Sugar, Part I

September 7, 2017

When I woke this morning, my body felt like it had been filled with liquid lead that was solidifying.  I've had this feeling before, and I thought it was exhaustion.  Indeed, I was exhausted last night in my body and in my mind, neither of which could do or process one more thing.  I went to bed fairly early, hoping I'd get up early this morning and do some of the things I'd wanted to during that lost evening.  Instead I'd had something of a restless night, which followed another restless and too-brief night of sleep the evening before.  I couldn't get up early this morning, and I didn't want to get up at all.  As I stayed there in bed, I thought, I haven't felt this exhausted in a while, what's going on? 

And an answer came to me:  sugar.

I wrote here yesterday about having far too many Peanut Butter M&Ms the day before, even eating more as I typed those words.  I finally took the bag to the break room, or I know I'd have finished the whole thing yesterday.  So, I was thinking this morning that I'd had a bad day followed by a somewhat-bad day, but then I remembered Monday (Labor Day).  I'd gone to Starbucks and had a frapp, but I was tired of my light/skinny so did something different, adding white chocolate.  As warned by the barista, it was very sweet--which I loved.  Also that day, I ate Indian food and had both naan and white rice.  I almost always now have wheat/brown when it comes to bread, rice, and pasta.  So, after consideration, I'm counting three days of sugar. 

But my body and my mind counted it first--in physical exhaustion, in mental exhaustion, and in a heaviness that has nothing to do with weight.

Kristin Kirkpatrick, M.S., R.D., L.D. lists Ten Things You Don't Know About Sugar in her blog.  They are:

1. Sugar can damage your heart.
2. Sugar specifically promotes belly fat.
3. Sugar is the true silent killer.
4. Sugar may be linked to cancer production and may effect cancer survival.
5. Your sugar “addiction” may be genetic.
6. Sugar and alcohol have similar toxic liver effects on the body.
7. Sugar may sap your brain power.
8. Sugar hides in many everyday “non-sugar” foods.
9. An overload of sugar (specifically in beverages) may shorten your life.
10. Sugar is making us fat.

That's a lot, and over the next few days, I'm going to examine my relationship with sugar.  It's a love affair that needs to transform or even end.

Today, though, I'm going to do what I can, which is stay away from sugar and drink lots of water to flush the excess sugar from my cells and tissue.  Today, I'll pay the price of three too-much sugar days.