Sugar's revenge

I am feeling somewhat the worse for wear this evening/really early morning (swing shift and all). The temperatures were in the low 90s here today, and I'm not sure I believe in hell--but if there is one, I know why it's purported to be hot. High temperatures are nowhere near as miserable as they were 91-give-or-take pounds ago, but summer will never, ever be my favorite season. I'm as pale as it gets, generally light-sensitive, and far too much shaving of the body is required for everyday societal acceptance. A season where you can drink hot tea and put more clothes on, with overcast skies that never exacerbate a headache--that's a season I can get behind. But I digress.

As I've noted here before--somewhat ruefully--I have had much more adverse reactions to fried and fatty foods since surgery than I have to foods containing sugar, and the latter foods are much more my bugaboo. ("I can take or leave sweets," some people say. I don't envy many people, but I envy those people. A lot.)

I believe the culprit for tonight's stomachache was, ironically, sugarless gummy bears--I must have eaten too many of them. I believe they are sweetened with maltitol and most anyone who's ever eaten sugar free candy knows better than to overindulge, weight-loss surgery folks or otherwise, because the end result is unpleasant. (It could have also been the fact that there was some sugar in my Jamba Juice, some in my protein bar, some in my protein shake, and it all swirled together to become a miniature cyclone of gastrointestinal discomfort.)

As the kids say, I've been schooled.

In about a month, I will be a year out and I'm feeling somewhat discouraged. My weight has been in the 208-210 range lately and that number is going the wrong way. Clothes are still getting smaller, so maybe the weight is still being redistributed, but I've got to get out of this rut.

Sugar-free candy

Me and my sweet tooth have been investigating sugar-free candy lately, particularly chocolate. It is rather expensive; a small bag has maybe six pieces in it and costs $2-3. I think my favorite sugar-free chocolate brand thus far has been Russell Stover. They have some good coconut, caramel, nougat, and toffee varieties and some or all are carried by most drugstores, sometimes near the pharmacy and sometimes in with the regular candy. I found sugar-free Turtles at Target that weren't bad, and the Hershey brand Reese's peanut-butter cups are pretty good in sugar-free.

I think buying candy online might be cheaper, and am still going to look more into that. I have used http://www.candydirect.com/ in the past and they have a huge selection of sugar-free stuff.

You don't save that many calories avoiding sugar outright in chocolate, but if type II diabetes or pre-diabetes exists, they are a good choice. Sugar-free chocolate can have a laxative effect, so there is a built-in motivation not to overindulge!