I once went to the emergency room for sugar and chocolate consumption. Mom sent my favorite Hershey’s fudge to me at Purdue. I loved that fudge – its firm sugary goodness… so addictive the way the granules melted in a chocolate sugar blob on my tongue.
Well, this experience was one I did NOT want to share. So in short order, I ate the whole tin. I have a mild mitral valve prolapse, which can be agitated by caffeine. This large intake of sugar and caffeine sent my heart racing. Former flutters seemed mild compared to the racing I felt after eating a whole batch of fudge. And, it wouldn’t slow down.
At the emergency room, I was informed they’d never seen anyone for sugar and chocolate consumption. Eventually my heartbeat calmed down. My love for the fudge has not yet subsided. But with maturity, I’ve been more cautious in my indulging (and my mom now gives me fudge in limited quantities).
Recently, my friend James shared a story of sugar. He recalled how a woman brought her daughter to see Gandhi. The mother asked the wise sage to tell her daughter to stop eating sugar. He met with them briefly and told the daughter to return in two weeks. In two weeks they returned. Gandhi told the daughter to stop eating sugar. “Why didn’t you tell me that two weeks ago?” the daughter asked. “Because two weeks ago, I was eating sugar,” Gandhi replied.
This morning I met with my friend Laurie, a fellow writer, therapist, and seeker. I was sharing how I’m sometimes frustrated when I teach lessons to my clients and they often learn the lessons and master things I have not yet. As I remember the Gandhi story though, it’s an encouragement. My mission is to do the best I can to learn what my own life work is and to practice that work regularly.
Maybe it’s through the movement into my own happiness and the repetition of teaching others, that I’ll continually wake up myself to the knowledge that life is sweet (no sugar added)!
Amy….I can relate to eating that whole tin of fudge. For Christmas, a friend who knew of my love for chocolate, gave me a box of Dove chocolates. Also knowing that I work in a health food store and feel that sugar should play a very small role in a healthy diet, she commented that I could stash it away and ration it out little by little. By the time I arrived home (40 min.), I had eaten the entire box…both layers. I shudder to even imagine how many grams of sugar I consumed! But every bite was delicious and for some reason I suffered no noticeable ill effects. None of us are perfect and most of us learn our lessons very slowly. And those chocolates were damn good!
I’ve never been a “sweets” person and I gave up caffeine and sodas 14 years ago. It’s ice water or wine for me. I consider that a good trade off.