So last Tuesday night, I'm in class when I realize I am starving.
Tuesdays are odd, schedule-wise, in that I go from work to school, where I arrive early to read before class. I always end up eating an early dinner, and I also always end up in class when I'd normally be eating dinner. And to make up for that, I try to bring a snack.
Well Tuesday, I should have tried harder. But snackless and hungry, I held it together until class ended. On my way to my car, I passed... the vending machine. Basically, I've lived under the impression that in 2010, snack vending machines are entirely off limits. How can I know if what I get is sans sugar? And how many quarters am I really willing to sacrifice to find out?
I was hungry enough, it turns out, to sacrifice $1.75.
The dollar was a wrinkly bill. (And I apologize to all the hungry people who probably lost dollars after I did since mine jammed the machine and I didn't get to buy anything with it.)
The 75 cents got me a bag of Cheez-Its. Entirely committed to putting them back into the vending machine for the next lucky snacker to find in the event they included sugar, I flipped to the back of the bag to read.
Friends, Cheez-Its do not have sugar.
Do not take this lightly. It was a vending machine miracle!
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Cakes and clarifications.
First and foremost, I encountered my second sugar snafu just last night. My mom poured Pretzel Crisps into a bowl and left them on the kitchen table. While I walked by, I mindlessly grabbed one and munched. When I realized what I had done, I sought out its package and hoped for the best while I read the ingredients.
The ingredients included sugar. Even though the crisps only include 2 grams of sugar per serving -- and I only ate a tiny fraction of a serving -- this second snafu served as a good reminder: Always check the ingredients, Arleen!
And now, on to other matters: For those who read my most recent entry -- about being tempted by a colleague's birthday cake -- know it was only the beginning.
And it was delicious.
Something sweet in lieu of something sweeter, in a culture that says sweeter is better. Half way through the first month of my sugar free year, I would already beg to differ. But as mentioned a couple entries ago, I have been criticized for feeling this way (or maybe just for acting on this feeling?). So for the sake of any new readers who don't have time to catch up, I'll clarify the point of my 2010 experiment with a recap of what I'm doing.
From Jan. 1, 2010 to Jan. 1, 2011, I will not consume foods that have sugar unless sugar naturally occurs. (Not intentionally, anyway...) In other words, if sugar is added, I won't eat (or drink) it. Considering the basically (but not extremely) healthy eating habits I had before 2010, this means I've cut out desserts. Most dressings (some salad dressings, certain sauces, etc.). Many juices. Chocolate (except for raw chocolate, which I haven't had yet this year anyway, and likely won't for awhile since it's expensive and Godiva has spoiled my tastebuds). I am still eating bread, but tending toward loaves that are freshly baked and sugarless (which is unfortunately not always possible).
For as long as I can remember, sugar and I have had a love/hate relationship. I love the way it tastes when I eat it, but I hate the way I feel later. Sleepy, anxious, depressed... By no means do I believe I need no sugar -- as it sounds like some of my critics believe. But by no means do I believe my body needs the excess of sugar that, without fail, I get when I consume the desserts, dressings, juices, etc. listed above.
And while my family and friends continue to eat cake around me (literally), I will spend this year learning what it's like to live a life without sugar... a body without it, a mind without it. And I believe it will be worth it.
The ingredients included sugar. Even though the crisps only include 2 grams of sugar per serving -- and I only ate a tiny fraction of a serving -- this second snafu served as a good reminder: Always check the ingredients, Arleen!
And now, on to other matters: For those who read my most recent entry -- about being tempted by a colleague's birthday cake -- know it was only the beginning.
After work that evening, I met a friend at Chili's, where somebody was celebrating something big in the conference room. While Amanda and I waited for our food, a guy walked by with a ginormous sheet cake, even bigger than the one I tried hard to ignore at my office.
So after dinner, when I headed home, I figured I was in the clear. I could keep my distance from what I can't eat. I could munch on something naturally sweet, like fruit, if I really had to. But while I watched a little TV, the unthinkable happened.
"Arleen!" A voice interrupted my show. "Help me!"
