Strawberry Shortcake

Sweets.  Sweetness.  Sweetie.  Sweetiepie.  Sweetpea.  Sweetheart.  Has the word "sweet" lost its meaning to you yet?  What a trick on the mind that is, when you write or read something enough times and it loses all sense.  I wonder if that's how people fall out of love with each other.  Too much, all at once, repitition, loss of interest.  If only it were that easy to fall out of love with sugar.

Since cutting out refined sugars from my diet two weeks ago, I have a new appreciation for the natural sweetness in food.  I ate a carrot the other day and it tasted like it had been dipped in icing.  Bananas and strawberries taste like candy.  Mind you, they don't have the same satisfying crunch or chew that candy does, like my favorite, Swedish berries.  MMMM.

I have a long history with sugar, and I'm about to reveal some pretty diabetic-inducing habits that once were a part of my life.  Things I'm not too proud of, but for the sake of story-telling, I'll tell you anyway.

From a young age, I earned the nickname "Cookie Monster" around the house.  Without fail, I was the one who stole the cookie from the cookie jar.  The Keebler elves were my homies.  Chocolate chip, oreo, fresh-baked, what have you.  It didn't matter.  The delicious crunch of a cookie followed by a melt-in-your-mouth sensation hooked me and I rarely ate less than 3 at one time.  I could still tackle a whole row and want more if I felt like it.

In high school things got worse.  I was not eating well, and craved sugar all the time.  In grade 7 I'd get home after school and make a disgusting concoction of icing sugar, cocoa, and milk.  And just eat it.  And it's not like that's all we had in the pantry.  It just seemed like a good idea at the time.  I'm sure I'm not the only one who became addicted to sugar like that.  As a kid, the best treat my grampa could offer me was one of his special sugar and cinammon toasts for breakfast.  He always made it just right.  So it's no wonder that comfort and joy and love was associated with sugar!

Once, and thankfully that's all it took, when I was living on my own for the first time, I binged on 8 donuts because I was feeling sorry for myself.  I think that's probably one of my deepest secrets I never revealed to anyone until just now.

No need to feel shame anymore.  The reasons for satisfying a need with sugar have long been dealt with, and now I get to reflect and laugh (and gag) at myself for some of the things I've done to my body.  Some people go overboard with other substances, for me, it was sugar.

At some point in the last 5 years I started to realize that I was probably going to become Diabetic if I continued to consume refined sugars like I was.  The euphoria and buzz associated with a sugar high began to wear off finally.  I started to consider my future.

Yes I have been a vegetarian since 13, but that doesn't mean I've always made healthy choices.  It took years for me to find a healthy balance.  Throughout it all, I stayed hydrated.  That's probably helped me out quite a bit, flushes me out.  But every once in a while, I would forget whether I'm drinking water because I'm thirsty or am I drinking water because I've acquired the habit.  By grade 11 I improved my diet, and instead of eating crap when I got home, I would down a two liter I'd fill up with H2O.  Eventually I couldn't understand why I was always so thirsty and that's when I started worrying about diabetes, not to mention both my parents now suffer from Type 2.

There are so many pleasant things still associated with sugar.  The pet names for lovers I listed above are just the tip of the iceberg.  We reward ourselves with ice cream, cake, and other such desserts.  We mute ourselves with chocolate, twizzlers and candy.  We dream of lollipops and cupcakes but we fear the big D.  Because it's serious. 

I don't want to mistreat my body to the point that it rebels and fights back with some kind of disease.  It's terrifying to me and happily I'm trying to prevent it.

Now, as with all moderation, including moderation itself, all in moderation.  Every now and then, there ain't nothing better on a hot sunny summer day, than a nice big slice of strawberry shortcake.  And we work hard, so we deserve it, right!!  It's all about balance.

Givers,

Katie