Summary of Super Sugar Binge ‘06

Midnight, October 3

I willingly ate my first sweet of the year: several hand-made chocolates imported from France. As soon as I bit into them my tooth ached and, after having a few, my teeth felt coated with sugar.

Daytime, Tuesday, October 3, Halloween

For breakfast I ate 4 Pop Tarts. After class I ate an entire box of Flipz brand Chocolate Covered Pretzels. The first four or five tasted fine but after about ten they made me feel sick. It was as if I’d eaten a brick and it was passing through my system. My stomach felt tense and twisty.

Later in the day Gwenn “forced” me to eat something “real” so I had a slice of wheat bread with melted cheese and some carrot salad. After that we hit the streets to go Trick-or-Treating and collect candy.

We sampled our sweets later that evening and ate things I hadn’t eaten in over a year or more. The main thing I noticed was tension in my muscles and a slight sense of hyperactivity. Gwenn kept telling me I should videotape myself so that I could watch my behavior later.

Wednesday, November 1st

The day after Halloween I devoured 4 Pop Tarts, a box of chocolate covered Digestive brand cookies, and about half of my Halloween candy. Overall I felt depressed, slow, and wanted to go to sleep. If my schedule were empty, I would’ve stayed in and eaten more cookies and candy. I procrastinated on every single activity that needed to get done.

After class I went back home to eat more. I felt antisocial and wanted to be left alone. In the early evening I attended a Tai Chi class and was in a daze. Physical exertion resulted in my fingers and hands shaking.

Thursday, November 2nd

Depressed. I didn’t want to get up. I didn’t want to eat anything and was looking forward to the week being OVER! It was raining and I complained the whole way to work without eating breakfast before. Half way through class I again got the shakes.

After class I came home to eat 4 more Pop Tarts. It took everything to stop myself from lying down and going to sleep. “Leave me alone,” was my overall paradigm.

After eating the remainder of my Halloween candy, Gwenn came by and made me eat a tuna melt. I felt gross and bloated. Still, after eating the remainder of my Halloween candy, I still wanted chocolaty sweets.

That night Gwenn and I went out for First Thursday. For those of you outside the Portland area, First Thursday is a monthy happening where art galleries and store fronts in Portland’s downtown Pearl District open their doors and show new art. There are many openings and lots of fanfare. It’s a fun event and Gwenn and I always attend.

For the first time in a year I could sample the sweets that galleris put out during their opening. Funny thing was that I didn’t want to! At that point I was so full, sweets weren’t appealing to me. However, toward the end of the night I did eat some cookies and began talking to David K., a First Thursday acquaintance we see each month.

David K. says that he strives for sugar moderation by focusing on quality and not quantity. To satisfy his sweet tooth he only eats fine confections which keeps him from indulging in cheap manufactured products. It sounded like a great idea to me.

Albina Bank put out cookies and vegetables. Instinctively I went and filled a plate with sliced carrots, broccoli, and pepper slices—all dipped in humus. It was so delicious and my body screamed, “thank you!”

Still, I ate a few chocolate dipped cookies.

Friday, November 3rd

I woke up with my muscles tense, feeling heavy, and wanting to sleep more. During class I had trouble focusing and I wasn’t “into” exercising. My antisocial and depressed feelings were stronger and I really looked forward to going home to be alone and eat more sweets.

My friend Jason took me out for a birthday lunch. He seemed unnerved that I only ordered a chocolate mousse and tried to persuade me to eat some “real food.” I would’ve eaten two chocolate mousses (or would that be “two chocolate meese”?) but felt too embarrassed to ask for a second one. Jason wasn’t satisfied and wants to take me to lunch again, “for real”.

By night, eating sweets had lost its appeal. After baking chocolate chip cookies, Gwenn and I sat down to watch a movie. I carved a large bowl of Tillamook Mud Slide ice cream into a bowl (creamy chocolate ice cream mixed with chocolate shavings) and was surprised at how salty the chocolate chunks tasted. Gwenn didn’t notice the saltiness.

As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t stomach the remainder of the cookies. Ice cream was a fitting end to my sugar binge since it was a bowl of Tillamook ice cream that started me on this whole journey.

Sunday, November 5th

Frances and I have similar birth dates so she, Marty, Ruth, Jason, Summer, Gwenn, and I had a nice dinner downtown. Of course the waiter brought us candle lit ice cream which I did not eat. There was a huge, rich looking chocolate cake on the menu which I really wanted and for the first time it hit me that I was about to go another year without eating sweets.

For a moment I really regretted having made that choice and wondered if I could try moderation. Maybe someday in the future…

Monday, November 6th

I woke up tired, rode my bike to class, and sweat like mad! My body seems to be ridding itself of the sugary foods from days before. It feels good to be “getting clean” and to know that I’m not going to binge like that next year.

Perhaps you should try it!

Instead of avoiding sugar for a month, try eating nothing but sugar for a week. I think it will change your sugary sweet ways.

It certainly helped to make me want to Stop Being Sweet and stay that way!

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