A Year Without* Sugar

This time last year I was coming to grips with a new diagnosis; if I
wasn't careful, I'd be diabetic.

I had just earned my CDL and was out on the road as a
trucker-in-training when it hit me.
Long story short, I hadn't been eating well.
I was taken off of that truck and sent to the company's doctor.

Next thing I know I'm being medically discharged due to "hypoglycemic episodes".

Not sure what was going on with my body, I saw my parents doctor in Dallas.
Diet induced hypoglycemia. Cut out sugar and caffeine.
(He said a lot more than that, but that, like eating healthy foods...)

No sugar?

I'm the guy that lived on Snickers and Dr Pepper during my late night
courier runs.
Which is why my body finally failed me.

But really, no sugar?
More importantly, no Dr Pepper?

I wasn't sure I could do it.

Cut out sugar from my diet cold turkey.

I'll admit that I had some Halloween candy.
But less than 5 pieces.
And not all at once.

I snuck a few Christmas cookies as well.
After they were stale. So not worth it.

But by and large, I've been good.

But this time last year, it was still a scary thought.
I knew that finding Caffeine Free Dr Pepper in Dallas would be easy.
The Dr Pepper offices are in Plano.
I've been there.

But back home in Indiana?
It's hard enough to find regular Dr Pepper.

((I have no idea what the aspartame does to my system, but it doens't
feel like sugar))

Amazingly, when I went to Walmart when I got back home, Caffeine Free
Dr Pepper was on the shelf.
Phew!

And I drank it, and drank it.

And I started eating sugar-free Jello chocolate pudding.

Recently I've added sugar free maple syrup to my SF mix.

But those are the only three SF products I specially buy.
Anything else I just avoid.

I still have the mind set that "sugar free" on a label means that it's gross.
I feel the same way about "low fat" and "fat free" labels.

At first, Caffeine Free Dr Pepper took the place of anything sweet.

It was MY sweet thing.

If someone else was having a cookie, or ice cream, or lemonade, or
juice; I'd have a Caffeine Free Dr Pepper.
And for the most part, it worked.

Like I said, I slipped a couple of times, but by far the amount of
sugar in my diet has dropped 9?%.

I still eat sugar.
Milk has sugar.
Cereal has sugar. I avoid the SWEET stuff and stick to more "adult"
cereals; but I still read the labels first.
The sweetest thing I eat is jelly. Yeah, I know.

On July 11th, I joined my family in celebrating FREE Slurpee Day at
our local 7-Eleven.
That was a mistake.

I had a 7.11oz Coke Slurpee with a pink straw in it.
That 7.11oz was way, WAY, too much for me.
I could feel the sugar as it made it's way to my brain.
It wasn't an experience I feel like repeating.
If there was ever any doubt in my mind that I needed to avoid sugar,
it was gone now.

I think I've been rambling throughout this whole thing.
And that's okay, it's my blog.

Sugar bad.
Caffeine Free Dr Pepper good.