If one were to listen to all the diet and health hype in the media, we would avoid every food on the market and starve to death. I decided that if i could control one thing in my diet, it would probably be sugar. Our bodies know what to do with the natural type, but ever since artificial sweeteners came out, we’ve been stuck in an endless loop of obesity and fad diets that don’t work, and it might well be because diet foods with artificial sweeteners are not helping us.
I’m in Day Seven of a modified eating program. Sure, I’m going out to holiday parties, but the days of noshing on one of these and one of those at the buffet table are over for me. At least for now. I cut back on grazing, which is hard to do when you work in a contact center where the only thing around other than equipment is food.
The holidays guarantee a smorgasbord of food. And I’m not touching it.
For our recent event, I brought in deviled eggs, which went over like gangbusters. They included olive oil, which made them heart healthier. I passed on the diet soda. I turned down the cookies and cakes. I munched on celery.
I started substituting my usual yogurt with something called skyr (rhymes with leer), a cultured product normally found in Iceland and Scandinavian regions and recently brought to our shores, likely by homesick entrepreneurs from Reykjavik. A cup contains regular sugar, not like the others which can have sucralose or aspartame (think Equal brand). I guess if the artificial stuff is hundreds of times sweeter than regular sugar, I’m better off eating regular sugar; even if I go over what my body needs, it will probably know how better to handle it than try to work out the chemical content of something in a little brightly colored packet.
This is the time of year for everything sweet, everything in excess and everything to do with enrolling in a gym. I probably should do that latter sometime soon. Meanwhile I’ll see what effect my strong sense of self control does to my waistline. If it doesn’t work, stand back from the candy box.
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