Okay, who was a good Little Low-Carber this Holiday Season?

For those of you who were good and remained on the low-carbing WOE this Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years - I'm very impressed. 10 out 10 for you!

Okay, who of us succumbed to the chocolates and roast potatoes and assorted naughties, this season to be jolly? Hesitantly and sheepishly, Jennifer raises her hand. Seriously, I don't know what got into me, but once I started on those Hershey's chocolates, I knew I was in trouble. See, I only wanted one beautiful box of chocolates for Christmas to share with the family. It is sort of tradition. However, this year the box of Lindt chocolates was so expensive and my husband balked much to my dismay! Instead, what happened was he found this bag of Hershey's kisses (I don't even like these very much) and also a bag of little mini bars of Hershey's chocolates at a much better deal. He bought them both (My husband loves a deal and will usually double up and buy two of everything), but it was still way before Christmas. What happened? - we stole one chocolate here and there and pretty soon we were hooked on sugar again. Sugar is such a drug - not to mention chocolate! Come Christmas we were having company and lo and behold our chocolate stash now looked pathetically depleted. So Ian went out and bought another bag of little Hershey chocolate bars (they are really mini she says defensively). So this Christmas time went by in a blissful, guilty, sugary blur! I won't deny that I enjoyed it for a time, but then I was just eating it for the sake of eating and not even tasting it anymore. What a waste!

The painful result? Ugh, well, do I have to share? I think I had better come clean. I won't go near my scale! I'm being an ostrich with her head firmly in the sand. I don't want to know the damage - at least not yet! More Canadian company is arriving on the 7th of January for almost 3 weeks and I can pretend a while longer that I still look the same. I can see the damage on Ian though. He looks decidedly more round in the belly and face. Oh dear - all I wanted was one tray of chocolates and that would have meant with our company, about 2 chocolates per person. Done! Instead our Christmas company (bless their hearts!) brought us two more boxes of Purdy's Chocolates from Canada. We promptly opened the larger one and shared....Does it get any worse than this?

Yep, it does. The other morning I had such a weird turn. I have never been aware of low blood sugar episodes much other than very occasional sort of shakiness inside if I don't eat for a long time. I had a hypoglycemic reaction a few hours after an oatmeal and raisin breakfast (this would normally not happen with such a breakfast but the carb overload was cumulative in its effects on me and I had been up since 4:00 am). I had somewhere between the following symptoms (from this site: WebMD)

Mild hypoglycemia

Symptoms of mild low blood sugar usually develop when blood sugar falls below 70 mg/dL and may include:

* Nausea.
* Extreme hunger.
* Feeling nervous or jittery.
* Cold, clammy, wet skin and/or excessive sweating not caused by exercise.
* A rapid heartbeat (tachycardia).
* Numbness or tingling of the fingertips or lips.
* Trembling.

Moderate hypoglycemia

If blood sugar continues to fall, the nervous system will be affected. Symptoms usually develop when the blood sugar falls below 55 mg/dL and may include:

* Mood changes, such as irritability, anxiety, restlessness, or anger.
* Confusion, difficulty in thinking, or inability to concentrate.
* Blurred vision, dizziness, or headache.
* Weakness, lack of energy.
* Poor coordination.
* Difficulty walking or talking, such as staggering or slurred speech.
* Fatigue, lethargy, or drowsiness.

This woke me up very quickly and I'm back on the wagon and feeling much better. The moral of this story: "Once a sugar addict, always a sugar addict!" It is best not to have these tempting foods in the house. My husband loves white buns (you know, French breads and the like) and when he brings those into the house for our sons, he is sorely tempted. Why bring them in, I ask him? It's not great for our sons either. Fortunately, that stuff never tempts me. Desserts and chocolate - well, that's another story! The irony is that I had plenty of truffles and low-carb chocolates around as well. Weird, how sugar won out time and again!

Okay, so now if anyone had me on a low-carb pedestal even for a brief moment, I've come tumbling down in a humiliating fall. It can happen to anyone - even someone like me who has lived and breathed low-carbing for many years. I won't be kidding myself again in a hurry. The end result was so unhealthy....Many people shiver at the thought of using Splenda, but frankly had I consumed all those desserts I made through the years and used sugar instead....well, I shiver to think....