a week ago for three nights in a row, I indulged in bowls of Captain Crunch and Cocoa Krispies. Numerous bowls. Just before bed. After feeling lousy all day after the third night of that, I finally came to my senses and decided something had to change.

So what do you do when you need to bolster your resolve? You research. Where best to do that? YouTube, of course. I listened to an hour-long lecture on the evils of sugar by Dr. Robert Lustig, and I made a decision: Cold turkey. No more sugar on a daily basis. (A couple of years ago I had tried to limit my sugar intake to no more than 9 teaspoons a day, but that didn't last long.) I decided to allow myself one dessert a week, Thanksgiving being the day of choice for that first week.

I already feel better. I've even lost a pound amid Thanksgiving feasting. There are plenty of other things to eat, things I would bypass with disdain as I reached for another cookie, like a banana slice with peanut butter, a piece of home-made whole-grain bread toasted and buttered. Popcorn with butter. (Goodbye, Kettle-Corn.)

The only problem was coffee. I only have one cup a day, but I want it sweet. I tried Equal, then Stevia. Both tasted awful to me. I decided to allow myself one teaspoon which I had today. It didn't reignite cravings, so I think I can keep that up.

I have a feeling I might need a support group. Anyone interested in joining me?