Oh my, where do I start????
With me going up and down the weight scale for years and years?
With realizing that if I start eating some chocolate I can´t stop till it´s gone?
With my mood changing drastically when I “indulge” in sweets while I tell myself that I treat myself to something soothing?
No,
I´ll start with my granny.
And I do this with lots of love and gratitude for her in my heart. Even if she started me on my sugar addiction I love her dearly and am glad I had her for some decades in my life!
When I was a child my parents my little sister, and me used to go to my grandparents’ house for the weekends a lot. They lived about 80km from us and we drove there on Saturdays going back Sunday afternoons.
My grandparents had a house and a huge garden where my grandpa grew all kinds of veggies and fruit - actually most of the food they lived on. My granny tended to her flowers and handled, processed, froze or bottled all the incoming fruit and veggies.
So far a very healthy food and living situation, don´t you think?
What my granny did though was giving me sweets
when I hurt myself, when I was angry or sad, after my sister and me got into a fight, when I was frightened … she gave me chocolate, candy, cookies to calm, console or comfort me. I can still remember the brands of sweets she stored in her cupboard.
Photo Credit Alexandra/München
Another thing she came up with was Sunday morning in-bed-snacking.
My sister and I slept in my granny´s bed on my granddad´s side. He moved into another room during our stay. I believe it was because he did snore big time and my patents wanted to have time for themselves.
So on Sunday mornings when everybody else was still asleep she got out of bed went downstairs, and came back with a plate full of sweets.
Photo Credit Hans Braxmeier
We arranged the cushions so we could sit up in bed. While we were eating away on sweets she told us stories from when she was a child.
What a cozy feeling! My granny, my sister, something sweet to eat, interesting stories of a time long gone in bed with my pjs on.
Ups,
you know what I just realize? Sitting here on a Sunday writing this I still have my pajamas on.
That seems to be another thing I got infused with: being comfortable and cared for is when I can stay in my pjs on Sundays as long as I want to.
If you only knew, granny!!
So far for Part 1 of Are You A Sugar Addict, Too?
Preview to Part 2:
How I deliberately didn´t comfort my daughter with sweets when she was little
and how I eventually might come to change my sugar addiction little by little by reflecting on writing about, and learning from all this.