WHAT WAS IN THAT?

Fasting has left me more attentive to the food - and "food" - that I am putting in my body and what sort of immediate and long-term effects it may have.

Take last night, for instance. 

Since it was Sarah's final night of Christmas break before heading back to college, she requested we all watch a movie together. 

So we settled in together on the basement couch and I decided - being shut out from all normal movie snacks by the ongoing sugar fast - to make myself a decaf coffee and sweeten it with some sugar-free "mocha" syrup that has been sitting on our kitchen counter for a couple of months. (Apparently, neither Melissa nor I was too crazy about the stuff after it first got opened, but neither had bothered to throw it away.) 

My coffee wasn't all that appealing, but I drank it anyway figuring my tastebuds were just disappointed at not having some popcorn or cookies.

When I hit the bed a couple of hours later, I knew immediately that sleep was not going to come easily.

Typically, I am asleep within two minutes. It's one of my superpowers.

But last night I tossed for twenty minutes before falling immediately into some truly bizarre dreams, only to regain consciousness within the first hour.

The next hour was unlike anything I have experienced. Although I was (mostly) awake, my brain continued producing dream images that were complex, with lots of small, moving parts. And each image would quickly morph into some other image - all AI-like. 

I tried praying but found it impossible to "look away" from the images and their movements.

Finally, at midnight, I pulled myself out of bed, stumbled up to the kitchen and took some Nyquil to knock myself out.

This morning I picked up that bottle of sugar-free sweetener and read the ingredients with bleary eyes, looking for any possible explanation for my bizarre night. Nothing too unusual listed: it was sweetened with stevia and monk fruit.

But then I read these words I had not noticed before: "Refrigerate after opening." 

I dumped what was left in the bottle and tossed it in recycling.