Just a Spoonfull of Sugar . . .

I had some weird muscle pain for a week or so and wondered what it could be. I checked every possible disease related to muscle pain and found no matching symptoms or maladies.

I have been taking Claratin D and Mucinex for stuffy-head allergy symptoms for several months, together with Costco generic Prylosec for heartburn (for even longer). Being skeptical about taking processed chemicals into my body, I wondered if the medications might be responsible for the weird pains and pondered what to do. Now, I am going to go out on a limb here and call it inspiration: I awoke at 3:00 A.M. with a very distinct impression, coming straight out of nowhere, that I should drop refined/processed sugar from my diet. Frequently, those 3:00 A.M. revelations that seem so brilliant at the moment, fade just a bit at 7:00 A.M. in the clear light of day. This radical idea, however, still seemed OK the next morning so I told Kris I wanted to try dropping refined sugar from my diet. Happily, she wanted to do it, too. So on Veterans' Day, 11 November, we made the leap. That evening we told Katy what we were doing and she looked at us as if she didn't know who we were. She said that she felt like she had just learned that she was picked up at the pound as a baby! Nevertheless, though she wanted to cry, she also wanted to try. So all three of us were off and running.

As an afterthought, I Googled "adverse effects of sugar" and BAM!, I was awakened to a whole new world of sugar-related crud that had, surprisingly, escaped this conspiracy-theory seeker. Holy cow! I had no prior idea what refined sugar does to one's health, but it became very clear that my midnight madness was anything but.

So far, dropping sugar has not been difficult. Withdrawal may cause minor headache, but the only serious bump in the road came on Sunday evening when the munchies set in. I munched on nuts and some of Kris's popcorn as we watched Masterpiece and made it through unscathed. Sunday dinner without a wonderful gooey dessert was fine; instead we had pears with some delicious white cheddar cheese recommended by the cheese whiz at Harmon's.

Goodbye ol' friends

The goal of this program was to get off the meds and feel better. I dropped all the pills on the first day and have felt much better. After reading about the adverse effects of sugar I widened my horizons to include lowering my "high-normal" blood pressure and my marginally high cholesterol. We'll see with time how that goes, but it appears promising. An added benefit seems to be weight loss. When I started this crazy regimen last week, I weighed in at 207 lbs. This morning I was down 7 lbs. to 200. So, what the heck: Whoopee!

I'll keep you posted and possibly even tell you what we eat.

OXO

D.