Sugar pressure!

I just started the effort to rid my diet of added sugars (for at least the month of February) and I was careful not to begin until I'd surrounded myself with a support system -- friends and co-workers who are doing this right along with me and are there to offer encouragement, advice, good reading material or a swift kick in the butt.

So imagine how blindsided I was to feel sugar pressure coming from an unexpected group of tiny little plan-thwarters: My kids!

Yesterday at dinner, I asked the boys what was their favorite part of their school snack (I do this sometimes to assess what items to skip or what to buy more of). After sorta answering my question, Dean grins and says, "Juice!"

"Silly!" I said, "You know you don't get juice." (We send a thermos of water for them for snack.)

To which Cary says, "Mommy, all the kids at school have juice. Except us. We only have water."

"All the kids?" I asked.

And Dean says, "Yes. All of them. Except us."

You hear the daggers entering my heart, right? "Except us..."

Here's how I heard that: "Except us poor, left-out, weirdo kids whose parents clearly hate them and only send them to school with water -- FROM THE TAP!"

I would be less than truthful if I said I didn't feel a little twinge. I always thought I would feel good about our healthful food choices, especially since we have resolved not to be sooo completely crazy about every little thing they put in their bodies. We're not crazy health nuts; we're moderates! Heck, we even introduced them to Five Guys a couple weekends ago! (Mmmmm. Five Guys...)

My poor boys want juice and we make them drink the liquid of life instead! We're horrible!

And for a super-quick second, I honestly thought, "I don't want them to be outcasts. Maybe I can give them juice boxes twice a week or on Fridays or something."

But then I thought about Sugar Free February, and how much incredible effort it takes for me to get through every day without eating something sweet or not great for me. And I thought about the lifetime of unhealthful choices I've made that have contributed to this addiction I have -- because that's what it is, an addiction. I have a sweet tooth, no doubt, and that's genetic. But I have fed and stroked and catered to that sweet tooth so much, I've become a slave to it.

My sweet tooth is my master and it is literally killing me. My yearly hemoglobin A1C reports tell me so in big bold numbers. Each report calls me pre-diabetic and says, "Do something differently or you will. die." (In so many words...)

I want to break the yoke that sugar has around my neck. Why would I ever start the process of putting that same yoke around my children's?

That's why I won't succumb to the sugar pressure -- for myself or for them. An occasional treat is OK, like I said, we're not fanatical about it. But daily juice just gets their taste buds in the habit for something sweet with all meals. If I indulge that sweet tooth, juice becomes soda becomes Big Gulps becomes must.have.chocolate.cake. (Mmmm. Chocolate cake.)

As long as I'm in charge of what goes in their snack bags, they will drink water.  And so will I.

Health updates

Last week we took Cary to the ENT. After a battery of tests, he agreed with the doctor from the Hearing Assessment Center: Cary needs tubes in his ears.

We conferred with our pediatrician and he is on board. So tubes it is.

All the doctors agree that there's no real rush, so I think we will make the appointment for a week or so before or after our trip to the beach in mid-July.

Strangely enough, I'm not worried or nervous at all. I just want my sweetie to hear normally. The end.

About me: I got my results back from my blood work.

The good news: My cholesterol is much lower than it was the last time my doctor tested it, so he's not worried about that (for now).

The OK news: My blood sugar levels are at 6.2. For background, doctors consider less than 5 to be absolutely normal. They consider 7 or more to be diabetic. Anywhere between the high fives and the high sixes is "pre-diabetic." That's me.

The last time I was tested my number was 6.1. So my doctor considers this to be "holding steady." No medication necessary, no real intervention needed. He did tell me to continue to watch my diet, and to "add in some exercise." To which I say, "Yes, of course," and "Easier said than done, doc."

The bad news: My Vitamin D is miserably low. Most things I've read say a good number should be somewhere between 45 and 60. My number is 17. (Tam, you were right!) Ack!

The jury is still out about all the true health benefits of adequate Vitamin D, but I admit to being intrigued by the hypothesized connections to blood sugar and to immune system health. 

My doctor told me to take 5,000 mgs. a day of Vitamin D. We looked for capsules that high in Target and didn't find them, so as soon as we get to a health food/vitamin store, I'll pick some up. I fully intend to try to build up my Vitamin D and see if it helps at all with all the sickness. I have also been taking my sweet time  when walking in the sun, although I am nowhere near up to 15 minutes a day.

Maybe I can build up a whole year's supply of Vitamin D when we go to the beach!! Hmm, now there's a thought.

All in all, not great news on the health front, but not terrible, either. Nothing we can't work with.