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.