I jumped off the couch and ran to the kitchen. There, I found her:
My mom. My mom covered in splattered cake batter, in fact. More cake, being baked in my own house, no less! Long story short, my mom needs a new mixer. But I stayed strong while I helped her clean the mess the mixer made. I also stayed strong while I watched her ice the three layer coconut creme filled cake. And I also stayed strong while she, my dad and a family friend ate it after dinner the following night.
In its stead, I ate an orange.
And it was delicious.Something sweet in lieu of something sweeter, in a culture that says sweeter is better. Half way through the first month of my sugar free year, I would already beg to differ. But as mentioned a couple entries ago, I have been criticized for feeling this way (or maybe just for acting on this feeling?). So for the sake of any new readers who don't have time to catch up, I'll clarify the point of my 2010 experiment with a recap of what I'm doing.
From Jan. 1, 2010 to Jan. 1, 2011, I will not consume foods that have sugar unless sugar naturally occurs. (Not intentionally, anyway...) In other words, if sugar is added, I won't eat (or drink) it. Considering the basically (but not extremely) healthy eating habits I had before 2010, this means I've cut out desserts. Most dressings (some salad dressings, certain sauces, etc.). Many juices. Chocolate (except for raw chocolate, which I haven't had yet this year anyway, and likely won't for awhile since it's expensive and Godiva has spoiled my tastebuds). I am still eating bread, but tending toward loaves that are freshly baked and sugarless (which is unfortunately not always possible).
For as long as I can remember, sugar and I have had a love/hate relationship. I love the way it tastes when I eat it, but I hate the way I feel later. Sleepy, anxious, depressed... By no means do I believe I need no sugar -- as it sounds like some of my critics believe. But by no means do I believe my body needs the excess of sugar that, without fail, I get when I consume the desserts, dressings, juices, etc. listed above.
And while my family and friends continue to eat cake around me (literally), I will spend this year learning what it's like to live a life without sugar... a body without it, a mind without it. And I believe it will be worth it.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Lord, beer me strength!
One minute, I'm sorting press releases. The next, I am being taunted. I so didn't see this coming.
From afar, I heard the door click shut and shoes shatter the silence in the hall that leads to the newsroom (10 points for alliteration). A colleague of mine walked in and up to the empty desk a mere three seats from mine. In his arms, he cradled my worst workday nightmare:
a freakin' birthday cake.
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking over my shoulder in three minute intervals to gaze upon it longingly. I watched another colleague cut herself a slice. I can't smell its deliciocity in my nose, but I can smell it in my heart. I can taste the buttercream. I can't tell from here what it's filled with, but in my imagination, it's cannoli filling.
Lord, beer me strength!
For my sugar free year -- for the record -- this is such a first. And with approximately several hundred days left, it won't be the last.
From afar, I heard the door click shut and shoes shatter the silence in the hall that leads to the newsroom (10 points for alliteration). A colleague of mine walked in and up to the empty desk a mere three seats from mine. In his arms, he cradled my worst workday nightmare:
a freakin' birthday cake.
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking over my shoulder in three minute intervals to gaze upon it longingly. I watched another colleague cut herself a slice. I can't smell its deliciocity in my nose, but I can smell it in my heart. I can taste the buttercream. I can't tell from here what it's filled with, but in my imagination, it's cannoli filling.
Lord, beer me strength!
For my sugar free year -- for the record -- this is such a first. And with approximately several hundred days left, it won't be the last.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
A quick update...
I wrote the following last night, but didn't have time to press "Publish" before my professor started the class:
Minus the bean salad snafu from last week, my sugar free year is off to a great start. From the lobby of the Florida Mental Health Institute, I'll fill you in while I wait for my next class:
In just twelve days [almost] entirely sans sugar that doesn't occur naturally, I feel different. Good different. More energetic different. Most days, I'm up between 6:30 and 7 in the morning now, as opposed 7:30 or 8 a.m. or later, which is when I'd usually arise before sugar and I split up. I'm quicker to get ready before work, quicker to complete tasks at work. More motivated to exercise. Really freakin' hyper! Ask Fernando. Or Sarah. Boy, do they know.
