At a family birthday party, my granddaughter, age 3, took one bite of the birthday cake on her plate and a few spoons full of ice cream and then turned her attention to the frosting on the cake itself, which had been placed directly in front of her.
I was sitting beside her but said nothing. Everyone at the table knew my views on sugar.
“She can stuff herself with cake if she wants,” my son, her father, said. To me, like a cocaine addict, she was mainlining sugar.
On the way home, I felt the frustration churning inside of me.
So I did something remarkable. I decided to see how hard it would be for ME to say “NO” to sugar.
I went through the kitchen cupboards and refrigerator and threw out anything that looked like sugar-in-the-raw, to me. Since I’m in a relationship, I threw out items that were purchased by me, for my own pleasure. I wasn’t planning to try to convert anyone else, just me.
Imagine then, if you can, the shock to that protesting part of my inner self, when it saw me throwing out a bag of honey coated peanuts that I had just brought home from the store. Wait! You bought these on sale!!
Into the trash they went.
The 33% chocolate bar in the cupboard was next. It landed in the trash basket on top of the honey-coated peanuts. Then the jar of black cherry jam. The packets of sugar. Out. Hesitating a moment, I took the loaf of high fiber bread and put it out of sight, in the freezer. Whoa! Wait a minute. Isn’t bread SUGAR too?
Yes, I know it is. I know that eating bread, pasta, bagels, biscotti’s, and croissants are treated by the body like sugar too. It spikes the insulin. I get a few minutes of super high energy, followed by ae free fall of emotions as the insulin drops.
So why save the loaf of high fiber bread?
Well, there is one corner of my mind that offered this sage piece of advice before I sent the loaf of high fiber bread flying in the direction of the honey-coated peanuts and 33% chocolate bar.
The one thought was this: My granddaughter loves sugar. One day soon, she’s going to ask for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, the kind I ate when I was her age. And I’m going to give it to her.
In the end, this story is about me and how I’m converting my frustration at my granddaughter’s eating habits into a personal – I might even call it spiritual – act of self-transformation. Even leadership. Lead by example.
It’s a radical act of Alchemy.
As I change into that sugar-free person I would like my granddaughter to be, I am noticing the changes taking place inside of me. The cells in my body are being starved of their “normal” fuel: sugar. Glucose. They’re discovering a new and better fuel to burn: fat. I am shifting the fuel in my body from burning glucose to burning fat. I’m becoming a fat-buring machine. A Mercedes!
With a focus on myself, I’m noticing that the tired feeling I felt on Day One, is being replaced by a new level of mental alertness and clarity.
“You look younger,” people tell me. Do I? Do I look or act my granddaughter’s age, with all that twisting, turning, jumping, somersaulting?
No. It’s more like “Inner Alchemy,” where the wisdom gained with age merges with a higher level of energy. And the result? How one lives in the world is greater – far greater – than before.
Alexia Parks is CEO of the 10 TRAITS Leadership Development Academy and a Virtual Mentor with the United Nations.
