I am sitting here on my couch thinking of what to blog about today. I have many wonderful ideas but nothing is striking a flame in me. I glance towards my kitchen and spot a bag of “Gummi bears” resting on the counter. Sweet, delicious, chewy little bears in assorted flavors…because that is how they are in the wild! The brown bears taste like raspberries, which must be because of all the berries they eat in the forest. The black bears taste like oranges and the Polar bears have an exotic, savory taste of fresh pineapple. Sorry, digressing…focus Allison! What topic can you write about that is full of information, but yet meaningful with a touch of humor?
As my mind begins to regain its clarity, my hands hover over the keyboard and I am again ready to enlighten the world. It is kind of weird that Polar Bears taste like pineapple…. I mean they live in cold places with lots of snow! Isn’t it crazy how much snow looks like Marshmallow whip? I remember as a little girl, I loved Ice Cream topped with melted Marshmallows… ooooh! And ‘Smores! With peanut butter cups and marshmallows smushed in-between two graham crackers! Fudge! I did it again…rambling.
This isn’t an unusual occurrence of getting distracted by sweet treats. I have always loved candy, cakes, ice cream or anything made with sugar. In fact, as a kid, Halloween was just as important as Christmas, because of the abundance of candy I would rack up. I remember that I would hide my candy before I got home from “trick or treating” because I knew that I would have to turn in my goods, so my Dad could inspect and divide the candy. Looking back at it, I was kind of being pimped out by my parents! They would dress me up in sparkly outfits with lots of makeup and sometimes even with a wig. Then I go out on the streets at night going door-to-door collecting candy, just to bring it home and being forced to hand my hard-earned confections over to my parents. It’s a cruel world, full of injustice.
I wasn’t picky at what type of candy I could get my sneaky little mitts on. Fun dip, Big League Chew, Airheads, Nerds, Lemonheads, Ouch Bubble Gum, Astro Pops, Sour Punch Twists, Push Pops, Jawbreakers, or Warheads were just a few evils from addiction that I just couldn’t get a handle on. Even as a teenager, I would visit my Grandparent’s house, where they would have a bowl of Hersey’s Kisses resting on a shelf, or my Aunts house, where she had peanut M&M’s just chilling in a decorative jar on the end table, and I was shocked how they could restrain their desire to indulge. Now, as an adult, you would have hoped that I have either learned how to control this awful addiction or that I would be in a sugar coma never to wake again. But alas, no such luck.
One of the many wonderful symptoms of having Young Onset Parkinson’s disease can be impulsive or compulsive behavior. It seems that whatever characteristics people had prior to the onset of Parkinson’s, will still remain, but they could be amplified. So now instead of loving candy, I obsess about it. Where will I get it next? Who will I have to hurt to get it? Can I sleep at night knowing what I did to get my hands on some sugar? Or even worse…will I be able to look at myself in the mirror tomorrow? I guess it will be my daily battle…one day at a time. So for now, look away because I am going to shovel a handful of Gummi Bears in my mouth.
I certainly can understand the predicament having sweet craving likely inherited from my dad. Now having PD has certainly “enhanced” it, but I have somewhat manged better control which has become a necessity since I also have type 2 diabetes.
That being said I could resist picking up some KitKat bars and peach flavoured jellies today when I picked my prescription. 😉 Moderation I keep telling myself, sometimes succeeding , sometimes not. 🙂
Love those peach 🍑 candies!
We need to talk… intervention time candy bandit!
Ha! No intervention for me!
Brilliant!!!
Thank you Roy!
lol Allison. Great post that made me smile. On side note did you know the yummy gummy bears actually have animal bi-products in them? Ironically you are eating dead animal bi-products. Around 44% of gelatin is made from pig skin, 28% from bovine hide, 27% from crushed up bones, and 1% other. (wikipedia) What scares me is the other. Strange when you think about it that anything gummyish and sweet is made from animals. Even Marshmallows and Jello.
It has all the 20 protein containing amino acids in it, (but there are non-protein amino acids of course as well.) Maybe I just helped you with your gummy bear compulsion. Seriously though that was a great article. 🙂
ummmmmm….. that is so gross! You destroyed eating Gummy Bears for me!
Comp. Geek is right – most gelatin comes from the marrow of animals – much cheaper than the alternative (seaweed, for example).
It’s High-Fruitcose Corn Syrup that’ll kill ya!
But, back to Allison…you eat what you damn well like…just don’t look at the ingredients!!
I know just how you feel. It’s a Kit-Kat moment! The only thing that helps is a batch of homemade toll house cookies doctored up with your favorite extras–then you make them adult sized{ those idiots that bad mouth burger joints for high calorie food would have aa coronary at one of these !}
hahahah….’pimped out by my parents’….very funny! Always wondered about those ‘rather too tall’ trick or treaters;? When my kids were late teens – both boys – I’d watch them wistfully (yet torn in their ‘Yo, I’m the DUDE’ thing) hanker after that candy-potI Occasionally, they’d give in. THAT’S when they really needed masks – pizza-faces. So I guess that makes them the hyenas? LOVE your train of thought – made my day!