jakorte's blog

Day 6 of Sparkspeople Sugar Challenge was a major turning point.

Suddenly, I really needed, craved, desired and obsessed about something sweet to the point of being overwhelmed, but still rational. Reluctant to buy a box of cookies (too easy to over-indulge), a tray of brownies (also, too easy to over-indulge), a cake (let’s not be ridiculous) or anything that would send my budget into orbit, I settled on an alternative I was sure I could handle.

Cupcakes – made from cake mi xwith 12 ounces of diet soda instead of oil and eggs. Only 99 cents a box, and easily created into individual servings I could include in my daily log, within my limits. I have always been one of those people who have no problem eating one of anything. Usually, it’s just a taste I’m after, anyway. When the Saturday night batch was finished, I ate one warm, fresh, spongy cake. They were so moist and tasty - no icing was needed, at all. I hadn’t bought any icing, either, so that was a bit of semi-reasonable pre-planned avoidance.

After an appropriate cooling time, I easily placed the other eleven in the Tupperware cake tray with lid, designed just for the purpose of keeping baked goods fresh in between servings. Just like that, the sugar monster was satisfied, and the budget was no worse for wear-and-tear. I prided myself on having achieved acute awareness of my limits, and from experience, knew in all likelihood, the remaining cupcakes would be a week old before I even came close to finishing them. I’d probably have to throw some away, but sometimes moderation makes the most sense in the long-run.

Sunday morning something snapped: I woke up a little later than I would have liked due to super snooze button slapping. Pre-shower, I grabbed some Motrin for my headache and went into the kitchen to find something to wash it down with. Out of milk and juice and without a fresh pitcher of tea, I decided a cupcake would do the trick. Of course, it would be silly to just have one bite and leave the rest, so I finished it. Showered and dressed, I realized I’d be gone until well after Noon, so I fortified quickly with another cupcake. After sitting down to tie my shoes and gathering up my purse, it occurred to me that the last cupcake tasted so good, I simply had to have another. To my credit, it’s not like I grabbed and de-robed three cupcakes, plated them and couched it. I only ate one at a time and went back each time for another, so that sort of counts as exercise, right?

Make no mistake, I totally realized how ridiculous what I had just done was. So, upon returning from church and the grocery store where I purchased only fresh fruits and vegetables, I made a very lovely salad and added a Boca Chik’n patty for protein. I also decided to kick it up another notch and went above and beyond my most recent usual 25 minutes of programmed elliptical time by firmly typing in a new goal: 26. Please, take a deep breath and stop laughing. This is a very legitimate way of slightly increasing your exercise limits without letting your brain or body know. Because I’ve done this before and know it works. You will eventually find yourself easily treading somewhere between 45 -50 minutes each session, eventually.

Somewhere between tired and buzzy, I decided to wait out the high headache and lay low. After my nap, I was, well… hungry. Apparently, my Zombie Apocalypse weakness is cake, and yes, I had three more cupcakes. Again, to my credit, I only ate one at a time and went back each time for another so that sort of counts as exercise, right? About an hour later, I started getting hungry for dinner. When faced with the choice of baking chicken breasts for 45 minutes or, you guessed it…. By this time I was sort of giddy-stupid and self-belligerent. I figured WTFN and completed my ridiculous ricochet sugar-snap by having two more cupcakes in a bowl with the last of the leftover mint brownie and golden oreo ice creams. And, then, because I was on an obvious sugar overload, I balanced it out nicely with an unmeasured amount of salty, hull-less popcorn. The only good news in this monumental monstrosity of a diet ditching day, was that I did manage to insert eight (or more) full glasses of unsweetened iced tea. Which also means, that for the first time in a very, very, very long time - I actually reached my minimum recommend liquid intake goals.

I’m determined to get back on track. Having learned a tremendous deal about sugar highs and sugar lows and sugar snaps, I considered shocking myself back into reasonableness by taking my blood sugar… just to see how bad it was. I decided to give myself at least two days of re-good riddance-ing again to sugar before I did that, though. I can surely be good for two days now that I’m all caked-out.

Except someone just announced a Wendy’s run. To my credit, I immediately said no.
But am considering running down the hall with my order….