Day 22.
So, I know that as an adult I must take responsibility for my actions. But what I’m about to tell you is not my fault.
I was going really well. Was. And I’d had a lot of support from my readers and friends. Had.
That was until this week just gone.
I returned to my (future) home, Bath, and spent three days with my flatmate Lina. I assumed, as she was doing the ‘No Sugar September’ with me, it would be easier. We’d be able to support each other and avoid sugar.
Day 1 was a breeze. We ate homemade banana bread which had zero sugar in it. We went to the book launch of Anna Ellory’s The Rabbit Girls (click the link to see my review) and then Lina went off with her friends whilst I caught up with mine over dinner. No sugar to be seen in my meal, though I can’t guarantee the same from the whiskey I was drinking.
Day 2 was even easier. We spent all day at the Deli she worked in. We ate more banana bread, and other sugarless goodies available there. I had a really nice scotch egg with salad, without the vinaigrette. We rekindled our tradition of visiting TKMaxx and Garden centres together, just enjoying each other’s company and avoiding cake.
We did go to the cinema. Lina had popcorn, the sweet kind. But it was fine, there are half the calories in cinema popcorn than you’d find in a Kitkat. So it wasn’t a big deal.
Day 3…
So we met up with Lina’s fiance, and went to the Cosy Club for brunch. They do this awesome deal where you get a full breakfast, and a hot drink, for eight pounds. LF ordered a hot chocolate, with marshmallows and cream. It sounded really good. But I held strong. I ordered tea. And when my tea arrived, it had a cute individually wrapped sugar cube. Well, Lina had treated herself to popcorn the day before – I could have ONE cube in my tea, right? Sweetener tasted rank and I’d have to talk to someone to get some. Social Anxiety, anyone? So I dropped the cube into my tea.
Well…
I didn’t drop it in as such. My dad used to do this thing where he’d rest the sugar cube into the tea, just enough to submerge a corner. And then we’d watch the tea soak upwards into the cube and just before it hit our fingers, we’d let it go and watch the sugar sink into the tea.
This is what I did ^.
And LF noticed.
‘What did you just do?’
‘It’s one sugar cube,’ I replied, immediately guilty.
‘No, what did you do with the sugar cube?’
I explained.
‘Can I have a go?’
LF didn’t want another sugar cube in his hot chocolate, it was already sweet enough, so he asked if he could put the cube in my tea. I liked LF, but I’d only spoken to him once before.
It felt rude to say no – that’s the excuse I’m going with.
He dunked the cube in, watched the tea rise, and dropped it in.
Well, Lina was not going to be left out. She did, bless her, ask first, before copying me and LF and dunking her cube into my tea.
Three sugars. Three. In one cup of tea. I couldn’t taste anything else. I kept topping up my cup with more tea, and it was still sugar-infused two cups later. My tongue began to tingle. I’d missed that. My whole mouth felt sweet.
We finished our Brunch and the waitress came over.
‘Would you like to see the dessert menu?’
‘Yes.’ I didn’t even hesitate.
LF waited right up until my spoon sunk into the warm chocolate brownie I’d ordered before asking,
‘So hows the whole ‘no sugar thing’ going?’
‘You’re a bad influence,’ I replied. ‘I blame this entirely on you.’
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