You know that relationship that you had in high school (or maybe college) during which you were desperately, insanely, blindly in love?
Past all judgment.
Past all hurdles.
Past all advice.
He was…… it. The end all. be all. of existence.
You had some kind of almost supernatural bond with him. You always deferred to him because you wanted him to be happy. You could have been stranded on a desert isle for years and had a grand ol’ time. You were just… connected. Not at the hip, so much… but connected in the soul.
.
And he was totally, completely, thoroughly, absolutely, and altogether horr.ib.le. for you.
You despised the hold he had over you. Felt terrible because of all the times you told yourself you were over him. Felt even worse when you would let his opinion of you become truth even though it was often false. Lived in fear that one day he would leave you… and then who would you be without him?
You loved him.
You hated him.
You… lovated him.
Heyyyy, ya like my new word?!?!
Lovate: v. to simultaneously love and hate someone or something.
Brilliant? Yes, I know.
And yes, I promise that I have a point. It’s coming. In a minute.
I spoke of “him” as a generic figure that we have all interacted with… {and shout out to my guy readers, I went with the “he” analogy cause, well, I’m a girl, but feel free to replace “he” with a “she”!} …but, in reality, this boy was a real figure in my life. A real “love”. A real emotional torture to my soul.
I went off to college far away from him, got myself a good, down home boyfriend and pretty much moved past the emotional hang up with my former lovate.
{Oooooo, look, my new word is also a noun apparently!}
And thennnnnn, my good, down home boyfriend broke up with me.
And so what did I do? I reverted back to my lovate again. Knowing that he didn’t love me. Knowing that he was terrible for my self-confidence. Knowing that nothing good would come from my running after him again.
But I did it anyway.
You see, looking back on this experience today, I thought- Wow. You would think that after a year of being without him and away from him that I would have realized what a terrible match we actually were. You would think that I would have realized by then that it would never, ever, never work and that it shouldn’t ever work. You would think that after a year I would see what I see now. that I would have laughed at the thought of returning to him. that I would have perhaps sighed a bit in sadness at the poor, confused little girl I had been.
But I so quickly slid right back into what had given me my identity for so long.
Much like I did this weekend with sugar.
Sugar. My other lovate.
I love it.
I hate it.
I love the way it tastes. I love the way it takes me away momentarily. I love the explosion of feeling on my tastebuds. I love the connection and the memories that I have with it.
I hate the way it makes my heart race. I hate the pimples that I always get. I hate that I can’t manage to have just a little. I hate that once I’ve had some I can’t stop thinking of it again.
But more than anything, I hate that I can’t seem to tell it no.
And this weekend, as I prepared on Friday night for my husband’s family birthday party, and all day Saturday… I just went back to my lovate of sugar. Even though I have found True and Lasting Love in my God… I went back to sugar.
And I hate it now. I gorged myself on it all weekend. And I felt almost entirely guiltless. I felt superior. I felt… bad. sick. sad. empty. hopeless.
I. DO. NOT. LIKE. TO. FEEL. THAT. WAY.
I realized… wait, if it took me years, and years, and years, and years to get over my first “love” so long ago… then perhaps I should expect my loveate relationship with sugar to be the same. Perhaps it IS too early in the game to even allow myself “celebrations”. Perhaps I was just asking for it by allowing myself to dive back into that so quickly.
So, I revert.
Tomorrow sugar is out again for the year. I will make one exception. On my birthday, I may have ONE PIECE of cake that my mom makes. But that’s it.
Sugar… my lovate of days past… farewell. Perhaps we shall never meet again. And… well, perhaps that is for the best.
The Covenant Diet 
Leave a comment