The Strange Changes

"Dear God, never again." It sounds like post-party anguish when you can't count how many shots of whiskey you put down, but are convinced you will not so much as look at whiskey again. That's how I felt by the end of the day of the Highland County Maple Festival.

I belong to a Real Foods group that meets once a month to discuss various topics and, occasionally, we attend regional events. So, I was kind of excited to go a few hours away to find real Virginia maple syrup and try....oh, everything.

Don't get ahead of me here. I AM eating low(er) carbs meals than I have done in the past. I DO know that real maple syrup translates to real sugar, real carbs; however, I felt prepared to go and try many different maple-infused items (just to see what they are like) and I could reason all of this to be OK because I had a plan:

Three of us went on the trip. If we bought one of pretty much everything and shared it between us then I would end up with a bite or two of this or that and be OK by the end of the day. It was a great idea that could help me keep from that godawful full of junk foods feeling one often gets at these events by the end of the day.

Also, I wanted to make time to see things: visit crafts booths, tour a sugar camp, walk around, be active.

That was the plan and it went splendidly until I began tasting things.

Maple-covered peanuts from Laurel Fork Sapsuckers

I ate two handfuls of maple-candy covered peanuts. They were delicious! I bought a bag and have since had a few more (like 8 or so) and then I gave the rest to my in-laws so I wouldn't finish them. There are some ingredients in this bag that I stay away from with my diet so it was good to pass the yum on to someone else.

Then someone at the sugar camp tour told me there was this other amazing camp that makes maple donuts and pretty much sells out every year. Off to Puffinbarger's Sugar Camp we went...in search of these.

Puffinbarger Sugar Camp's Maple Donut

This looks angelic, right? But it tasted like blah to me. Now before you go thinking they don't know how to make a donut....think again. The shop was packed with people coming out the door and it took nearly an hour to have this particular donut in hand. This donut felt strange in my mouth and tasted gluey and slightly maple-like. It wasn't the BAM! WOW! confection I'd been convinced it would be. But why? The other two Real Foods enthusiasts couldn't get enough of them. Me? I was turned off.

Hmmm.

So we went for lunch a little while later...and had fried fish sandwiches from a local trout farm.

From a little stand outside Virginia Trout Company

The trout was so so tasty, I felt like I could eat again! And I would just ten or fifteen minutes later. See, one of our members is a vegetarian and needed a lunch that wasn't trout. Off we went to see about the highly acclaimed buckwheat pancakes we heard so many other tourists talk about.

Buckwheat pancakes with Virginia maple syrup

By this point, I wasn't hungry for syrup OR pancakes but decided I would try just to say I did. I couldn't finish this half a pancake, but I did guzzle down a pint of milk. Guess I needed that. The pancakes tasted good to me - they remind me a lot of raisin bran cereal flakes. Is that the way they are supposed to taste? Got me! But they did and I liked them enough, but not enough to finish. Like the donut, I just wasn't getting much from this stuff. Could we go back for more trout?

We spent the day looking at so many things and really enjoyed the people and the atmosphere of the festival...and it was a beautiful, beautiful day to be in the mountains. On the way home, there was ice cream and I thought, hmmm... maybe we could get one and split it (still had the game plan I began with!) And we did.

Ice cream stand just beside Sugar Town Antiques

And I could take about four bites of it before it was too much. It tasted amazingly good - like a dream, really - and I couldn't go on. What was UP with me?

After thinking this over for several days, I conclude that my palate has changed considerably. It really has. I can only guess that eating low carb has had this affect because I craved real food the entire day. I wanted more of that trout. I wanted spinach. I wanted salad.

Let's look at this day through the eyes of Wendy 2011: That bag of covered peanuts? I'd have at least eaten half of it. Maple donut? Psh, I would make sure two, if not three, would be mine. Trout sandwich? EWR. That sounds gross.  OMG Pancakes! Yes, I will have two. And I would finish them. I'd feel so full, but I would finish them. And then ice cream? To each their own. I'd want the entire cup. And even if it meant driving and eating with it melting all over, I'd spoon and drive. On a full stomach, gorging on sugar, a pre-diabetic.

So when I sometimes think this low carbs thing is too slow or isn't working, it may be helpful to remember the Highland County Maple Festival because Wendy 2013 just couldn't take it. Thank God, right?!