The Sugar Meister

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

“Would you like some coffee while you’re waiting?” Teri, the receptionist, offered.

“You know – I think I will have a cup,” I responded, but telling her I would have to make it myself since she could never sweeten it to my specifications, which is around 5 sugar packets I told her.

“Oh…my…God! Dr. Roizen says that much sugar is just horrrrrrrible!”

Dr. Roizen, with Dr. Oz is one of the two ‘You’ docs from the Cleveland Clinic and quite famous for the ‘You on a Diet’ book and the many ‘You’ books that followed. Their stuff is great, readable, and doable.

Dr. Roizen wasn’t there though when I was 4 years old and had my first cup of coffee with my grandpa. I always wanted to do what he was doing and if drinking coffee with breakfast was what he did, well…then I would too. Only thing…there was no way I was getting it down without 5 teaspoons of sugar…which grandpa was happy to let me have. And that’s the way I learned to drink my jo.

Well…I didn’t tell Teri this whole story, but I did tell her Doc Roizen was right and that I only drank about a cup a week. I went to get my cup and, noticing the options available, chose the Nutrisweet stuff instead of table sugar. When I returned, I told Teri about my choice.

“Ohhhhh…nnnnnoooo – that’s even wwwwwwoooooorrrrsssse,” she said, dragging out the 'worse' long enough for everyone within the tri-county area to think that I may have dropped a puppy out the window of her 19th floor office. She explained to me how the fake sweeteners were so sweet that they made you want to have more stuff with regular sugar. At least that’s what I think her point was…I was so freaked out that I wasn’t taking it in too well.

I couldn’t win with Teri. Or coffee. But I do love puppies.

Anyway, I really don’t drink much coffee and I have almost eliminated refined sugar from my diet. I have gone to substitutes to get a little sugar fix now and again and I think that’s okay. I preach, practice and believe in moderation. If you can totally eliminate refined and artificial sweeteners, God bless you – it surely won’t hurt you, but if you’re human (not that you’re not – Teri) and crave a little, moderation works.

Oh yeah…the workout. It had been raining all day and I couldn’t help thinking about how miserable it is to run in a cold drizzle. By late afternoon it had stopped, but it was still pretty cool and the trails were going to be mud soup. I drove to the park to change and looked through the trunk searching for cold weather gear. I found a long-sleeved t-shirt and grabbed my scull cap to protect my bald head. I was even considering socks for the hands until it dawned on me that I was being a total wimp. I mean really…it was 50 degrees! Had I gotten so soft since winter? I left the hand socks in the car.

I stuck to the bridle trails, which actually weren’t too bad. I mean I don’t mind a little mud and on some days, I like it quite a lot. I ended up with an enjoyable 40-minute run on a day that I had thought earlier was going to be a miserable experience. Sometimes you just have to make yourself get out there and take the first step. After that…it’s pretty easy.

Run duration: 40 minutes.

Training Heart Rate: 140.

Calories burned during workout: 675.