Eat dessert like a boss

Sorry for the longish absence! I was busy enjoying my vacation in the Smoky Mountains with family. Be jealous. 70 degrees, sunny days, and plenty of tanning on the lake. There cannot be a more heavenly place on earth.

But now I am back in California, where it is 100 degrees and miserable. And I thought So Cal was supposed to be the model for perfect weather. Lies I tell you, lies! So while I'm sitting here complaining, I thought it might be time we have a little heart-to-heart. You see, I have somewhat of a confession to make. I am cursed. Cursed with the desire to eat healthy, but the love of baking. Brownies, cookies, cupcakes, you name it, I bake it. Seriously, you should see my desserts board on Pinterest. Over 400 dessert recipes and still going strong! I love to bring my creations to parties, get-togethers, etc. and watch them rapidly disappear. It's a strange, addicting satisfaction. Check out the Reese's peanut butter trifle that I brought to my husband's work party a few months ago.

What a beauty! See that smile on my face? That's my "this is going to taste really good and everybody is going to love it" smile. But...baking has it's downfall. Mostly in the sense that I usually eat what I bake. I mean, who couldn't?! So for a long time, I struggled in knowing how to satisfy my passion for desserts, yet implement a healthy, weight-losing lifestyle. And that's when I met "French Women Don't Get Fat", the book that change my whole perspective on eating.

The author of FWDGF is all about enjoying food. She basically states that food is there for us to enjoy, not torment ourselves over! And I completely agree with her. I think one of the biggest reasons why people give up eating healthy is because they're not finding pleasure in their food. How awful! :-( And when those people get sick of having salad after salad for 3 weeks and their aching sweet tooth finally crushes their desire to be healthy, they splurge on a whole gallon of ice cream. That's why FWDGF was such a breath of fresh air for my weight loss journey. Because it taught me that although eating salads and more produce are good things, I shouldn't have to completely give up chocolate. Allright all you doubters out there- don't believe me? Allow me to blow your minds.

Moderation in all things. Yes, you can have desserts, but in small doses. FWDGF said to save eating sweets for weekends and holidays. I agree with the holidays part, but I had trouble adhering to the weekend policy. See, if I had dessert on Saturday and Sunday, about mid-way through the week, my sweet tooth ache started to kick in. And I would have to drag myself another 3-4 days before I could have something sweet again, IF I made it that far. So I changed the policy to work in my favor. I would have one dessert on the weekend and one dessert mid-way through the week. It usually worked out that I had something sweet on Sunday night (that was the night we ate with Dave's family) and then Wednesday or Thursday, when I started to crave sweetness (usually in the form of chocolate), I would have dessert again. Twice a week and it didn't hurt my waistline. It actually helped because it kept me from splurging on a whole box of Nutter-butters or brownies.

Twice a week not enough for you? In the beginning, I'll admit, it was NOT enough for me. I was used to feeding my pregnant body ice cream or cookies every night, and that was a hard habit to change. Here's are a couple of foods that helped satisfy the cravings so that I would make it to my next designated "dessert day".
-yogurt (preferably Greek0
-fruit (talk about sugar in it's healthiest form! Love me some strawberries)
-dark dark dark chocolate. I'm talking about 80% or more cocoa. It's much less fatty than milk chocolate. I usually bought a bar of Ghiradelli's and on the days that I had cravings, I would eat one small square of it. It was enough to keep my sweet tooth satisfied and I began to really like the taste!

After a while, I didn't have the sweet cravings anymore. Twice a week became enough. But then came another challenge. You see, in my church, we have these wonderful people called visiting teachers. They come and check on you every month to see how you are doing, and they usually bring some form of cookies. Also, teachers in Sunday School almost always have a treat and church activities involve dozens of people baking in the kitchen. Seriously, they should call us "the eating church". So what did I do with all these desserts coming my way? I didn't want to offend people who had baked for me, because I know what a pleasure it is to make food for others.

I came up with a rule that I call "give or pitch". The first option is "give"- you pass on your desserts to others. This especially works well when I have made a dessert that my little family of 3 cannot finish by ourselves. Say, for example, it's a 9x13 pan of brownies. If it stays in my house, I will pick at those brownies all week long until I've eaten the whole pan. So I package it up and give it to a neighbor, friend, someone I visit, etc. Most often, the desserts go to Dave's work, where I know they will get taken care of!

The other option is "pitch". Dave hates this option. He grew up in a family where they were very careful not to waste anything, especially food. Even for me, it seemed terrible to throw perfectly good brownies away. But heed these words- it is better for those brownies to waste in the trash, than to waste in your body. Like I said, I don't prefer this option, but sometimes it is necessary and I just close my eyes and do it. Actually, I kind of get a kick out of it now. It's like saying, "Hasta la vista suckers! You're not going to torture me!"

One more lesson about sweet treats from FWDGF: do NOT stock sweet treats. Exhibit A: Oreos. I have a particular weakness for Oreos. And by weakness, I mean that if I buy a pack of Oreos, it will be gone in 24 hours (and I'm not talking about gone in the trashcan). So I don't buy them when I grocery shop. I stopped buying all of those junk food items and keeping them around my house. That way, when I'm looking for something to eat, I'm not tempted by them. If they aren't there, I can't eat them. And if I can't eat them, I eat something that's better for me (again, yay for fruit!).

So all you doubters, did I turn you into believers? I hope so! I have implemented these little rules into my life and I don't regret it one little bit. I'm at a healthy weight and still eating chocolate. Can't get any better than that!

Boring scientific note: You know that metabolism is taking ingredients and turning it into energy, right? Those ingredients are basically sugar, fat, or protein. Sugar, called glucose, is what your body needs to create energy. And essentially the more energy you need and spend, the more weight you're losing. But what happens when you have lots of glucose and you're not spending the energy? Well your body learns pretty quickly that you're not spending that energy, so it starts sending the sugar to be stored, instead of used and metabolized. The body is an amazing wonderful thing. It can actually take sugar and turn it into another ingredient. What an incredible feat!! So when you continue to store all this glucose/sugar that you're eating, your body says, "Well, we need to make room for all this glucose. Let's turn it into fat". So that's why too much sugar is harmful to your body. Because it turns into fat that just sits there, instead of being used to create energy.