Dulce, Dulce

I have a loved one (or two) who smokes. I read a column recently in which another smoker announced to his loved ones that yes, he knows smoking is bad for him, and he's a grown up, and now, would everyone please just drop it. I want to respect that my smokers are grown ups, but I
also want them to live long lives and not have the end of those lives all falling to pieces for years. I remembered, too, a program I saw about addiction, in which smokers all admitted that they could quit, and their attempts to quit were unsuccessful because...they didn't really want to quit. They liked it! Fair enough. My ambivalence about whether to keep relentlessly nagging my smokers provides a long lead-in to what happens next, which is that I try to think of something I am addicted to that I could try to quit, even if...I don't want to quit it.

My something is sugar. I am a reasonably healthy eater, I would say, though short about one vegetable serving and maybe one dairy serving per day. I excel at whole grains! But sugar is my weak spot, in part because it is so easy to add such a lot of it to my day without even realizing it. I have jam on my toast, and in the mid-morning eat a couple of truffles from the magical never-ending can of free truffles I got from my boyfriend, Trader Joe (a whole 'nother story). I have juice (diluted, but still) with my dinner, I have ice cream or some other dessert after the kids have gone to bed (yes, kids, after you go to bed, your parents have cake and watch movies, and it sucks to be you). Here and there, extra chocolate from the pantry, any sweet treat that is being given away free at work, and occasionally vending machine junk. If Starbucks, then pumpkin scone. If Hoffman's Fine Pastries sandwich for lunch, then cookie to go along with it. If Crossroads Cafe for breakfast, then pancakes and syrup. And so on.

So, sugar it was, for testing the willpower. Plan was, I would go two weeks without added sugar. I could have cereal, as long as it is not an explicitly sugary type (Mini Spooners, which is what they call the generic Frosted Mini Wheats around these parts, out, Cheerios, in). I can have milk, which has a lot of sugar grams, but just because it does, not because it's added. Fruit is OK, fruit juice is not. Jam, beloved jam, is out. Obviously, cakes, pumpkin scones, cookies, milkshakes, chocolate milk, ice cream, soda- all out. My two weeks started a week ago yesterday (Sunday). The first test was the kettle corn we brought back from the "Sheep Shearing Event" at the local farm park. I prevailed. I have had no kettle corn, no truffles, no vending machine food, no sweet extras of any kind. Woo hoo!

On Friday night, Jim got home from his brief but valuable work trip back to MN (shout out to the Cities, woot!), and his mom decided to mom him up with a couple of delicious childhood dishes that he particularly likes. One of them was sticky rice, which she sort of taught me how to make. I will be trying it on my own, with her supervision, and when she has sticky rice certified me, I shall make it upon request for visitors. It is good stuff. The other dish she made is called I-don't-know-what in Cantonese, and it means, the red bean stuff. I know I have discussed with some of you the perplexing category of Chinese food known as "dessert," which often turns out to contain things like beans, or tofu. I don't mean vanilla beans. The red bean stuff is a dessert, and is made out of red beans and dried citrus peel and big rocks of sugar. Jim loves the stuff. I don't so much love the stuff. But on Friday night, his mom served up the dinner she had made, the sticky rice (mmm), a vegetable I added because my kid hadn't had any vegetables in a couple of days, and for each person, a bowl of red bean stuff.

So, yeah, on only my fifth day into the no-sugar experiment, I totally blew it eating a bowl of Chinese "dessert" that I don't even like. I ate it to be polite, but also because it did not cognitively compute that what I was unenthusiastically chewing and slurping through was a sweet dish, until it was three quarters of the way gone. Augh! I'm not using the red bean debacle to get out of the rest of the experiment. It's been good to eat less sugar, and even when this week is up, I'm going to be a little more judicious. The jam is totally coming back, though.

Other addictions I should try to give up for two weeks:
Coffee (noooooo)
Checking my email incessantly
Freecell (Freecell Anon?)

PS. Today is not only Cinco de Mayo, but also Muriel's ten month birthday! And we are in double celebration mode because that little girl had a terrible fever for four days and was right on the verge of going back to the doctor for some yucky invasive tests, and instead she has decided to celebrate Cinco de Mayo by getting over her fever and back to the business of cutin' it up all over the place. Woo hoo, Muriel!

PPS. The Crop Walk went well- we had beautiful sunny weather, and Naomi and I went the whole four miles. I question the choice of venues, though, since very few things make me covet my neighbor's house (or condo) like walking along the Kirkland waterfront. Swank! I reached my fundraising goal of $200, with help from myself, my parents, my husband, my friend, and one loyal blog reader. You know who you are, rock star.