Been There, Done Everything

Well, my requisite 3-4 weeks have passed so I guess it's time for another post. For the first time in a while I did have something quite large coming up on my radar - my trip to the States for my brother Danny's graduation. Unfortunately for the blog, the trip was a big surprise and the blog has a way of letting things "slip," so I had to keep it in the dark. I am happy to report that the trip was a smashing success, albeit a short one. I was able to surprise the bejesus (do you think the a-jesus gets jealous that it always get passed over for the b-jesus?) out of my Danny and spend lots of time with my family and friends. The only sad part of the trip was the flight home, which both came too quickly and was run by Al Italia (which means it was a terrible experience).

Seriously. Never fly them.

Sugar High

"I gotta have it, really need it to get by"

So says a young Renée Zellweger in the movie Empire Records. Now, I'm as big a fan of sugar as the next guy, but several years ago my love of sugar was put into focus. In a philosophy class we were discussing the concept of desire. Do our desires control us or do we control our desires? To answer the question, I decided to go without sugar (or at least sweets) for 1 week. The results of my little experiment were startling. Over the course of the week I had cravings for sugar. Strong cravings. Cravings that made me realize that sugar is in fact addictive. And as we all know, breaking an addiction is never fun. Another startling observation was that after about a week the cravings stopped. I still liked sugar, but I didn't NEED it as I did before. Having a cookie became a choice instead of a compulsion.

I bring this up because in a recent attempt to shed a few pounds I stopped eating sweets. I again had cravings, but as before they subsided after about a week. I'm happy to report that I am now sugar clean.

If you don't believe me, give it a try yourself. One week. No sugar.

Let's see who is really in control. You or your desires.