Many may not know but I come from a long line of chocolatiers. I am the eldest grandson of the owner and founder of the former Catherine's Chocolate Shop (now Mielke Confections) in Great Barrington, MA. My grandparents founded the chocolate shop in 1958. My parents started in the late 70's and early 80's working there full time.
I began my career when I was 13. My grandfather did not want to make fudge out of a machine kettle; he didn't believe in it. So, the torch was passed to me. I began making fudge & candies, dipping chocolates, and I continued for 33 years. I went on to man the kitchen duties full- time around 2009. Everything I made had sugar in it. I became addicted to sugar and didn't even realize it. It happened in a flash.
I justified my experience with the adage of “if I don't try it how do I know what it tastes like”. Every day, week, month and year I ate sugar. Thus, my weight ballooned out of control. You become used to it; it's hard to stop. Sugar, even though they don't tell you, is a drug. You need it. You crave it.
Eight years ago, I moved next door to the chocolate shop. Being that close, whenever a craving hit, I just happened to have the key to the store. I would sneak over and grab anything I wanted. Imagine actually being Willy Wonka in the movie—the ability to eat any of the dishes whenever you want. It was a great feeling. I carried on year after year, not realizing what sugar was doing to me. In April of 2019 we sold the store and my mom retired, but I stayed. It was then that something switched. I had a different mindset. I couldn't sneak in anymore, so I stopped eating sugar. But, I knew sooner or later to rid myself of the drug, I'd have to leave the shop.
In May of 2020 I finally got the courage to do just that—rid myself of my lifetime sentence to being overweight, to being addicted to sugar. It was luck, happenstance, and fate that brought me to the Berkshire Food Co-op—the very opposite of the chocolate shop. A wholesome, homegrown natural, organic entity. There was no siren. No sugar to call me.
I knew I'd change but had no idea how fast it would happen. A virtual and real transformation took place. I erased sugar from my being. Yes, I still eat some from time to time but it does not surround me. It doesn't define who I am.
Since June of 2020, I have lost 60 lbs of what I like to call “sugar high”. My lifetime sentence of sugar has literally dissolved. My hope with this is I awake someone else to the addiction of sugar—how it can be a drug, and how hard it is to quit. I know first hand. My life is so much better now, and I can do so many more things that I couldn't do when I had all that sugar in me. I will always remember my high, and learn from it. I hope someday to be able to help others who face the same dilemma and talk them out of their personal sugar high.
Matt Sinico is the Co-op's Operations Manager. He lives with his family in Great Barrington and misses bowling at the Cove.