Monday, July 11, 2011

You Never Know

I'm realizing that giving up simple sugar really was a good decision. After staying away from it for about 5 weeks I decided to have a couple of sweet things. It's amazing that I never realized how sugar affected me until I stopped eating it. This weekend, I found out.

Awhile back I thought I was having allergic reactions to wine. You know, wine can give you headaches, right? So that must be my problem. I never even considered all the other junk I was eating. Except for coffee: "I wonder if the huge amounts of coffee I'm guzzling might be affecting my head space?" But sugar? Didn't even cross my mind.

After strolling around our awesome local farmer's market we stopped at the local bakery. We ordered 2 small things to share. A Lion Bar that was advertised as "healthy." And it probably was, somewhat. The other was a triple berry-sugary-delight bar. We split the two items in half and really enjoyed them. Until about 20 minutes later (less for the dude) when we were both in the throws of a classic sugar "high." Loopiness, lightheadedness, dizziness and general malaise are all words that could describe my feelings throughout the rest of the day. And to top it all off I made cookies for our church coffee hour and ate two of them. I modified and made a pretty healthy version but they certainly contributed to the sugar rush-high-crash-cycle of the next 24 hours.

Was I really doing this to myself, everyday? I guess I was. The worst part was the splitting headache I got the next day. The one that says, "Give me sugar and I'll go away." Yeah, that.

Well, lesson learned. I was able to heal myself with a little Green Juice, a mental reset, a good night's sleep, some kind words, and watching a little boy dancing under the shade of a walnut tree.

Now, to remember what I've learned...