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Day 53: My Most Embarrassing Sugar Addict Moment Involved Whipped Cream
No, stop, it’s not what you think – unfortunately. I haven’t had many embarrassing moments involving candy or desserts – maybe because I don’t hide my vice. I’ve always eaten candy right out in the open, no secret binging for me.
I do remember once when I was living in New York and someone noticed two empty boxes of Haviland thin chocolate peppermints sticking out of my trash. But that’s so boring it would get me kicked out of Overeaters Anonymous for even telling such a yawn story.
But one time qualifies as embarrassing:
One of my favorite cheap sugar fixes is whipped cream. The kind of plain whipped cream that comes in an aerosol can and you can buy in any supermarket in the U.S. or Europe. Normally I put some in a bowl. However, one time an entire can somehow migrated into my bed – when I was alone.
I apparently forgot about it until one day when a platonic male friend (could this get any more boring?) was at my place and decided to take a quick nap on my bed. What did he find? You guessed it – a can of whipped cream stuck down somewhere in the sheets. He only mocked me for about an hour or so and then forgot about it. Lucky for me he was also a bit of a sugar addict himself and couldn’t ridicule me too much.
I recovered this memory when reading an email from Meg Bozman, honorary U.S.-based correspondent for A Year Without Candy. Meg’s a member of the Wednesday night kick-sugar tele-coaching seminar led by Connie Bennett of SugarShock.com.
Most people might find eating plain whipped cream odd. Not sweetfreaks. Here’s Meg’s email to everyone in Connie’s group, reprinted with her permission, about her love for whipped cream, which morphs into her take on what it’s like to drastically reduce the amount of sugar she’s eating.
Meg’s rather cool goal is to be able to eat sweets just once or twice a month and she’s succeeding so far:
Hey everyone,
Whipped cream is another of my favs. Love love LOVE IT! Cool whip is good, but I prefer the redi-whip stuff – airy & fluffy & sweet. OK, sorry, I’ll refrain from further description.
We were in a rush Saturday to hit the road for our 3 hour trek to my Mother-in-Law’s place & stopped for a late lunch of fast food. Since we were rushing, I ran in to grab the food while my hubby got some gas. I got the drinks first & DH got a milkshake. They add HEAPS of whipped cream to the top & a cherry. He’s not that wild about maraschino cherries & often lets me have them along with several spoonfuls of the cream. There was a bunch actually sticking out from the top of the little domed plastic lid. I almost instinctually went to lick the protruding portion, but I stopped myself.
I stood there holding this drink, waiting for our chicken sandwiches & thinking how crazy it was for me to not have any. Uncharacteristic! This isn’t Meg!
But then I realized, resisting wasn’t that bad. It was just a brief, habitual urge to lick the whipped cream, but after resisting that urge, it just seemed like life… it was just the way it is to not have any. The same way I wouldn’t lick the whipped cream off the milkshake of the person standing next to me! The same way I don’t eat bacon (don’t like it) etc. I just don’t eat it.
I’m at 3 weeks as of tomorrow with no dessert. I think I’ll wait until the weekend, then have one sweet treat the 2nd weekend of every month. (Away from the office & the temptations of office candy & when I can go enjoy something with my family.)
I’m very interested to see how this evolves & if I’m able to ‘keep the lion controlled’ in this “once a month cage.” But I feel like I have to try it. I don’t want to say, “I’m never EVER having it again until the day I die.” Maybe I’ll find once every 3-4 months is better, I don’t know. But that’s my goal for now & I feel pretty good about it. I feel like I NEED to try it out.& certainly this weekend I will be watching myself like a science experiment to see how I feel after having something.
In other news, 3 weeks off desserts & I’ve nearly lost a dress size! I got my period yesterday & it actually took me by surprise – no moody PMS like last month! (Last month, I was so weepy & emotional, I hadn’t felt that way since I was a teenager!)
I also feel like I’m EVEN more aware of eating healthy than I was before. I miscalculated & we had to stop on our journey for snacks for my son (I continue to be astounded at how much he eats!) I had nuts in the car, but he didn’t want any, so I stopped & grabbed a yogurt & felt guilty feeding him the high-fructose-corn-syrup laden crap.
(he isn’t wild about fresh fruit, unless pureed, so I didn’t even buy the melon slices or an apple.)-Meg
