A Horrible, Horrible Idea

Clearly, whoever said to quit sugar cold turkey has a horrible, horrible sense of humor.

Yesterday went pretty well. I spent most of it with a Diet Pepsi in hand, wondering if that was really a healthier choice and reading labels. I had to return to the fridge three times before I found a salad dressing without any sugar listed (Yay, for Drew's All Natural Lemon Goddess Tahini) and I found dextrose in the bag of pre-made french fries I was baking with dinner. This actually became a moot point when I realized that high fructose corn syrup was second ingredient listed on the side of the ketchup bottle. I ended up having rice instead.

Curious to see sugar's aliases? I was. I am sure there are more, but here are 50:

1. Barley malt
2. Beet sugar
3. Brown sugar
4. Buttered syrup
5. Cane juice crystals
6. Cane sugar
7. Caramel
8. Corn syrup
9. Corn syrup solids
10. Confectioner’s sugar
11. Carob syrup
12. Castor sugar
13. Date sugar
14. Demerara sugar
15. Dextran
16. Dextrose
17. Diastatic malt
18. Diatase
19. Ethyl maltol
20. Fructose
21. Fruit juice
22. Fruit juice concentrate
23. Galactose
24. Glucose
25. Glucose solids
26. Golden sugar
27. Golden syrup
28. Grape sugar
29. High-fructose corn syrup
30. Honey
31. Icing sugar
32. Invert sugar
33. Lactose
34. Maltodextrin
35. Maltose
36. Malt syrup
37. Maple syrup
38. Molasses
39. Muscovado sugar
40. Panocha
41. Raw sugar
42. Refiner’s syrup
43. Rice syrup
44. Sorbitol
45. Sorghum syrup
46. Sucrose
47. Sugar
48. Treacle
49. Turbinado sugar
50. Yellow sugar

Last night, I went to bed feeling pretty proud of myself, down right smug, actually.

This morning, I woke up with the queen of head-aches. I cracked and a mocha was purchased on the way to work. You know, for the safety of the pre-school children in my class. Another was also purchased on the way home. You know, the day was already shot and all. It's moments like these that remind me why I try not to judge smokers, drinkers, "recreational" heroin addicts, crackheads, and serial killers.

In the middle of feeling envious of smokers, who at least have gum and patches to ween themselves off of nicotine, I developed Plan B. I had made it one day in January without sugar. If I make it two without in February, that would be progress.  This is lame, I know, but today it is the best that I can come up with.

I would like to share with the group, however, that I have been meatless for a month now and I have been doing a spectacular job of composting my kitchen scraps so I am promptly going to cross them off of my list!