Sugar-aholic

Hi, I’m John, and I’m a recovering sugar-aholic.

I grew up on sugar.

I ate candy all the time and I have the PTSD from dental visits to prove it.

My first root canal was at 12 years old at a dental school in Houston. A student drilled into my tooth and pulled the roots out with these little grooved things that looked like the needle that attaches to a bicycle air pump. He paused every now and then so a professor could come over and examine his work, then he’d continue. After he got all four of those little needle things jammed down into the roots of my tooth, with a huge rubber dam stretched across my wide-open mouth, we walked to the elevator and rode up a floor to take x-rays, to make sure the needles were inserted properly.

I still remember when he finally removed those things, this student dentist said to me, “Look, your knuckles aren’t white anymore.”

I had been squeezing the arms of the chair against the pain.

Dental PTSD.

But, anyway …

When I was a kid, we used to drink Kool-aid, which was made with water, a little packet of flavoring, and I’m pretty sure two cups of sugar. For breakfast, we poured sugar into our already-sugary cereal. When the cereal was gone, there was a little milk left at the bottom of the bowl, along with a couple teaspoons of soggy sugar. Good stuff, man.

Or we had cinnamon toast, which was mostly gobs of sugar with a little sprinkle of cinnamon on top.

There was always cake and pie and sugar cookies. Snickerdoodles. Hell, I ate spoonfuls of sugar straight out of the bag.

I grew up a sugar junkie.

And I’ve fought that addiction, off and on, most of my life.

Most of my life, it didn’t really matter because I had a metabolism that allowed me to eat whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. My Paw Paw once said, “Boy, you only eat one meal a day, don’t you? All day long.”

Now, though, eating a bunch of sugar is no good, and lately, that is exactly what I’ve been doing.

It’s no wonder I’ve been feeling tired and sluggish most all the time, especially when I wake up in the morning.

So, yesterday, I decided it was time to quit.

I decided to go back to eating one meal per day, maybe a healthy snack, and a meal replacement drink or two (I went and got some Atkins drinks).

So here’s what I consumed yesterday:

• After fasting all morning and going to the gym for a good, solid workout, I had a biscuit with peanut butter and sugar-free strawberry jelly on the way to the store for the meal replacement drinks, so I wouldn’t be starving and maybe buy a bunch of crap.
• About 1 p.m., I had two fried eggs on top of some sauteed potatoes and leftover stew meat with some shredded cheese, a half-dozen fresh strawberries, another biscuit with PB&J. I was stuffed.
• Around 5:30, a boiled egg.
• A little later, one of the meal replacement drinks.

Today, I woke up feeling much better. More clear-headed, not groggy, even ready to get up and get moving. And the scales were down two pounds from yesterday.

So that’s my plan now, to keep it going like this.

One big meal a day, a healthy snack or two, and a meal replacement drink or two.

That’s pretty much what I did for a long time, and it works.

If you’re interested, I suggest trying to kick sugar for a day and see how your body feels. Mine felt a lot better after only one day.

Hi, I’m John, and I’m a sugar-aholic.