On New  Year’s weekend, we had dinner with friends who sent us home with a bag of Chocolate bars. After begging and pleading not to, and threatening to dump them in the garbage immediately, we did the only logical thing we could. We ate them. And I started the year with sugar bloat. No fun.

I felt like hell. Lethargic, puffy, ucky. And I decided I didn’t want to feel like that again. Now, if I would have been smart and had a half of a bar and left the rest for the boys, that would have been fine. But that’s not how me and sugar roll, especially chocolate bars I never get to have. Self control? Nope. Sorry (not really.)

So I did a complete 180 and since then have followed a very basic bodybuilder style diet. I’m not going to get into details on it, google BB diet and you’ll find enough info. The only point of stating this is that my food right now is as controlled as it could be and absolutely no sugar…to a point. I enjoy a piece of dark chocolate here and there but I didn’t for the first couple of weeks.

Enter the syrup lesson. We met one of my pilots at Cracker Barrel in Wichita Falls for breakfast during our visit. I really wanted a pancake which would pretty much be my first carb since January 2nd. And I wanted syrup. A whole Cracker Barrel bottle (which really isn’t that big for a syrup-holic.) So I did and wasn’t going to feel bad about it at all. Until I did.

Promptly after eating and saying goodbye, the sugar hit. Hard. By the time we got back to the hotel I was a mess. Almost sleep walking and felt like complete doo doo. I crawled back in bed and literally passed out for an hour. The only thing that got me up is that I had an appointment at 11:00 I had to get to. The entire time I was with a friend of mine, I felt like I had been drugged.  It took until mid afternoon and three Shrimp taco’s (without the shell) with lots of water to even feel partially normal.

Lesson learned. No more syrup, or anything else I love with such a concentrated sugar content. Because I don’t want to feel like that again. Ever. I wasted over half a day of precious vacation time with my Bigg guy and friends I don’t get to see very often feeling like crap just because I wanted a pancake and syrup.

Enter Facebook with pictures of another one of my favorites, Cranky Al’s donuts.

I love these things. They are magic. They disappear in a heartbeat and I could literally eat a handful without even thinking about it (remember the lack of control thing?) But then I remember the syrup lesson, and I know that even one of these things will put me down for at least a couple of hours. No Merci.

And then I think about this little factoid, for years and years that sugar/carb feeling was very normal. I literally put myself into a situation of feeling like crap on a constant basis and considered it normal. MyBad.

All that said, I will be completely honest in admitting that the bacon/pineapple pizza that Bigg ordered at 10pm the other night was absolutely delicious. Do I feel bad about the three (or four, I was eating, not counting) pieces I ate at 10:30 at night? Nope. I’ve earned those carbs and without the sugar and lots of water, I felt just fine.

And I’m right back on track today. But I think I’ll wait until Friday to jump back on the scale. Heh.

Just a spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down.

Richard M. Sherman