Wish Me Luck

I’m finally going to admit that I have an addiction – to sugar.  Actually I’ve known this for a long time, but I’m realizing that I may actually need to treat it as an addiction.

I know it sounds silly.  Plenty of us know of the struggles of drug and alcohol addiction.  We’re more familiar with eating disorders and obesity then we used to be.  I don’t purge.  I’m not anorexic.  I’ve not drank in over 3 1/2 years just for the hell of it and it’s been easy for me to do.  My addiction is sugar.

I can sit down and eat a package of cookies in one sitting.  It messes with how I feel physically.  It messes with my head right then and there and probably for days afterwards.  I can stop for a few days and then want to do it again.

About 2 1/2 years ago, I spent a good chunk of time in L.A. and I did an intensive cleanse with my friend Aimee while doing TONS of yoga and other exercise.  I slimmed back up really quickly.  (Keep in mind, I’m certainly not fat, but there’s an obvious physical difference between when I’ve weaned myself off of my drug and when I’m in the midst of sugar loading and the related mood swings.)

And sugar is in EVERYTHING now.  Centuries ago, sugar was difficult to process, so it was only available to the very wealthy.  Now is now and we can see the results and we can hear about the influx of related disease.  Type 2 diabetes runs in my family and I have pretty vicious blood sugar crashes.

As far as I know, there’s no 12 step program for sugar addiction…and it probably wouldn’t quite need to be approached in that depth anyhow.  However, I know I’ve dropped out of things that I said I’d do at the last-minute because of what I might assume to be a sugar related mood swing.  I’d rather stay in my blanket fort than go do something fun or productive.

There are millions of us and so many probably have no idea how much their lives are affected by it.  I’ve ordered a book on how to wean myself off of it…  At some point, I may need to realize that I shouldn’t ever eat the stuff again.

Wish me luck.  I wonder how this will go…

Meredith DeLoca

Assistant Spa Director, The Dragontree PDX