Friday, July 1, 2016

Milestone

I made a change a couple of weeks ago and have procrastinated posting it here.  I thought I better do it without delay now, in case it helps somebody.

I have practiced what I preach in this blog to varying degrees of strictness throughout my life.  Everybody who says "I will never eat ice cream again!" are going to have it again sometime, right?  So why not just be strict when you're strict, and have some ice cream sometimes, and then get strict again?

Well, I have been no different.

I have told myself stuff like, "Well, Buddy...I guess this is it.  This is how it's going to be from now on, I guess."  thinking that I was going to eat a certain ideal way from that moment till I die, and never have a sugar spike again.

But you know how it goes.  I have eaten lots of cake and ice cream since such moments.

But on the other hand, when I look at the advantages and disadvantages of perfect abstainance and having sugar that one time,  at least at the point where I am now, I am finding it easier to see that I really don't want to eat sugar ever again, if I can help it.

And as a 4-year-old, after my parents told me about it, I made up my mind I would never touch tobacco or alcohol.  Nothing would ever make me, and as it turned out, nothing would ever even tempt me.  I made a simple decision.  I was completely serious.  I never changed, I never wavered.

I wish they had explained a few other things to me at the time.  I could have included those as well.

Well, a couple of weeks ago, I finally made up my mind in the same way as I did when I was 4 years old, that I will never eat sugar.

And knowing the protests and urgings and naggings I would receive regarding my decision, I said, "And I don't even need a reason."

And as an ammendment, I also included all the little mystery ingredients akin to sugar that one finds in packaged and commercially prepared foods.  For example, here is a short list of things I will never in my future put into my mouth:

Splenda
Every other sugar substitute, good and bad
High Fructose Corn Syrup (redundancy is allowed here)
MSG
GMO
Guar Gum
Locust Bean Gum
Mono and Diglycerides
Xanthan Gum
Dextrose
Carrageenan
Dough conditioners
Nitrates
Cheap oils

You get the idea.  I am free!

I am free of processed (mystery) food.  Sugar is obviously included because it is a processed food.

I do not consider processed honey (taken from the comb) worthy of including, nor pure white flour and pasta.  I'll still eat those.

Obviously, I would still be eating fruit, which I have always enjoyed far more than any man-made treat.

I explained all this to a friend.  His response was, "You have to eat sugar!"

I said to him Fine, I will grant you that I am an idiot, nevertheless explained how I didn't need to tell him why, but in all of ensuing eternity, I would not eat sugar, and I didn't need a reason - it just isn't happening.   He seemed to get the message.

Less than an hour later, he was trying to get me to eat a store-bought granola bar and he kept trying to get me to drink Gatorade.  Do you know how many teaspoons of sugar are in an individual sized bottle of Gatorade?  He did not seem to know.  I thought to myself, this must be among the 7 wonders of the world - how a person can hear and put on that they are conversing, without listening.