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No Sweets for the Sweet
June 22, 2012
Earlier this year, I came home from work to find Mr. Karen watching a video of a lecture about the physiological effects of consuming sugar. (I believe it was Sugar: The Bitter Truth; warning; video starts on clicking that link.) Nothing too crazy there; he’s watched lectures on YouTube before. But somehow this one has led to things we often ate no longer getting put in our shopping cart (my usual breakfast bars, orange juice, other sweet stuff), things we rarely used getting pulled out of the cupboards (the Farberware grill, cookbooks), and the shared meals in our diet moving toward more complex carbs and protein. Until recently, though, I was making up for the lack of simple carbs at home by availing myself of the numerous options at my office, all free for the taking. The most tempting of these being the jars of candy you see here, which are 16 paces from my office door (yes, I counted), close enough for me to hear every time someone opens one of them and takes out a scoop of colorful sweetness and in my line of sight every time I walk to the bathroom or the printer or the copier or the door to leave at night, tired from another long day of slinging SQL. But by continuing to dip into them myself, I wasn’t giving this new lifestyle a fair shake, so I stopped. If I make it through the afternoon, I’ll have successfully completed three full weeks without putting any of the sugary snacks that are readily available in my office into my mouth, not just the little goodies in these jars but also the candy bars and ice cream available back in the kitchen. I am sorry to say this has not magically transformed my weight or energy level for the better, but these things take time.