Sweet Temptations

Let’s face it – if we have a weight issue – and who doesn’t these days? – it’s most often due to a lack of willpower. We tend to use food, particularly desserts, as a salve for other things going on in our lives that make us uncomfortable – things we’d rather not deal with - or forget - or gloss over with something we know we love, like food to switch our focus, if only for a moment.

Once you’ve decided to pay more attention to how much you are eating – you may decide that not having certain items in the house is the best way to battle temptation. If it’s not in the pantry or refrigerator, you can’t eat it, right?

A friend mentioned that she has bought several cupcakes with the idea that she will only eat one a day. If she can do that, keeping track of the calories, that’s great. But what is going to keep her from diving into a second one or a third or even all of them if temptation gets the best of her? Many of us wouldn’t stop at one. If we didn’t struggle with willpower, we wouldn’t be in this predicament. After the first cupcake – it would be too easy to start justifying the second one:

‘OK, so if each cupcake is X amount of calories, I’ll subtract the second one from tomorrow’s calorie count. It’s all about our total calories for the entire week, right? 3500 calories is 3500 no matter how you slice it. A pound is a pound, right?’

But you know what will happen. Tomorrow rolls around, you’re hungry for sugar – you not only don’t like the idea of subtracting last night’s cupcake from today’s calorie count, but you also don’t like the fact you won’t get today’s cupcake. And then there is the shrug-your-shoulders-and-eat-it-anyway, excuse. You only live once, right? And it’s only a cupcake for heaven’s sake.

May I offer a suggestion? Don’t buy desserts in multiples. Resist a full-sized cake or pie or a dozen donuts or anything that’s going to give you more than one serving of dessert, unless you have someone at home to share it with. You’re only making your battle with food, harder. Yes, if you can eat only one cupcake like my friend believes she will, you’ll feel proud of yourself in the morning, knowing you struggled and won the day. But how will you feel if you ‘slip’ and have two or all? You’ll probably feel physically bloated and a little ill from the sugar rush – but more importantly, you’ll risk feeling a failure – disgusted with yourself for not finding that elusive willpower. Not a good way to strengthen your resolve and be proud of what you’ve accomplished. We don’t get very far by taking two steps backward. Do yourself a favor. Buy one cupcake. Eat one cupcake. Be proud of yourself. Move on.

Candy Crush

It’s already begun. Have you noticed? It’s the Halloween candy assault going on now in discount and grocery stores. Those tasty little squares of chocolate and other bite-sized sweet tooth tweakers are all on sale in the name of stocking up in time for Trick-or-Treaters. Thing is, we’re more than a month away. What the candy companies are really counting on is your buying bags on sale now, but by the time the holiday rolls around, they’ll be gone and you’ll need more. And isn’t that just what happens? We buy them now justifying it with, “Oh, well, they’re on sale so now is the time to buy.” But we have no intention of still having that same unopened bag or bags around when the night of ghouls and goblins rolls around! In fact, I suspect some of us might not even have Trick-or-Treaters who come to our door!

We are just beginning the 6-month time frame of incredibly tempting holiday accents, and I don’t mean pumpkins. It begins with Halloween candy, moving through to the pecan and pumpkin pies of Thanksgiving, followed sharply by special once-a-year sweet treats and those family heirloom cookies of Christmas, then before you know it Valentine’s Day chocolates will be here, and finally we’ll wrap it all up with chocolate molded Bunnies and cream-filled Cadbury Eggs of Easter.

If you can buy these sweet treats ahead of time and know that you won’t be parked in the pantry or sitting in front of television mindlessly eating them, go ahead, and more power to you! There’s nothing wrong with having a couple of those for dessert after a meal, or even as a little afternoon snack. I actually keep two bags: Milky Way Midnights and Dove dark chocolates, on my pantry shelf at all times. But the idea is that they're there for that occasional something chocolate I want, not so that I go overboard and eat 72 of them in one sitting. If you have a hard time with willpower, which many of us do, and can’t afford to have a bag or bags of candy lying around for the next month, or heaven forbid already lying in an open bowl, wait to make those purchases until nearer the 31st. The candy will still be on sale, trust me, and you won’t end up pre-filled with guilt going into a challenging holiday season. I don’t believe in deprivation, but I do believe in giving yourself a break where temptation is simply too great. Know yourself. Be honest with yourself. Know what boundaries are right for you.

Some Days Are Tougher Than Others

So how did you do? Holidays are always tough. Family and friends. They compliment you on your weight loss, say you look amazing, and ask you, 'how did you do it?!" But they don't really want to see or hear about the discipline it takes, and they certainly aren't ready to hear about it if they're not willing to do it themselves. Couple that with all that homemade food staring you in the face at holiday gatherings, especially while everyone else is piling up their plates, and it's hard to turn it down. If you didn't, or if you feel you still overate, even though you tried not to, do NOT beat yourself up. Do not throw up your hands and say, "Oh what's the use." Because you know how important this is. And you can do it!

Remember that no matter what kind of food day you had yesterday, it should have no bearing on how you are going to treat today. Don't give in to the temptation that because you 'blew' it one day, that means you might as well give up. Treat every day as a new food day, get right back on your plan, write down your foods, and write down your calories. Stick to your predetermined total. Don't listen to those old tapes in your head that say you have no discipline or that everybody in your family tends to be heavy so you might as well not fight it. Don't do that to yourself. You can do something about it. You are doing something about it. You are worth doing something about it. Never forget that!

Weekend Desserts

I have friends staying with us for the weekend. For me, house guests equal cooking and baking. And baking for me usually means trying some new recipe that I've been intrigued by for some time. Extra mouths in the house, give me an excuse. Yes, I do try out new recipes on guests because it's just my husband and myself so I don't typically bake very much for just the two of us.

Anyway, this weekend I tried out a recipe for banana chocolate chip squares. I did what the recipe said which was to make them in a 10x15 jellyroll pan. The recipe also said it yielded 48 squares. It's tempting, when cutting portions that small, to go a bit larger, but no, I wanted to do it 'right' so I could then be certain of my calories. In this case, four dozen squares ends up being 110 calories each. They are small. Two bites worth. And they are incredibly moist and delicious. My guests fell all over themselves eating them.

I could 'afford' two last night for dessert. That was great. But this afternoon, with my friends and husband out of the house, I ate 4!! One right after the other. They were so yummy, I didn't want to stop and so I didn't. I also had them right after lunch, which is sooner than I would have a usual afternoon snack to get me through to dinner. This means I'm probably going to get hungry around 3p or 4p and I won't have the afternoon calories to "spend." Now, I have two choices.

I can either decide I've blown the day and eat four MORE of those little devilish squares, followed by a handful of nuts (to offset all that sweet), followed by a piece of cheese, etc., not stopping until I'm sick and feeling horrible about myself. You get the drill. Or, I can write down the 440 calories those 4 squares "cost" me, adding the number to my daily count and just keep things light this evening for dinner. The latter is what I've done and will do. It's all I really can do if I want to continue to sensibly manage my diet and weight.

By not writing down those extra calories, I would be hiding it from no one but myself. And there really is no hiding because it's going to come out on the bathroom scale and in the clothes I wear. It's important to remember that we all have weaknesses and moments of weakness. That doesn't make us bad people. It simply means we might have to work a little harder at controlling our behavior. But we can get a handle on this. We can control it. We do have a choice. Oh and one more thing to be certain, I'll be giving my guests a care package of squares to take home. That is also a good way to help control further temptation.