Naturally Sweet Holidays

Last week, I attended a workshop led by the amazing Emily Levenson regarding detoxing from sugar.  Because December is a month full of Christmas cookies, fudge, pie, candy canes, and a general array of sweets, the workshop talked about safe ways to detox from sugar, as well as how to find, and eliminate, hidden sources of sugar in your diet, and how to deal with sugar cravings.

Emily said something I found to be really profound.  She said that when we crave sugar, it often means we are craving sweetness in our lives, and by increasing the sweet moments in life, we can reduce our cravings.  It got me to thinking about how our holidays played out this year.

We did nearly all of our shopping online this year, and almost all purchases were made by December 10th.  All gifts had arrived and were wrapped by December 15th.  I had to do exactly one day of shopping in stores, and had all the food shopping done well in advance.  Hubby was on vacation from December 21st to January 2.  All of these things came together to form the most relaxing, sweet holiday season we have had together.  We got to spend all of Hubby's vacation relaxing, snuggling, doing fun holiday activities, visiting family and friends, and savoring a lot of quality time together.  And as a result, we hardly ate any sweets at all.  Our Christmas cookies got stale.  Our stocking stuffer candy is still in it's wrappers.  Our Christmas dinner did not even include dessert.

I am convinced that Emily is really on to something.  When we have sweetness in our lives, our need for sweetness is satiated.  So, the next time you find yourself craving a cookie, candy, or cupcake, before you reach for that sweet, try adding a little sweetness to your life instead.  Kiss your partner.  Snuggle your pet.  Call a good friend.  Do something kind for a stranger.  And maybe, just maybe, you will feed your need for sweetness, naturally.