What are you addicted to?
No, I’m not talking about the hard stuff like cocaine, alcohol, or heroin.
Some wives may say their men are addicted to football, fishing, or sporting goods stores. Some husbands may say their wives are addicted to Oprah, the soaps, or shopping. Yeah, I guess you could call those additions. But I’m talking about food.
Like chocolate. Or really anything with sugar. And especially coffee.
Me? I would rather skip a meal and get right to the dessert. When I go out to eat, I always look at the dessert menu first to see how much room I need to save in my belly. When the family stops at a convenience store to get snacks, I home in on the powdered sugar donuts.
And coffee. Oh, my, how I love that first cup of coffee in the morning. I was staying with friends once and unbeknownst to me, they served decaffeinated coffee. By noon I had a throbbing headache. I knew I was addicted.
But at some point in the last several years, my addictions began to catch up with me. If I ate too much sugar and not enough healthy stuff or if I drank too much coffee without eating, I would “crash” a couple of hours later. Of course, I denied it had anything to do with sugar or caffeine.
Okay, okay, I finally admitted it. Yes, I am a recovering sugarholic. And yes, I am also a recovering coffeeholic.
Sugarholism runs in my family. My sister called me not long ago and said, “Hey sis, don’t you have some sort of thyroid problem or something that makes you feel terrible in the afternoons? I’ve been having some terrible sinking spells lately.”
I could see the signs … she, too, was a sugarholic. She was hoping it was something she could solve with medicine, but I had bad news for her.
“Bibbus (that’s her nickname),” I said as kindly as I could, “what did you have for breakfast this morning?”
“Honey Buns and coffee,” was her answer.
“If you’ll cut out the sugar and caffeine in your diet, I think you’ll find you feel a lot better,” I suggested.
“No that can’t be it.” She was in denial. Sugarholics do not give up easily. “I can’t live without my coffee. And I don’t eat that much sugar! I think I must be dying.”
The spells continued. She tried cutting down on her sugar and felt better. Then she fell off the wagon at a kid’s birthday party. Yep, she went straight for the cake and ice cream. Sugarholics have a hard time at birthday parties. She had to take a two-hour nap that afternoon.
She broke down and bought some sugar-free food and started substituting Equal for sugar. This is an important step for a sugarholic. She was on her way to recovery.
She was introduced to some new friends recently. She said to the first friend, “Hello, my name is Bibbus. I have been sugar-free for three days.”
She turned to the next person, and said, “Hello, my name is Bibbus. I have been sugar-free for three days.”
The family is so proud of her.
