Addicted To Sugar. And a Bunch of Other Stuff.

Hello.

My name is Stephanie.

And I'm addicted to sugar.

Hard core addiction and though I don't want to be opposed to sugar, I certainly don't want it to run my life either.

I have a lot of reasons for wanting to make a change in my eating habits.  I love to run and push my body to the limit, but when I get myself on a regular running routine, like I have been lately, the exhaustion settles into my bones and I'm ready for deep sleep bedtime at 4:00 in the afternoon.

This can't be normal.  It's not normal.  It's because I'm not giving my body the fuel that it needs to go.  I'm living off of sugar.  And a lot of Coke.  Those aren't going anywhere.  Yet.  They are my guilty pleasure but I don't want to need it everyday.  It's not the caffeine, it's the sugar.  I get hungry and I crave the sweetness.

I've been trying to make small steps so I can keep up with it.  When I made spaghetti I made a big pot of noodles for The Circus, and then made a smaller pot of whole grain noodles for me.  I've stocked my desk drawer with raw almonds and organic oatmeal and granola and popcorn.  If I'm prepared with a quick healthy snack I'm less likely to decide I need "something" and with nothing on hand, head out for a drink run just to get the sugar.



This morning I ran out of time for breakfast so on my way into work I pulled into a parking lot to go through Beans and Brew's drive thru.  My mind was on a sweet and yummy caramel white hot chocolate with double white chocolate.

Yum.

As it would have it, this particular Beans and Brew shared a parking lot with a grocery store.  I debated.  And then I parked in front of the grocery store instead and bought a naked juice and organic oatmeal.  And I don't regret it.

I still drink a Coke a day.

Like I said, I'm not opposed to sugar, I just don't want it to run my life.  I need energy to sustain a healthy lifestyle.  And I'm not enjoying how overpoweringly exhausted I am now that I'm trying to run regularly.

If anyone has advice on what my body may need to keep up good energy while I run, I'm all ears.  I'm not very good at this stuff, but I'm trying to learn and be better.

This week has felt long.

Not only with the exhaustion of my body, but I took my biology midterm on Monday.  I'd been full out cramming for that thing for a week and a half.  Do you know how difficult it is to study flashcards on a treadmill?  Harder than I thought anyway.  You were given an hour and a half to take the test at the testing center on campus (it's an online class).  So I made my appointment and went.

I breezed through that thing, twice (making sure I'd answered them all correctly) in a half hour. At first I was like, surely I've done something horribly wrong to be done with it, twice, in a half hour when they've given us an hour and a half to do it.

But no.  I'm just a freaky over-achiever and I pretty much memorized the text book in anticipation of this test.  Sorry to my family for all the "mom isn't making dinner tonight because she has to study" nights.  Except not really because I knew that information inside and out.  Hands down.  I read a question and without even looking at the options, I knew the answer.

For 50 questions.

I'm still nervous to see my grade on though.

Cali has been stubborn and making me want to hit my head against the wall.  Again.  And causing me great anxiety to the point that I wonder about taking medication to calm me down, but I don't want to take medication so there's that.  She and I sat down and had a lengthy discussion about how everyone has a part and how it works when we do our part and how it works when we don't.

She's been doing much better since that little talk.

For our church youth activity on Wednesday we leaders set up different stations.  The women set up stations  about sewing on a button, leading music, making waffles, and the men set up stations like throwing a football, airing up a car tire, tying a tie, polishing shoes, and folding paper airlplanes.  I had sorting clothes for the wash.  We split the kids up into boy/girl partners and they had to do the activities with one teaching the other how to do it, and they had to do it in certain time.  Oddly enough I found that even though we thought the girls would teach the boys how to sort laundry, most of the boys already knew what to do.  Kuddos to those moms.

By the end of the night paper airplanes were filling the air of the gym and Jayme managed to peg our neighbor Stacy in the head with the football.  And they ate their waffles covered with ice cream and berries so I would say the night was a success.  Except for Stacy's head.  Sorry about that.

This weekend! I plan on sleeping on Saturday morning.  Then I had planned on taking The Circus to the natural history museum for an assignment that I have for my biology class, but I just got a text from The Man... looks like he suddenly has last minute plans for this weekend that are kind of big.

This weekend may have just gotten interesting.

More on that on Monday I suppose.  That man keeps me hopping, and I love him for it.