Relative Something

Despite how I felt yesterday morning, when my body seemed to be reacting as if I were withdrawing from an addiction or something, today I feel somewhat renewed. I’m doing really well.

In a classic sense of relativity, breaking a sugar addiction is both really hard and rather simple. It comes down to how you choose to frame it. Seriously, yesterday I had a spell where I felt like things were out of control and my legs were ridiculously weak as I trudged up to the house from turning compost, because I was exhausted and felt like I should get some water. I have a history of tremors, but what I next experienced was more like the shakes of withdrawal.

It startled me. I had decided not to try a cold turkey detox from sugar. I simply reduced my intake to something closer to the recommended daily amount. I am primarily reducing portion sizes to serving suggestions, which is a dramatic way to discover how much excess I have been consuming on a regular basis.

My body’s reaction was as if I was completely withholding the key to its survival. I have noticed a couple of periods of ravenous cravings. They don’t come to me as a need for something sweet. It is trickier than that. I simply get a compelling urge to eat something. It’s as if my body knows that it doesn’t need to force me to eat candy or other treats to get sugar, which I would recognize right away as not the healthiest choice. Maybe I would just grab a convenient (processed) granola bar or make a couple slices of toast.

Results: Sugar!

My body would get what it was after. It is a complicated relationship between my brain and the cells of my body. Logically, I understand that I shouldn’t consume too much sugar, but physiologically, the brain responds to the ever-increasing input and becomes programmed in the insidious relationship with the cells to keep up the supply and demand.

So, what? Now I have to outsmart my own brain? It doesn’t seem right. Who is in charge here, anyway?

I guess that I (unwittingly) taught myself how to be addicted, so now I have to teach the brain and cells how to get back to where we once belonged. You know the tune.

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