Of 2:30 p.m. Sugar Fixes and Irish Grandparents

Once 2:30 p.m. rolls around while I’m at my office working, it’s been my habit to go in search of a sugar and caffeine fix to get me through the next few hours of work.  The sugar fix usually takes the form of a Coke Classic and a handful of peanut M&Ms.  If I am trying to get done five or more things at once (which seems like most days), I typically add a double dose of sugar to my own adrenaline surge to get me through the deadlines at a sprint. 

We’re now two weeks into the food fast of the FFE (fasting from excess) and I’ve gone two weeks without the 2:30 p.m. sugar fix.  I replaced the fix with a 2:30 p.m. snack of a ripe avocado and a ripe apple and washed it down with water or milk.  While there was definitely an energy lull the first two or three days of the first week, the lull is now long gone.  I can only attribute the disappearance to our change in diet to the 7 foods and replacing the timed intake with a healthy natural food.  The lull being gone is itself significant.  Its absence speaks to either my body’s dependence on the sugar boost or at least my behavioral habit of putting the, let’s just call it “excess”, into my body.      

I began thinking this week about what my grandparents ate.  It’s only two generations ago that there was no widespread refrigeration.  My grandparents (on my Mom’s side) immigrated to the U.S. from Ireland.  What I know from the stories that were told is that my grandparents came from large families that had a ton of kids and that they were poor farmers.  I have to speculate of course, but I can imagine that the (poor) farmer’s diet in Ireland back then probably consisted of a couple of types of meat, maybe fish, vegetables from the garden, milk from their animals, cheese, bread, and no avocados.  (I’m feeling moved to go and research this now.)   I’m speculating, too, that the majority of what they ate was seasonal.  So perhaps their diet was closer to 7 than say, 70, types of food year round and that the varieties revolved around the seasons.  I’m going to further speculate that my grandparents’ prayers of thanks for their daily bread were a bit more sincere than have been my own.

This fasting from excess food is a blessing because it is not only drawing us closer to God, but I’m feeling like it is drawing me closer to the experience of my ancestors. 

Tom

P.S.  Only two weeks into this and I’ve already had to tighten my belt a notch, and by bringing my own lunch for two weeks I have about an extra $70 in my wallet (e.g., savings of eating lunch out of $7/day x 10 business days equals $70; not including the Coca-Cola and M&Ms).