Fun fact: I've had a few dreams about sugar this week. And in real life, I really haven't craved it (minus when I saw a sign for a molten chocolate cake at Chili's. That looked good.) So far, living "sugar free" hasn't been too hard. It's work, in that you have to be familiar with the several shady names there are for sugar (there'll be a blog on that in awhile!). You have to read the ingredients or, preferably, you have to eat the kinds of foods that don't require ingredients. For those, you have to shop the "outskirts" of your grocery store -- the produce section, the meat department. The bakery (some bread doesn't have sugar!). The hardest part so far has been the criticism, which inspires me to clarify what this experiment is about.
And since class is about to start, I will do that next time!
Minus the bean salad snafu from last week, my sugar free year is off to a great start. From the lobby of the Florida Mental Health Institute, I'll fill you in while I wait for my next class:
In just twelve days [almost] entirely sans sugar that doesn't occur naturally, I feel different. Good different. More energetic different. Most days, I'm up between 6:30 and 7 in the morning now, as opposed 7:30 or 8 a.m. or later, which is when I'd usually arise before sugar and I split up. I'm quicker to get ready before work, quicker to complete tasks at work. More motivated to exercise. Really freakin' hyper! Ask Fernando. Or Sarah. Boy, do they know.
Fun fact: I've had a few dreams about sugar this week. And in real life, I really haven't craved it (minus when I saw a sign for a molten chocolate cake at Chili's. That looked good.) So far, living "sugar free" hasn't been too hard. It's work, in that you have to be familiar with the several shady names there are for sugar (there'll be a blog on that in awhile!). You have to read the ingredients or, preferably, you have to eat the kinds of foods that don't require ingredients. For those, you have to shop the "outskirts" of your grocery store -- the produce section, the meat department. The bakery (some bread doesn't have sugar!). The hardest part so far has been the criticism, which inspires me to clarify what this experiment is about.
And since class is about to start, I will do that next time!
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
PANIC.
Greetings from my grandparents' house! I'm here tonight for dinner, where I ate a delightful dish of chicken, rice and veggies -- with a side of sugar. But I'll get to that in a minute.
When I arrived at the g-rents', I walked into the kitchen where I noticed a pan of freshly baked brownies. Heartbreak! Before we even ate, I had to turn down dessert. And while I explained to my grandma why I'm giving up sugar, I mindlessly fiddled with a package I found on the kitchen counter, which turned out to be fudge, and that just further proves the title of my last post: sugar is everywhere.
Anyway, in the middle of my first bite of chickeny goodness, my grandmother pulled a bowl of beans out of the fridge. Three bean salad. I've never been a big fan, but vegetables are vegetables, you know? So naturally, I plopped a scoop onto my plate and took a bite. Little did I know that shortly after, the entire planet would shatter into several million pieces, each of which would punch me in the face. Hard.
"I'd hate to tell you this," my granda said. "But I think that has sugar in it."
Pardon me while I weep!
My grandpa suggested, however, that since the bean salad came from a can, it might have sugar alcohol instead of sugar. I googled sugar alcohol, which turns out to be sweetener I don't condone. But for the sake of my sugar free year, I needed to know: sugar, or sugar alcohol?
So my grandparents and I may or may not have dug through two trash cans to find the label from the bean salad. (Relax. We washed our hands.)
The ingredients are as follows: Green beans, water, wax beans, kidney beans, distilled vinegar, dehydrated onions, red peppers, salt, soybean oil, turmeric and...
sugar.
I'm still in shock. I refuse -- though I am tempted -- to call myself a failure. It is neither my grandparents' fault nor mine. (Feel free, however, to write angry letters on my behalf to the staff of Seneca Foods Corp. in Marion, NY.) (Oh, I kid!)
I think there's a lesson in this, though: living sugar free is going to be harder than I thought. But I still believe it'll be worth it.
