Relapse.

Giving up alcohol this month hasn't been hard.  Nope, aside from some whiskey-flavored frosting and some red wine vinegar here and there (both totally within my self-imposed rules), I've been booze free without much of a thought about it.  Sounds good, right?

But there's a catch.  A sweet, sweet little catch.  My sugar cravings are through the roof.

What I wouldn't give for one of these...

See, I knew I should have paid more attention to that whole blood-alcohol-sugar relationship back in January.  I said, "eh, isn't giving up added sugar enough?"  Sure it was.  Still, I'm kind of horrified about how nuts-o I've been going for the sugar bowl.  I got curious, so I Googled "sugar craving no alcohol" and came upon tons of recovering alcoholic discussion boards bemoaning the heightened sugar cravings in their now clean and sober lives.  This article from LiveStrong.com sums up why the sugar cravings come on in recovery at the bottom of the piece, if you want a technical explanation.

So maybe I should have kicked off the year with alcohol followed by sugar, or vice versa, but here I am. Still, I think I need a little sugar-free refresher.  When the official first day of spring comes around this coming week, I'm doing a little week of cleansing.  (I read somewhere that cleanses are best undertaken at equinoxes.  Who knows?!)  No sweets from Sunday the 20th through Sunday the 27th.  That includes adding sugar to my oatmeal, but I am not going to freak about some sugar added to a can of tomatoes.  Doesn't that sound doable?

I bought some Dubliner cheese for St. Patrick's Day.  Who needs green beer or Guinness when you have cheese? 

Image by KUsam at en.wikipedia [CC-BY-SA-2.0], from Wikimedia Commons

Next time, I'll start looking into my gas consumption and transportation habits in anticipation for reduced gasoline consumption month in April. Oh boy...!