Produced by the ilab at WbUr Boston.
The universe has good news for the lost, lonely and heartsick.
The sugars are here speaking straight into your ears.
I'm Steve Almond.
I'm Cheryl strayed.
This is dear sugars.
Oh, dear.
So won't you please share some little sweetness with me?
I check my bell eyes every day oh, and the sugar you see in my way.
Dear sugars, I've been on and off diets for 25 years.
I don't think I can string two days together when I was not starting a diet.
Thinking about starting a diet on a diet or falling off the wagon.
The goal of my first diet was to fit into a pair of guest jeans.
I was in fifth or 6th grade at the time of that first diet, and guest jeans were popular.
I'd fantasize about buying the jeans and wearing them to school with my shirt tucked in so that all of the kids could see the symbol on my back pocket.
I never lost enough weight to buy those jeans.
Over time, they became a symbol of what losing weight would feel and look like for me.
Guest jeans turned into a new basketball uniform to play on the team in junior high.
New jeans for my first day of college or a whole new me for law school.
After 25 years of dieting, I feel like an accidental expert.