That Sugar Thing

I picked up a new book the other day, Potatoes Not Prozac. Ben gave me an odd look, like it was a funny choice to pick up when I went in the store for a knitting book or something. So, last night I started reading it aloud. I read the first 5 chapters to him. The first question in the book is If there was a plate of fresh warm chocolate chip cookies sitting on the table when you got home, and you weren't hungry, what would you do? We both laughed. Well, what would you do?

Then there was a list of 10 questions, my "yes" was nearly twice his for the answers. There was a list of addictive behaviors (do you hide food, do you stash the wrappers under other things in the trash can so no one knows...), then there was a story of a girl losing weight. She'd given up sugary foods, even though she really enjoyed ice cream. One day, she had a truly craptastic day and ended up fighting with her boyfriend. She drove to the store at 11PM and bought ice cream and ate it with the plastic spoon in her glove box -Ben found this mind-boggling, she's got a plastic spoon in her car? I explained that most likely she'd been to a fast food joint and used the fork in the little plastic bag, but didn't want to be wasteful and kept the spoon in it's bag (to keep it clean) for another day. Ben looks at me and says, "I'm going to check your glove box." And I replied, "There's a box of plastic spoons in the passenger door." Of course, I got mine to be able to use for snacks on outings with the children - we'd picked up yogurt and spoons one morning.

The first step, breakfast, is interesting. Last year, a friend who gets horrible illness in pregnancy was pregnant with her fourth child and was making sure to eat protein every day, every meal if possible. Her ailment was only about half as bad as usual. So, I decided that I'd try it early on in this pregnancy. Making sure I ate protein curbed a lot of my sugar cravings and actually seemed to make me crave vegetables. I think I was driving Ben nuts when I would say something like, "I really want a salad," when he brought home ice cream!

I'm going to try this program, it seems so simple right now. It gives step-by-step on what to focus on to change the eating behaviors and to work on balancing 3 key reactions to eating, all of which I seem to suffer from (aren't genetics fun?) and am wanting to overcome and help pass down a new heritage to my children. Step 1 is not avoid sugar, it's just breakfast. Let's go check the fridge.