Sweet Tooth

I have recently (within the past year or so) discovered that I do not have a sweet tooth. It was a really surprising realization and I am amazed that it took me so long to figure it out.

Back in high school, I was HUGE on sugar. Breakfast was a cup of earl gray tea with (whole) milk and one and a half teaspoons of sugar. Obviously this wasn't enough to really get me past 10am, so between classes I'd stop at the school store and grab a Nutty Buddy. Lunch, at least senior year, was a half of a sandwich and a cup of soup and chips from Nuts About Ice Cream, and usually i got a extra thick mint chocolate chip milkshake for dessert. Also, we had soda machines at the school and you could rarely find me without a bottle of Cherry coke. After school, I'd visit my elderly neighbor, and she always had hot chocolate and cookies (which I'd eat with whipped cream). And, after dinner (spaghetti was, and still is, my favorite) there was usually ice cream or some other kind of treat. Gym I believe was twice a week? Because I went to a large high school, our gym classes were grouped together - so three gym teachers would split up the classes based on what each student wanted to do. Usually I chose to walk the track with my friends, and we didn't exactly keep up a good pace. During the school week, my only other exercise was band practice in the fall (marching up and down the street with a Baritone horn... harder than it sounds but, again, not exactly a calorie burner). Also, I had a paper route that I walked in the mornings, which took about 45 minutes. On the weekends, I worked at Planet Trog, a laser tag arena. From noon until 6 I wandered around the arena after kids birthday parties and such, and then from 6 until midnight(or later) I hung out with my coworkers and played a bunch of games. At least I got a little bit of exercise. It still isn't surprising that when I graduated high school, I weighed 220 lbs and wore a size 18, which you can see in the photo before senior prom.

Freshman year of college wasn't much better: I remember drinking lots of soda, grabbing stuff from the vending machines (there was a french fry vending machine right next to the ice cream bar vending machine... dangerous) and the dorms "corner store" (where I had my first Wonka candy bar... chocolate with graham cracker pieces). I still managed to lose weight in college, due mostly to the meal plan and walking back and forth to the dorms. I transferred out of RIT to go to the community college the following fall, but before the end of the year, I managed to get mono. It was terrible, I was exhausted all the time (right during finals, no less), but I did lose another 10 lbs, putting me under 200lbs, before heading home for a couple weeks before starting my summer job as a camp counselor at Adirondack Camp on Lake George in NY.

While my employment experience was less than desired (for a number of reasons, which I mostly credit now to my immaturity at the time), that job was a huge life changer. At the beginning of the summer, I bought a dress from Lane Bryant that was a size 16. At the end of a summer filled with a regular schedule of 8 hours of sleep, chasing kids around and teaching them how to canoe, swimming almost every day, and only having food available to me at mealtimes (and only being able to eat after the kids had eaten) I was practically swimming in that dress. (too bad, it was really pretty). I was down to a size 12, and I think about 175 lbs. This was 2001.

I gained a lot of the weight back. When I met Joe in early 2005 I weighed around 195. (The picture on the left is from October of 2005.) I dropped a bit of weight but it wasn't until we got engaged and moved to Virginia that I really started making an effort. I started running, I did a "bridal boot camp". I discovered pilates and loved it. I weighed 172 the morning of my wedding in 2008, and I'm between 175-180 now. So, from my heaviest, I've lost around 45lbs, which isn't too bad! The picture to the right is from the summer of 2008, at the same cafe in Boston! Best Tiramisu ever!



One of the life changers for me was this seminar I went to, put on by Jennifer of Howe to Eat called "Getting off the sugar roller coaster". She talked about that 3:00 slump at work, and how eating sugar becomes addictive and a vicious cycle of sugar highs and crashes. How artificial sweeteners are actually worse for you than real sugar (because they are sweeter, so you teach your body to want more regular sugar to obtain the same amount of sweetness), and how basically, they are chemicals, when what your body really needs are foods closest to their natural state as possible. (so, evaporated cane juice is better than white sugar, etc.) Instead of having a candy bar at 3:00, I'd have a sweet potato (less calories, still sweet, and you get the benefit of all the fiber, vitamins and minerals). I emptied our pantry and fridge of anything containing HFCS and Joe and I are pretty diligent at reading labels at the grocery store. Naturally sweet things now taste sweeter, and sweets like milk chocolate are just too sweet. If I eat a cupcake during our birthday celebrations at work, I feel gross for the rest of the afternoon. If I want chocolate (Joe keeps emergency chocolate hidden in the house for when I'm having one of "those days") I opt for a piece of really dark, high quality chocolate instead of a cheap-o Hershey bar, and I try and savor it.

When I see people who are dieting buying things that are sugar free... Its hard for me to comprehend. Splenda and other artificial sweeteners just leave this terrible aftertaste in my mouth and give me a headache. I'd rather have a few spoonfuls of real, full fat, real sugar ice cream than an entire bowl of something chemical laden and overly processed. Sometimes, I'd rather have an apple with peanut butter (the natural, nothing added to it kind). Or a cup of blackberries.

The idea is, eat things as close to their natural state as possible. Maybe not to the extreme of eating a raw diet - that's a little too much for me - but, why drink apple juice when you can eat an apple, and get the benefit of the fiber in the apple?