What’s your favorite candy?

Once upon a time, I used to be a chocoholic. Thinking back on life, perhaps I was craving happiness rather than food. I gave up on ice cream when I was a teenager and worried about the comments I got from other teens at school, but I was always active and I was never ever large. I played basketball for a couple of years and was always into tenpin bowling. I did a lot of junior tournaments in tenpin and got to the stage where I was at my peak performance as an adult in 2003. I’d just had my second baby and I was winning big tournaments and matches.

There was a Queensland State Masters tournament in 2003 where I bowled many matches to win the tournament at two o’clock in the morning. When I started to feel tired, my Dad who was my coach back then would grab me an instant coffee and a chocolate bar. I must have had about 10 in the night and bowled about 17 individual games.

Cadbury dairy milk was my go to back then and I still like it better than some of the other generic chocolates that you get at Easter time. I also liked Caramilk before it came back a few years ago and went viral. M&Ms were pretty yummy but skittles were always way better. It’s funny, my son who I was breastfeeding at the time when I ate the most chocolate during my sporting career hates chocolate now. He will have a little bit every now and then but mostly declines the offer politely.

These days my tastes have changed. I rarely eat any chocolate or lollies. I developed diabetes as a side effect from medication for my thyroid autoimmune disease and also stopped my sporting participation. I still like to walk but I don’t do any competitive sports as I had life get in the way. First there was a university degree I undertook to improve my life, then there were cardiac problems in my third pregnancy, and then there was the pandemic, losing my job, and an interstate relocation when I started my new career as an accountant.

I did try to get back into a regular weekly tenpin bowling league but the night I wanted to bowl did not have any vacancies. Then my husband developed cancer and I cared for him throughout his treatments and surgeries for two years before he passed away last month.

Perhaps this is the year of Katie. I should take back my life and design it in a way that makes me happy, gets me out of the house and active again, and brings me around people who will encourage me to achieve sporting and personal greatness again. I know I would really like the social aspect of being in team sports again and it would improve my overall health and wellbeing.

How about that? A daily prompt about candy has brought about goal setting and self-improvement! I also still don’t want to eat candy or chocolate. I am a sucker for carrot cake or apple crumble though… bring on the fruit and vegetables! Life is always happier with a little bit of dessert in moderation.

I’ve really enjoyed writing in a lighter tone tonight. It is good to be back blogging and I feel my mood lighten with every word written. Going through the pain and trauma of Steve’s cancer journey has meant I need to do a lot of processing and the writing has been very healing for me. Tomorrow I will continue to do more around the house and attempt to mow the yard if the rain stays away, but for tonight, I will leave you with this quote:

“Food for the body is not enough. There must be food for the soul.”

Dorothy Day

Until tomorrow, KT18Ø.