Friday 1 April 2016

Moderators vs Abstainers

I've had many vices, but - luckily - sugar is not one of them.

(Crisps are a different matter. That's chips for my American friends. I can hover up a party bowl of crisps faster than the latest Dyson during a power surge.)

However I have always had a major penchant for Rowntree's Fruit Gums. The ones shaped like tiny little fruits. As a child, I'd save up my pocket money for weeks to buy a box. I was distraught when they discontinued the raspberry ones in the nineties. I even wrote to complain.

I haven't had a fruit gum frenzy for a long time. Apart from anything else, refined sugar is in the AVOID section of the how-not-to-get-breast-cancer-(again) diet sheet. Along with alcohol, obvs.

But today we were doing the drive back to the big smoke from the depths of Cornwall, and everyone knows that whatever you eat on a road trip does not count. (Same is true for anything off a child's plate).

So, I bought a family sized pack of Rowntree's Fruit Gums. After all, we are a family of five.

(I conveniently ignored the fact that I am the only one in the family who actually likes fruit gums).

I resolved to eat just a few. Spread out through the journey. I'd then put the rest away until the next road trip.

But once I started, I just couldn't stop. My hand just kept moving from the pack to my mouth as if it had a life of its own.

By the time we'd reached Yeovil, there were hardly any left.

I decided they'd all have to go, otherwise they'd just be sitting there as a reminder of my terrible gluttony, constantly calling to me.

So, just two hours into the journey and I was on a major sugar high, jaw aching, a raging post sugar thirst, and feeling rather disgusted with myself.

I was reminded of sw6mum's comment about the book The Happiness Project (which I must read), and how it categorises people into two personality types: moderators (people who are happy cutting down), and abstainers (people who are happier cutting out).

No prizes for guessing which one is me....

Happy Friday to you all.

Love SM x



11 comments:

  1. Yep can see what you're saying clearly there SM! (Sighs) That's how some of us are programmed I suppose! Day 2 here, the wine witch was very persistent earlier at about 17:00 hrs but I have shut her up and am enjoying an Easter egg in my pyjamas watching master chef laid on the sofa!
    I am Khaleesi!
    Not long now till GOT's season 6 either! Whoop whoop!
    Big hugs xxx

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    1. Am so excited about GOT 6 I can hardly breathe....

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  2. I have one thing to say....Smarties. And I don't care what colour they are. xx

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  3. Sugar is similar in that it creates a quick sense of release followed by awful anxiety and guilt. Sound familiar. I try very hard to stay away now from anything refined and processed. I try and eat whole foods whenever possible.
    For me it's so eerily similar. Eating sugary foods sets me up to beat myself up! I'm so sick of this cycle that I have decided to give up sugar most of the time. Less sugar in my diet, less stress overall.
    Boston Strong, Boston Sober

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    1. Me too. I rarely eat any sugar now. Perhaps that's why when I do it affects me so badly!

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  4. So, I am trying, once again, to moderate. I hate to finally admit that all my friends who work at drinking in moderation are right. It is much harder than abstaining all together. Every night, I try to eat just one half of a Snicker bar and save the other half for the next night. That cunning second half calls to me from inside the refrigerator until I finally go to bed and over my head with my pillow so I can't hear it anymore.

    Aw...God, this is all too freakin' familiar. lol P.S. I have a friend who has been hounding me to read the Happiness Project, too.

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    1. KM you freaked me out! I thought you'd started drinking again! Much relieved to discover it's only a Snickers. Phew xxx

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  5. Oh I so relate. I hovered 750gm pack of soy crisps over 3 days at work. Id bought them to have a hand full at 3pm to get me over the 3 o'clock slump. Left work every day feeling sick. Wont be buying them again might try nuts in individual packages bagged up at home or maybe I can bag up the crisps. Hmmmm

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  6. Your can keep your sugary wine gums, but don’t even look at my roasted salted pistachio nuts. I am capable of devouring a restaurant supplies size bag of them in a single sitting (= eating them from a small bowl and repeatedly going back to the larder to refill like a mechanical toy until they are gone). I upbraid myself while I am doing it, and feel sick and disappointed with myself afterwards. I struggle with the thought that I just shouldn’t buy them, maybe I should only eat them if I’m offered them when I’m out....

    Doesn’t remind me of anything. Nothing at all. No siree.

    This makes me wonder about the distinction between the addictive substance (unlike sugar, afaik pistachio nuts are not technically addictive) and the addictive personality, and the train crash that occurs when the two collide.

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