I love sugar. Well, I have always loved sugar. I have written many odes to various sweet treats.  I have no shame in saying that I love sugar. My doctor used to laugh at me as I brought in a bag of candy to my annual phsyicals. He would shake his head at me but then note that according to all my labs I was fairly healthy. No high blood pressure. No high cholesterol.   And this was because I work out like a mad woman. Just this past week, I didn’t have access to my usual exercise equipment. Thus, I ran up and down the stairs of my new house. I looked quite silly doing that I am sure. Yet, it felt good to work up a sweat. I really love exercising. Occasionally my foot drags a little over to the machines. However, I always feel good afterwards.   I exercise so I can enjoy my sweets. And, so I can just zone out for a bit. Of course, I also do so in order to be healthy.   It’s really in that order.

Now, while I have always loved sweets, I have not had much of a taste for chocolate. Nor have I liked cakes.  Ice cream makes me ill, literally. I’m an odd woman that professes to love sweets. It’s like those vegetarians that don’t eat vegetables. You know they exist.    I was actually close to being such an odd vegetarian. Well, rather I was a vegetarian for over a decade and I didn’t eat that many vegetables. I was a dumb vegetarian. If I were to do it again, I would be way smarter now as I now really love salads and a myriad of vegetables. except for brussels sprouts. Don’t get me started on those. They should just be banned from any dinner table.   The smell just drives me batty. I just can’t consume something that icky smelling. I know. I sound like a little kid by saying that.   However, that is one of the glorious benefits of being an adult. I don’t have to eat brussels sprouts, if I don’t want to.

Now, I have ventured far off my intended narrative path. Thus, let me recalibrate nnd focus on the sugar and salt structures in my life.

A honey bear tree

While, I have always loved sugar, I have always loved salt as well. Although, in the past sugar still had the upper hand in terms of what my palette preferred. Now, the past two months or so, I am craving more and more salt. If I could have a salt lick at home I would. If said salt lick could have a cherry on top, that would be divine.   A girl can dream, right?

A salt lick in the backyard for all 

Every day, I now start off with my two cups of coffee and a handful of chips. I just love potato chips and can’t seem to have enough. I also have chips and extremely spicy salsa at least once a month. I tend to also enjoy a bowl of cherry tomatoes with salt. Yum. This past weekend while at the grocery store, I didn’t grab any gummies. Not one bag. Yet, I bought about three bags of chips. Yes, I have crazy eating habits. But I still work out as my new elliptical machine is finally here. Furthermore, due to the heat wave it is like I am doing en elliptical version of hot yoga.   It has been unbelievably hot in Los Angeles the past week. My upstairs floor was at 93 degrees at one point and we have on the air conditioning.  I am working off the chips. This is not my issue and why I have been pondering this turn in my tastebuds.

I am known for being sweet. I mean a sweet personality. Well, to a few. Yet, lately I have been snarkier and snarkier. I most certainly have a bite.  Life has not been easy the past few months with many personal stressors.   Yet, I have still managed to be “sweet” to many to the point that others note it.  Yet, I can also only take so much of the craziness in this world and I have to note the insanity.  As one very kind person put it, I “rule with an iron fist but with a velvet glove”. I like that.   I like that descriptor a lot.  These days, I have to keep in mind the many needs out there and find ways to make things happen.  I think my tastebuds are just reflecting this external environment in which I find myself. That’s my story and I am sticking with it. And, so this is the structure of my life at the moment.  One thing I know for sure I will never like bitter foods. Those are not my thing.