When I arrived at the g-rents', I walked into the kitchen where I noticed a pan of freshly baked brownies. Heartbreak! Before we even ate, I had to turn down dessert. And while I explained to my grandma why I'm giving up sugar, I mindlessly fiddled with a package I found on the kitchen counter, which turned out to be fudge, and that just further proves the title of my last post: sugar is everywhere.
Anyway, in the middle of my first bite of chickeny goodness, my grandmother pulled a bowl of beans out of the fridge. Three bean salad. I've never been a big fan, but vegetables are vegetables, you know? So naturally, I plopped a scoop onto my plate and took a bite. Little did I know that shortly after, the entire planet would shatter into several million pieces, each of which would punch me in the face. Hard.
"I'd hate to tell you this," my granda said. "But I think that has sugar in it."
Pardon me while I weep!
My grandpa suggested, however, that since the bean salad came from a can, it might have sugar alcohol instead of sugar. I googled sugar alcohol, which turns out to be sweetener I don't condone. But for the sake of my sugar free year, I needed to know: sugar, or sugar alcohol?
So my grandparents and I may or may not have dug through two trash cans to find the label from the bean salad. (Relax. We washed our hands.)
The ingredients are as follows: Green beans, water, wax beans, kidney beans, distilled vinegar, dehydrated onions, red peppers, salt, soybean oil, turmeric and...
sugar.
I'm still in shock. I refuse -- though I am tempted -- to call myself a failure. It is neither my grandparents' fault nor mine. (Feel free, however, to write angry letters on my behalf to the staff of Seneca Foods Corp. in Marion, NY.) (Oh, I kid!)
I think there's a lesson in this, though: living sugar free is going to be harder than I thought. But I still believe it'll be worth it.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Sugar is everywhere.
Sugar is everywhere.
Everywhere.
I mean, hot dang. Yesterday afternoon, for example, I stopped by Barnes and Noble to browse. Before I even got to the books, I got a whif of what I do believe were freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. The still-hot kind, with the melty chocolate chips, that are really actually too hot to eat, but you eat them anyway because really, who could resist.
But I resisted.
And when I got home last night, I opened the fridge for no good reason, which is where I found rice freakin' pudding. I love rice pudding. Oh, you don't even know.
This morning, I woke up at 6:40 to be at church by 7:30 so I could sell donuts. But that's actually ok, because I don't really like donuts.
But this afternoon, I had a late lunch at Red Lobster to celebrate my grandpa's 77th birthday. My parents shared a Warm Apple Crumble A La Mode. And they shared it while I sat between them. It's not because they are cruel, but because it just so happened that's the way we landed in the booth. But, friends, it was mildly similar to torture.
Everywhere.
I mean, hot dang. Yesterday afternoon, for example, I stopped by Barnes and Noble to browse. Before I even got to the books, I got a whif of what I do believe were freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. The still-hot kind, with the melty chocolate chips, that are really actually too hot to eat, but you eat them anyway because really, who could resist.
But I resisted.
And when I got home last night, I opened the fridge for no good reason, which is where I found rice freakin' pudding. I love rice pudding. Oh, you don't even know.
This morning, I woke up at 6:40 to be at church by 7:30 so I could sell donuts. But that's actually ok, because I don't really like donuts.
But this afternoon, I had a late lunch at Red Lobster to celebrate my grandpa's 77th birthday. My parents shared a Warm Apple Crumble A La Mode. And they shared it while I sat between them. It's not because they are cruel, but because it just so happened that's the way we landed in the booth. But, friends, it was mildly similar to torture.
My mom to the left, my dad to the right. My temptation in the middle. It even smelled like sugar. But I stayed strong, since I'm entirely serious here about having a sugar free year. In effort to assist my efforts to not accidentally take a bite of the apple crumble in some sort of sugarless stupor, I asked our server whether Red Lobster has fruit.
They do! Of course it's the fruit that they use to garnish big, colorful and frozen alcoholic beverages, but the bartender was happy to hand a few strawberries, orange slices and pinapple triangles off to the girl in the corner booth who is spending 2010 forsaking her sweet tooth.
So I am all right, three days in. Only 362 to go.
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