My sugarless brain does it again!

Forgive me for taking far too long to write! Let's just say my Spring Break felt a lot like finals week. But while I work toward repressing that (I kid.), let's move on to the matter at hand.

You might remember that a few weeks ago, I took a test in my human growth and development class. While I studied for it, and when the time to take the test arrived, my brain recalled what I needed to know with a rapidity I'd never before experienced. (In case anyone wondered how I did on the test, I got a 98. Go on. Celebrate with an air guitar solo. I did!) Immediately, I became convinced my elimination of added sugar played a part in that.

I am still convinced.

Two nights ago, I took a mid-term in my legal, ethical and professional standards of counseling class. Because of a few scheduling snafus (and a slight lack of diligence on my part), fate left me with Thursday, Friday and Sunday for making my flash cards. That left me with Monday -- until the exam at 6:20 p.m. -- to quiz myself with them.

Would you believe my brain did it again? One card after another. And my professor posted grades last night. How did I do, you ask?

I got a 60.

Out of 60.

[Insert celebratory air guitar solo.]

the whole person

I'm off to study shortly, but something hit me this morning and I'd like to share it!

Last semester, a professor of mine expressed her qualms with the fact that there's always been this great divide between mental health professionals and medical doctors. So many mental health professionals are solely concerned with the mind and so many medical doctors are solely concerned with the body. But what happens to one affects the other since they are, in fact, connected. No matter the setting, we need to look at the whole person.

That's why I think it's time to take my sugar free year up another notch.

So I've got this sugar thing down. Thanks to sugar's many names and perpetual need to show up in the most surprising of products, I've really cut back on eating anything that comes in cans, bags or boxes. If I do, I read the entire ingredients list and I don't go for it if I'm not completely sure it has no sugar. But as I ultimately head toward taking care of my body the way a body really needs to be taken care of, there are a few more steps I'll need to take.

1. Prayer. I pray -- but I need to be more consistent. If I could only get my sleep schedule on track, I'd be up early enough to go to daily morning mass. Which brings us to...

2. Sleep. Oh, how I enjoy sleeping. But I a) need to get to bed earlier so that b) I can get at least eight hours but still arise early enough in the morning so I won't need to rush to get to work.

3. Exercise. I do -- but I need to be more consistent.

I figure if I'm taking this year to eliminate my dependence on the excessive sugar the food industry says we should all be ok eating, I may as well work on some of the rest of what's necessary as part of a healthy life.

Why not now?

To quote a Tobymac song I've heard a lot lately...

"If you gotta start somewhere, why not here? If you gotta start sometime, why not now?"

Every time I hear it, I think of the state of this culture.

I think about the American obsession with all that's quick and easy. I think about the way so little of what goes on here is about preventing problems. I am reminded that this culture's focus is always, always on finding ways to negate problems without actually removing the things that caused them. And so few seem aware that living like that never works out well. Without fail, the quick fixes screw something else up in one way or another and in response, we look for a new quick fix to fix the mess the first one made.

Absurd, no?

What a place. What a place where drugs exist for every symptom. We can't get food except for from an industry that cares more about profit than people. We choose coffee over sleep and we're all right with it. We live for money (think about it. We do.). Will power is obsolete. Toddlers eat Circus Peanuts.

The longer we let it go, the worse it'll get. The longer we participate, the more it gets our vote. It's overwhelming. And it's hard. What are some ways we can make a change? Shop at a farm or a farmer's market instead of a grocery store. Get enough sleep. Make lunch for a homeless person. Simplify your life. Declutter your space. Give it away if you never wear, use, look at it. Don't feed crap to your kids. What are your ideas?

We've gotta start sometime.

Why not now?

Marie brings up a good point.

A friend and former colleague of mine named Marie sent me a great note in response to my blog. I'd like to take a quick sec to share part of it with you!

"I had some work done on my teeth. I could only eat soft food and my daughter, trying to help me, brought me some baby food. I was horrified at the amount of sugar in baby food. Food companies should be sued for this. Poor babies. I wonder if mothers read labels. I wanted to scream! Needless to say, the baby food is still in my pantry two months later. I do not want to give it to a food bank because I feel it will harm little ones."

Wow she's right! Even among all things food related that cross my mind on a regular basis, since I don't have children, I never really thought about what the youngest of us eat. Marie's baby food experience reminds me of the time I saw a woman walk out of a convenience store with a package of Circus Peanuts. She opened it and gave it to her toddler.

Would you like to know what's in a Circus Peanut? Sugar. Corn syrup. Gelatin. Pectin. Artificial flavor. And colors yellow 6, yellow 5 and red 40. No adult needs that, let alone a toddler!

Sigh. Something's gotta be done. We really do need a food revolution.