-
Day 1: I succeeded once giving up candy – for almost two years. Really I did!
I actually did give up sweets one other time, for close to two years. My super-inspiring friend Michael Mitchell, who runs the amazing Body Soul Adventures in Paraty, Brazil (Go!) challenged me to give up Starbucks Frappucinos and sweets in early 2002. I tried it for a month and kept going!
I did so well that I didn’t touch sweets once, even during an unpleasant breakup with an unpleasant man. But my Waterloo Candyloo came over the Christmas holidays in 2003 when I was climbing Mount Roraima in Venezuela. (You can read my New York Times article here.) The last three-hour slog up steep boulders was tough and our Indian guide handed us a big yellow box of Brazilian chocolates like the serpent offering Eve the apple. Mmmm, yum.
Bingo – exit Sugar-Free Paradise. I slipped down that slope so fast back into Candyland I never looked back. Six months later I went to Burning Man in Black Rock City, Nev. We had to bring our own food in for a week – and we packed a lot of candy purchased in bulk at a Wal-Mart.
I’d never had a weight problem before. But returning to sugar after a two-year absence screwed something up in my metabolism. I put on 15 pounds in 2004.
Since then, I’ve struggled to return to Candy-Free Eden – to no avail. Will this time be the charm?