Bright Ideas

I don’t know how I ate as an infant or small child. My weight was over eight pounds at birth. My father’s weight had been over nine pounds; it was genetic. Katie’s weight was also over eight pounds.

From birth through the year I turned eight, my family would drive to the Dairy Queen on summer Saturday nights and order. When I was a baby, they bought me an ice cream cone and my dad had a malt. Mom didn’t have anything; she claimed not to have a “sweet tooth.” My folks didn’t know a baby can’t digest or use ice cream.

Anyway, my childhood weight must have struggled because my doctor was pleased when I was 10 years old and growing a “pot belly.” I remained chubby through junior high and high school. In junior high, two girls and I would leave school and run two blocks to “Mr. Burger” where $.35 bought a burger and Coke. We didn’t linger over lunch; it was a quick swallow or two, then the run back to school.

I continued to eat that way at home and in high school, maybe taking longer to chew steak, at home on Saturday nights. My next meal or dessert was always promised.

Not so for my father-in-law. He was raised by his Castleberry grandparents, on their ranch three miles from town. Meals were provided, but not much fruit. His grandma Lambert lived in town, and she chewed tobacco. He only paid “command” visits to her at Christmas, when she gave him a kiss before handing him an apple. Her mouth smelled terrible.

I have always had ready access to sweets. When I got older, my choice was a chocolate sundae. Ice cream was always in our refrigerator freezer.

My two and a half years in college were filled with trips to the vending machines. My weight reflected my choice of frozen delight, fudge cycles. What would have happened if I’d slowed down, savored the flavors and let them “last” on my tongue?

Now that I’m diabetic, desert is usually fruit, fresh or frozen. It is more plentiful now, although sometimes trucked great distances. If unavailable, canned fruit works—in its own juice. Sugar free chocolate candy also accompanies meals, peanut butter cups, pecan delights, or chocolate mints, the sugar free version of “Peppermint Patties.”

Even those I ate quickly until recently. If I take them in my mouth and “last” them, let them slowly dissolve, I get much more flavor for a longer period of time. I really could eat only one, and do sometimes. Brice learned “lasting” candy as a child. I didn’t slow down and learn the technique of lasting until this month. Who knew the extended joy I had been missing?