The Gateway

Bread is my gateway drug.  I’ve determined that once I have a slice of it, any kind of it, my appetite for things of its very nature (sugary, carby, fatty goodness,) is awoken from a dreamlike state of mind where it immediately begins running wild in the streets of cakes and alleys of refined sugar.   This terrible addiction became really obvious when my husband took me for Italian food last weekend and I leapt before looking, right into the pile of bruschetta lying before me.  Oh but it was so good, and really, the vegetables on it make it healthy don’t they?!

But that was just the beginning.  Next, a giant basket of warm bread just asking to be eaten is placed before me.  How rude not to indulge in this fine establishment.  I’m sure the look of pure intoxication in my eyes is what kept my husband from asking for the last piece.

Here’s where it goes from bad to worse.  The next day, my whole being was craving foods that I knew were absolutely no good for me, and worse, foods that I knew would fracture the entire structure of “being good” I had worked on the week before this derailment.  Chips, burgers, flatbread, oh no am I seeing a pattern here?

I decided to hit the interwaves on this one.  I ran across several “you are what you eat” articles, but what does that really mean?  Hello, my name is Bread, and I’m a fluffy, white, carb filled slice of sustenance??  Maybe I am what I eat…  Then I found a bit of scientific reasoning (if I read it on the internet, it has to be tested and proven right?)

“Refined carbs include heavily processed or high sugar foods like white breads/bread snacks, regular sodas, most breakfast cereal, sweets, candy, cookies and cakes.

Refined carbs cause your blood sugar levels to rise very fast and then crash very quickly making you crave for more sugar (refined carbs).”

And there you have it.  The gateway to all the things we should not crave but do.  There's only one way I know to stop the madness.  Remove temptation, completely.  It will be hard, there will be peer pressure, and relapse is most likely in my future.  But it's time to put this habit to rest.

Hello, my name is Rachel, I'm a recovering breadaholic...and I'm one day sober.