Just a Spoonful of Sugar....

I've been to physical therapy a few times now and as much as it would be comedic to report that I've been folded, spindled (does anyone still use a spindle?), and mutilated, I really haven't. The exercises I've been doing are mostly centered on loosening the muscles and ligaments of my foot in order to regain range of motion. It's a lot of toe lifts and heel extensions, resistance training on the foot ("Point down, now point up, now to the side, no the other side, use just your ankle") and finally Julian the PT assistant bending my foot further down then I've ever had it bent. Not that I haven't always, but I now have a new found respect for ballet dancers who are on point. Oh dear god, you voluntarily bend your foot like this? But oh how it feels so good when it's brought back to normal position.

Of course it also feels so good when the guy hitting you with a ball peen hammer stops doing it.

As well I do a fair amount of time on the stationary bike to get blood circulating better through my leg and to get me back into something of a shape I might have been in prior to all of this. Julian hasn't asked me what kind of shape I was in prior to the surgery and I'm certainly not going to volunteer that information. It's on a need to know basis and he doesn't need to know.

In addition I have been following the news stories surrounding the release of the movie FED UP and I've decided to make some changes in the way I eat. No, that's a little too nice. I have decided to take back control over what is in the things I eat. Specifically sugar, an addiction I have to admit I have been in the throes of since childhood. Reading these reports and seeing even the trailer for the movie I've gone through a Kubler-Ross style progression: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.

At first I denied it could be true that sugar is as powerful an addiction as cocaine. Then I looked at my own life and realized how true that comparison is. I always thought my craving was for carbs, but look at most breads, pretzels, chips, etc and prominently in the ingredients you will find sugar. Whether you call it refined sugar or high fructose corn syrup it's feeding that addiction.

So I moved on to anger. I was angry that I'd been duped by large corporations into thinking even supposedly "healthy" processed food was good for you when in fact it's just as loaded with sugar as a can of Coke. So called "diet" products are just as filled with sugar as their regular versions, it's just sugar under a different name. Food you don't associate as having sugar in it, a can of soup for instance, is loaded. Why? Because sugar is a cheap preservative. And it makes you crave that product again. Which will make the producer more money. And who cares if our citizenry becomes obese and lethargic and 33% of them have diabetes cause that's gonna keep the health care companies the food producers have invested in making, you guessed it, more money! Hey all you food companies, why are you acting like the tobacco companies when we found out their products were causing cancer. "Oh our products aren't loaded with sugar. Well maybe they are but it's not a public health risk. OK it is a public health risk but people make their own decisions and it's just a lack of will power on the consumer's part. Yeah that's it, let's blame the people we've addicted for their addiction." Is it shocking to find out that many of our largest food producers at one time or another were tobacco producers?

Talk about drinking the Kool-Aid.

Let's make a deal. I won't eat the stuff that has obvious sugar in it. Ice cream, sweets, that kind of stuff. Just let me go on with the soups and the frozen egg rolls, and the other stuff that's down the middle aisles of the local Safeway Nob Hill Lucky's. I'll eat the fresh fruit and vegetables, just give me an occasional pass on the frozen pizza. What the hell do you mean it doesn't work that way? I'm trying to change, be healthier, give me my occasional frozen pizza for chrimeny sake.

Oh man how am I ever going to get through this? Everything I like to eat will be gone. I want to crawl underneath the covers and come out when they've replaced all the sugar with something not addictive. I want the food companies to suddenly realized how wrong they've been and change their ways. Yeah, like that's gonna happen. Leave me alone, I'm gonna sit here in the dark.

All right, all right. The only way to beat an addiction is to go cold turkey, I accept that. I'm getting off the sugar carousel. Fresh food only. More trips to Segona's and fewer to Safeway. I'm gonna read labels on anything even remotely processed and put it back on the shelf if it contains sugar. Fruits for breakfast, nuts and berries for snacks, gulp, no frozen pizzas for a quick dinner. Club soda. Shh, once in a while a bit of bourbon, heck that's natural sugar. All right maybe not.

When it's time for a change, think fresh fruits and vegetables. It might just save my life.