Sweet Poison: Controlling What I Can

I took a step back today and realized that, out of all the people in this real estate deal, the only one going crazy is me. That either means that no one knows what they’re doing besides me (highly unlikely), or it means that this is business as usual and I’m working myself up for nothing. I paid the insurance for the year, and that means I’ve done everything I could do. Now it’s up to the seller’s side to get their stuff in order, and nothing I can do can speed up the process. So I’m just going to sit back, relax, and focus on the situations I can change. Speaking of which…

My Nigerian co-worker Ola was getting on my case about sugars a few weeks ago. He gave up on drinking the free apple juice we would get in the morning and anything that had sugar, choosing to stick with water. I thought that was crazy until I started doing research on it and found out just how many foods and beverages have way too much sugar. The recommended max daily allowance of sugar in a diet is 50g, yet many snacks have 50g of sugar in one package! For example, this pink lemonade that I used to love drinking...

This shit only has 18g of sugar PER 8 fluid ounces. The one I used to drink has approx. 32 fl oz, which means that this one bottle of pink lemonade has 72 grams of sugar, 22g over the max daily recommendation! And that's just the drink! I would always drink juices over soda because they always say that soda is bad for me, but juices can be bad too. The reason why I’m taking this so seriously is because… well, it’s me. One of my many traits is that I’m a narcissist. Deep down I believe I’m better than anyone else, an attitude that’s helping me in business. The only two entities that believe in my greatness are me and my body. When I was doing my research, I found it crazy to see just how hard the body fights to keep me healthy and safe—even when I’m the one messing with it. From an overload of snacks to stage II prostate cancer, this body has done its job and shouldn’t be punished for keeping me alive. So I started cutting out the sugars. No more pink lemonade. I’ve stopped getting the apple juice that comes free with my breakfast every morning. Natural sugars aren’t as bad as added sugars, of course, and there are aspects to a decent amount of sugar that the body needs for various instances. But I really don’t care about all that right now. Sugar is sugar. There are no issues with water, and it’s free! So why rack my brain with computations and numbers when I can just have some free water? I’m a landlord: I’m supposed to like “free”.

There’s also an ego aspect at play here. I don’t like the idea of food and beverage companies making millions of dollars by slowly killing me. Die by car crash? Fine. Plane crash? Sure. Shot in the head by a disgruntled tenant? Why not? But my ego doesn’t like the idea of anyone profiting by slowly poisoning me, especially when I don’t get a cut. Screw that. I remember reading up on people with diabetes and all the shit they have to go through. I remember when Nell Carter had to have her legs amputated because of it. I kept thinking to myself: “You’re getting your leg amputated because you couldn’t put the chicken wing down? Really?!” Life is complicated enough without making it worse by eating like an asshole. I remember eating a shitload of snacks every day when I was a kid and find that, now that I’m getting older, I can’t eat like a kid anymore. It was a bit of a revelation when I ate an entire box of Cheez-its last year and almost threw up. I used to be able to eat a box and still have room for an entire pizza pie! My body had enough of my bullshit and let me know it.

I started cutting down on sugar a couple weeks ago, and I’m already noticing differences. The most notable change is that I’m not as tired as I used to be, especially at the end of the day. After doing all the website research I felt necessary, I’ll post a link >here< to what I considered the best one, just in case future reference is needed. I plan to get my sugar intake between 20-30 grams a day. I’m gonna research sodium next, and other stuff I feel I consume too much of. Nino recommended an app called My Fitness Pal that has all the nutritional info on foods and drinks, even fast foods. I plan to get it once I get a new phone, as my current phone’s memory capacity is crap. There will be times, of course, when I’ll eat more than I should here and there. But overall, the bad ingredient intake has to be cut down, and my ego will help me do it. I may not be able to control when I close on property Charlie, but at least I can control this.