It's the Little Things...

It seems like every store I go into this season is trying to lure me to buy something with the promise of a sweet nibble at the register. I've seen it now in several stores, the latest one being Pottery Barn Kids (where I have totally bought into the idea that my child might end up torturing kittens one day if we don't prove our undying love to him with a personalized Anywhere Chair this holiday season--but this is a topic for another blog).

This morning as Husband and I exited PBK empty-handed (apparently everyone else also NEEDS this particular chair), we stumbled across a bowl of assorted chocolatey treats and I was faced with my first real temptation of the week. It is easy for me to walk past a bowl of hard candy. I'll eat a Wherthers or a peppermint if pressed (you know, by those gangs of roving peppermint pushers), but they aren't really something I find myself lusting after.
Chocolate, however, is a different story. Like most women (I hate to be so unoriginal), I share a certain connection with chocolate that to be umbilical in nature. I must have an entire section of the brain (the Happy-thalamus, perhaps) that thrives on the stuff and that part of the brain is apparently quite the addict.

So to see an entire bowl of mini hersey's and reeses peanut butter cups just sitting there for the taking....well, it was an ordeal of epic proportions for me, as hyperbolic as that sounds. It's easier, in my opinion, to turn down the giant slab of chocolate cake than it is to turn down a little, seemingly harmless, peanut butter cup. I tell myself, "eh, it's just one little piece of chocolate; I shouldn't always be denying myself, right? I mean, if I never let myself have any chocolate, I will end up just binging on it one day anyway! So I should definitely, definitely have this piece of chocolate."

The problem with that isn't the logic behind it. Of course it's good to treat yourself, on occasion, to the treat that is your passion. Everything in moderation is a fine way to live, no doubt. The problem is, I say that to myself EVERY.SINGLE.TIME I come across a piece of chocolate. So it's a flawed rationale because I am using it as an excuse to constantly eat that small piece of chocolate. And when you eat 3-4 small pieces of chocolate, my friend, you may as well have had that giant slab of cake.

Today, though, I took a deep breath and walked past the bowl of chocolate. And I actually feel kind of good about it. I know it doesn't mean that the numbers will necessarily be lower the next time I step on the scale, but I do know it means I took one little step to make sure they aren't higher...