so I tipped my morning coffee down the sink

not me, but it could be

Staying at home during lockdown, comfort eating, eating out of cans, eating out of boredom, getting zero fresh air and exercise…..  When I stood on the scales a few days ago I discovered that I’d piled on more than a few pounds since March 23rd.  That is not good, by any stretch of the imagination.

So, I’ve resolved to be fitter and healthier, and get back to my normal weight just as damn soon as I can.  It isn’t easy to restart a fitness programme after 3 months of relative inactivity.  Fortunately I don’t find sitting in a chair binge watching TV at all addictive.  (Things would have been much worse if it had been easier to get to the store and buy copious quantities of beer.)

For a while I’d been following the 10,000 steps a day challenge, and now, after all that lockdown inactivity and idleness I’m back on that ~ with a vengeance.  Yesterday I walked to the next town down the coast and back, in all yesterday I walked 20,204 steps in the fresh air and sunshine by the sea.  For me that’s almost exactly 10 miles, and if I can keep on walking 10,000+ steps a day I should get my health and fitness back.  Perforce I should also lose / stabilise my weight.

Along with the fresh air, sunshine, and exercise I’m also changing my diet back to something much much healthier than cake cookies candy alcohol and eating out of cans.

As part of a healthier diet I thought I’d switch from having high-quality Barista sugar in my morning coffee to an articicial sweetener instead.  I bought some stuff based on sucralose and tried that for the first time this morning.  You know how good that morning coffee always tastes ~ except this one didn’t, and I tipped it down the kitchen sink.  I find the sucralose artificial sweetener to be bitter, chemical, and just yuck, with a yuck aftertaste.  (The most common brand of sucralose sweetener is Splenda.)

Surcalose is chemically altered sugar where the water based chemicals are replaced with chlorine, and it’s 500 times sweeter than proper sugar.  To me it tastes like bug killer smells.  Other artificial sweeteners include aspartame, which is positively bad for you.

WTF was I thinking of?  If I want to be fitter, stronger, healthier, why would I swap a high-quality natural product with something that came out of a chemical plant?

Some say that artificial sweeteners are perfectly safe.  And that they are a useful part of a calorie controlled diet.  All I know is that I’d rather consume natural foods than stuff that came out of a chemical plant.

~

jack collier

jackcollier7@talktalk.net

not the kind of plant I want to make the sweetness in my coffee