And let me say it wasn’t pretty. If you don’t know me I’m a person who eats a healthy amount of whole grain cards of all varieties. I don’t generally count most breads in that category but do love good, artisinal, crusty, any flavor bread when it comes my way on the odd occasion like a great restaurant meal or when traveling.

Somehow though, due to a busy week or so, I found myself doing the not very well planned grab-and-go kinds of foods. I usually have sliced whole wheat bread in the house for the man but really have no interest in it. (His version of what’s healthy and mine are pretty different. He tolerates–doesn’t like– squishy wheat bread, I like mine with lots of bits, texture and fiber.)

One day I found myself hungry in the morning and running to get out of the house for an appt. I had no boiled eggs, no fruit to have with yogurt, no time to make a shake. I’m not a lunatic tho and the importance of eating something vs eating what I’d really like to eat is clearly in favor of eating. So I grabbed a slice of squishy bread and slapped a piece of turkey and some mustard on it and off I went. It was really yummy and I felt good eating it.

Later in the day I had to grab something at a convenience store and all there was to choose from were wraps or sandwiches. I ate mostly the innards of a wrap but did include some of the flattened out dough for ease of eating in the car. And one carb/sugar rush leads to wanting another so I found I wanted a sweet midday. This is something that happens really infrequently. Suddenly it was happening like clock work, every day.

And so it went for what seems like days. This was leading up to my half marathon so I was doing long power walks in preparation. I must have been in need of something with the certain kind of fuel that carbs provide cause I was craving them. Instead of opening up a can of beans or remembering to buy quinoa or brown rice I went for what was easy.

Then after the race I had to have pretzels. Lots of them. I gave in to my midlife mindless cravings.

By Tuesday I was feeling the effects of all of this carb/sugar binging. I was feeling low and cranky and totally out of sorts. Though I can’t give you scientific proof that I was feeling this way because of all the sugar and processed carbs I’d reintroduced, my gut say that’s what it was.

Not to mention my belly was puffy. No likey the puffy belly thing.

So I dragged my ass to the gym yesterday. I ate clean yesterday and when I felt like my sweet midday treat I had some beautiful strawberries with a few roasted walnuts. I had lots of arugula with some grilled chicken last night and today I’m feeling a hundred times better. I’m back to feeling motivated and my mood is great–the usual for me.

Moods go up and down, eating healthy foods is about an 80% of the time thing for me. But 8 days of just eating any white flour, processed food that came my way took a toll on me. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

PS. The one thing I know is scientifically provable is that eating more carbs produces cravings for more. I used to be a carb addict just like so many of you. The less I ate the less I wanted them. Once I started tho I wanted more. Again, I’m not against healthy carbohydrates. The culprit in this instance is processed white flour and sugary things.