Today there was an influx of pastries, sandwiches, bread, cookies and other desserts in the kitchen at work today—all day they would just keep coming!—and I felt my willpower waning as time went on. I had already planned out my calories for the day and extra snacks, not even a fiber snack bar, were not allotted to help sate my 4 p.m. snack craving.
It came hard and fast, this afternoon craving. It kept screaming at me to just have at least a piece of a cookie or a slice of a cheesecake brownie. What harm could it do? So I ate a couple of the stray mini M&Ms that had fallen off some of the cookies. I immediately wanted more.
I booked it across the street to Walgreen's and paid $1.49 for a pack of the Extra Dessert Delights gum, mint chocolate chip ice cream flavor. They also have key lime pie and strawberry shortcake. My brother’s girlfriend, Monika, told me about this wonderful product months ago but I never came across it in the stores. Thank goodness Walgreen's had some in stock.
I immediately shoved a piece in my mouth, prepared to pop another one if needed. Almost instantly my craving for something disgusting and high in calories vanished. The gum pretty much tastes just like mint chocolate chip ice cream, but the flavor doesn’t melt away with the ice cream, and this version is just five calories. I felt like a smoker shoving Nicorette gum into my mouth to stop the craving for a cigarette. Anyone who says chocolate isn’t a real addiction is wrong.
The next time I walked into the kitchen, with mini lava cakes staring at me as I approached the water cooler, I thought about grabbing a chunk of the bread sitting out next to the pasta salad to have later. Then I thought that when bread is in my possession it never lasts more than five minutes, and if I did indeed eat it, I’d ruin the taste of the delicious gum I was busy chomping on. I walked away.
I can only hope that 5 p.m. gets here sooner rather than later. I can’t be held accountable for my actions when this gum wears out!
No comments:
Post a Comment