Sugar Makes Me Angry

I’ve read many books and embarked on many journeys toward weight loss and overall health. As a general life rule, I like to hit things hard for a short time, and then never have to engage again. Sadly for me, there isn’t much in life that seems to fit nicely into my made-up paradigm.

I was introduced to The Four Hour Body by a good friend. The nitty-gritty is that you don’t eat sugar (including fruit) or flour/rice for six days a week. The seventh day is a cheat day, in which you can eat anything. Sounded pretty straightforward. Why not?

Sunday through Friday, I didn’t eat any sugar or flour. Saturday I made up for it. I remember buying a bag of Dove chocolates and my husband asking, “You really think you can eat that whole bag in one day?”

O ye of little faith!

I showed him! I ate the whole bag of Dove chocolates AND everything else I purchased for that cheat day. I was committed.

A month or so into my journey, I started noticing I would have these mood swings. Or days of great annoyance. As I paid closer attention, it was always Sunday. The day after my cheat day.

I remember one Sunday morning, standing in the kitchen and saying to my husband, “I’m just letting you know that your breathing is getting on my nerves.” We had been awake less than an hour.

It may sound harsh, but I see it as good self-awareness!

I could feel the annoyance on a cellular level. He wasn’t congested, just breathing. And it was on my last nerve. My communicating that was my way of warning him that the vibrations inside me were so intense that something as benign (and necessary) as breathing was getting to me. Beware: anything more may set me off.

To be clear, I wasn’t telling him he needed to change anything. I was simply warning him of the state of the union so that if I responded to something as benign as “can I help you with that?” by biting his head off, he knew where it was coming from.