I was happy that I found a few tips to battle my cravings. I even received a bigger tip from the depths of the Valley of Craves as I kept falling down and crawling up through the dark crevices. What I learned was that my sugar crave stemmed from wanting to celebrate life… celebrate life during happy times and by wanting to avoid stress.
I remember just about every celebration I have had to attend to date, the last course ended with one main key ingredient in it: sugar. Birthdays, holiday parties, friends going away parties, passing a test, work successes, family get-togethers, and other life situations have been all celebrated with big spoons or little spoons of sugar. I found that I was not the only one who enjoyed it this way. People around the world celebrated it just like me. Take any celebrations from North America to South America, Asia to Australia; sugar is one of the main ingredients in all of the desserts. In the US, some of our popular desserts are: apple pie, ice cream, cheesecake, and the iconic chocolate chip cookies. Popular desserts in Argentina (South America): churros with chocolate drizzling or on the side to dip. Popular desserts in India (Asia): milk based sweet desserts such as rice pudding and in Australia: chocolate cake.
All throughout my changes and achievements, sugar has been there for me. This rescuer has been kind of a happy identity, a positive reinforcement from the past and I didn’t want to let that go. I didn’t want to sever ties from the good memories of the past. It was wrapped in too much love, like baking animal and heart shaped cookies with friends and ex boyfriends, making brownies with my siblings, or even just licking the “best ice cream in the country” on a hot Texas day.
As I grow older I still want those sweet memories to continue to be a part of my life. Actually, come to think of it, sugar was equal in helping me through the bad times too. Like when I had a hard teacher for a semester, after class, I would grab the Little Debbie Brownie packs to console me unknowingly. Even now, when I am under stress, something just triggers me to seek the comfort of sugary food. Sometimes, there are intense projects I am working on, and I hear the voices of demands from every direction. I work through that by comforting myself. To be fed something sweet under this high pressure with the motion of sucking, chewing, biting, licking, or crunching, all seems to be a liberating motion. Digging deeper into my world of sweets has helped me understand my history with sugar and I am now clarifying my relationship with sugar. Now, I would like to incorporate sugar in my life with better health habits. It is what I am trying to tell myself, but it appears I am having a hard time sticking to it as of yet.
In scrutinizing my habit more closely, I have learned how I unconsciously set myself up to eat more sugar. After half of a brownie is eaten, sometimes the remaining was left open for the next hour or so in the open a few feet away. The aroma of the baking product invaded my nose and smothered my head. Unsuspectingly, my hand just reached for the other half and placed the sweet thing in my mouth, even though I did not truly want it. A KIND NOTE TO MYSELF: Remember, once you finish eating to remove the aromatic food away from the area.
Sometimes, I deliberately paired foods in a way that I reached for sugar as a result of eating certain kinds of food. When spicy foods were eaten, knowing a sweet pudding or cake was waiting for me after the meal, made the lunch or dinner even far more enjoyable. When greasy foods were eaten, a sugary soda was preferred to wash the grease down. Weekend morning lattes always made me crave for almond croissant and donuts and scones. A fine Italian meal could only be finished with the ultimate tiramisu. A nice warm sandwich must be served with chocolate chip cookies or brownies afterwards. Until now, these situations were not accounted for beforehand, my awareness helped me to be conscious in how I was pairing these foods.
Drinking water or lemon water (drink lemon water with a straw to prevent acid erosion on enamel) before the meal helped reduce the excessive need to consume the entire dessert or treat. Also, simply, going down one notch on the spicy selection helped with the intensity of the strong crave for sweets.
Another habit I did not know I had and then tried to conquer once I understood was that I ate sugar to reward me to keep awake at night. Some nights when I was staying awake late at night to do work projects and school projects, I just wanted to eat. I wanted to eat not because I was hungry but because I felt I needed something to munch on. The idea of having a sweet dessert once I finish my work kept me going. If I couldn’t wait until my project was done, I would take a break. When I took a break, I would pace around in the kitchen to find something sweet. Usually, the freezer was the best place to go at night as there were all types of ice creams stacked: drumsticks, brownie ice cream bars, (I think they discontinued this product), Snickers ice cream bars, and Rocky Road Ice Cream. I would let myself eat whatever I want after I finished my project or between breaks.
Speaking of ice cream, I wanted to say thank you very much to the Nestle Sundae Cone as it is one of best ice cream inventions. It contains nuts, chocolate, vanilla. It can hold all of that own its own, so you don’t make a mess. And as you are about to finish this delicious snack, another treasure surfaces up, way at the bottom, which is a hard chocolate treat. This is exactly why I don’t think I can totally cut off the sugar from my life. I am happy that my goal right now is to reduce added sugar. Anyway, to conquer that late night snacking, a sugar curfew was placed.
Additionally, when I skipped meals, usually due to being busy, I compensated it by eating sugary junk. “I have no time for lunch so I will eat whatever is available” was an acceptable excuse to reach for a sweet pastry. When you are that hungry, do you really stop to care about nutrition or calories? To mitigate the misdeed, I used to console myself by asking, doesn’t anybody count the psychological benefits of sugar?” Why should that be neglected? Psychological benefits do not translate its weight worthy enough to be counted when you are paying for a $900 crown after insurance pitches in or your favorite casual pants are just a little too tight because you are were too busy not to eat right.