Sweet Surrender

Since starting my most recent job, I have been actively engaged in a sugar obsession. Each day, after a nutritious, protein-filled lunch, my coworker and partner-in-crime and I peruse the company vending machine, relishing our options. After much thought and coin counting, we indulge in one or two of the following: Snickers, Reese's PB Cups, Twix, or a rare shot in the dark, like last week's Ding Dongs. We've even gone so far as to befriend Daniel, the machine king, so that our top picks are interspersed throughout the rows to promote maximum availability. I can say with confidence that I have consumed more candy in the last month than in the last five years.
On the more stressful days, our chocolate consumption has been known to increase. For every moment when I feel like I've had my last bite of equal parts chocolate, nougat, caramel, and peanut, there is a tedious project or tiring task in which I am happy to remember that a quick fix is just 85 cents and two button presses away.
What has resulted for the sugar days surprised me immensely. As a girl with a past of body issues, diets attempts and calorie counting, had I been told a few months ago that I would be eating a candy bar a day, I would have been shocked. Instead, I am content. Eating candy and not discussing its dangers and woes, its effects and repercussions has been delightful, giddy inducing. And there is something to be said for the vending machine - a box filled with snacks, no one costing more that $1.25, available all day, everyday. It is with joy that people approach the machine, coins jingling in their palms, selections waiting on baited breathe. It may just been one of life's little pleasures.
My time in candyland has taught me a lot. One, the reality that candy is addicting, and tastes incredible. Two, eating it hasn't made me unhappy or guilty. Any opportunity for me to realize that I am free and able to indulge and satisfy myself without worry is one that I wouldn't trade. While I couldn't keep this diet up for much longer, for the time being it has been welcome. Just about as welcome as the day Daniel put Butterfingers in three different rows...sigh.