What to do with the leftover Easter candy . . .

Posted by Heather H. | April 14, 2009 | 24 Comments

I’m sitting here eating Easter candy for breakfast. Not just Easter candy, I made sure it’s part of a complete breakfast. I had two glasses of water, a small bowl of Kix with 1% milk, a slice of double fiber toast with a tsp. of butter. Post-morning workout I often feel energized and resolved to eat well and not undo the work I just did, generally that I’ve sacrificed sleep to do.
It’s a big deal to get my body up and out, to push myself, create new limits, and get so sweaty my three-year old protests kisses when I get home saying, “Noooo, don’t kiss me; you stink; you’re too fweaty!” But I love the hard work and the many benefits it brings, so I do it.

But then the Easter baskets were sitting there, full of robin eggs, Cadbury mini-eggs, Starburst jellybeans, foil-wrapped multi-colored peanut butter or caramel filled chocolate eggs, peanut and almond m&m’s, dove chocolate bunnies . . .yes, obscene amounts of candy that my cousin, the Easter bunny, insisted on giving to us as we left her house after sharing a holiday feast together.

I popped a couple of jellybeans in my mouth. Yummy, just a couple little beans, maybe only 20 calories. An easy move, a simple little reward. Then I noticed the m&m’s and decided some chocolatey peanuts would be a good follow-up to the ultra-sweetness of the jelly bean. Right now I’m chomping on some robin eggs (I was even tempted to lick the blue one and paint my lips). Robin eggs are good . . .I haven’t had one yet this season. But I digress, what happened to my resolve? Someone stop me. Help me put the candy away or throw it out or something!

What a contrast. Making sacrifices– working hard– reaping rewards. Caving on resolve– simple decisions– fleeting pleasures.

Our lives are so full of this duality. I want to be more of the person who reluctantly got up to her alarm to work out and less of the person who is eating the candy because it’s sitting here.

How can I do that? How can we accept both parts of us and stay on the side of the fine line that lets us see our weaknesses and work to improve ourselves instead of allowing guilt, shame or disappointment to impede any progress?

Category: Daily Special, Slice of Life

Comments

24 Responses to “What to do with the leftover Easter candy . . .”

Melissa
April 14th, 2009 @ 9:08 am

The key to self-discipline? I am anxiously awating comments!

I watched my brother this weekend (who was recently diagnosed with type II diabetes) eat a plate of vegetables while we all ate an Easter brunch of Belgian waffles. He is doing it because suddenly, his life (and the quality of it) literally depends on what he puts in his mouth. I wonder if the lack of immediate and discernable consequences are part of the equation on so many things. It’s the whole giving up something good now for something great later idea.

But oh, when it’s only one little jelly bean, it can be hard.
Erin
April 14th, 2009 @ 9:29 am

Sometimes the self-discipline is in throwing the junk away. Why make yourself suffer? When I make goodies (like cake, cookies,…) I send the bulk to work with my husband. As for candy-holidays, we don’t buy very much at all for our kids, and I frequently throw some of it away. (Sometimes a mother needs to be sneaky and slowly “share” the candy with the garbage can.) When your kids are older, they won’t let you get away with that, but you still control how much comes into your house. Just place the limits and enforce it. Next year at the ward egg hunt, tell them “7 eggs only!” or whatever.

Like Melissa’s brother, you have to finally believe that your quality of life really does depend on what you do to your body. It’s true for everyone, not only those with a diagnosis.
Emily U
April 14th, 2009 @ 9:54 am

You have to throw the candy away.

It is the ONLY way to not eat it.

(Note – I do not practice what I preach).
Red
April 14th, 2009 @ 10:10 am

Mmmmm. I do love those Jelly Belly’s.

I think the key came in the last part of your question: how to keep “guilt, shame or disappointment” from impeding progress. I really think we have to be quick to forgive ourselves and move forward. Wallowing in shame over the extra Easter candy doesn’t do any good, does it? I like to arrange for positive reinforcement for myself (I try to, anyway) by putting images and ideas on my magnet board of what I am aiming for. I’m a really visual person, so these positive pictures keep me moving forward and make me happy. Tomorrow is another day.

And sometimes fleeting pleasure is okay. There are so many things we don’t do, or eat, or say when we are striving to be righteous Mormons. Sometimes (in moderation) enjoying the worthy pleasures of life is exactly what we should be doing! Enjoy some of that Easter candy! Just not all of it.
jenny
April 14th, 2009 @ 10:11 am

1. put on your swim suit.

2. turn your back to the mirror and take a picture of it.

3. tape picture to easter basket(s).

4. decide whether or not (or how many) you really want to put in your mouth…

Good luck.

(I also do not practice what I preach…)
(but wish I did)
Melissa M.
April 14th, 2009 @ 10:24 am

That taking a picture of yourself in your swimsuit idea is brutal–if I did that, I’d never eat another piece of chocolate. Just the thought of looking at my swimsuit-clad back view in a mirror makes me want to throw out all of the Easter candy and the leftover buttermilk pie and the cookies in my pantry. Immediately.
Sue
April 14th, 2009 @ 10:38 am

When I’m on top of my game, I send the candy to work with my husband…or take it over to a family with lots of children.

When I’m not, I…

(censored, to protect the guilty)

“/
bekah
April 14th, 2009 @ 11:14 am

HA! I just got back from the gym, where I am diligently trying to work off the weight from baby #4, and I grabbed a handful of jellybeans to eat while I sat down at the computer.

I am definitely the type who needs it out of the house. In the garbage. Never brought home from the store. My poor kids are always asking why we never make cookies/have FHE treats/have dessert like other people do. Because your mom has no self-control, that’s why!

And I see the parallel to other aspects of my life as well. I work really hard at not yelling at my kids, and I do so well for a while. But once the yelling begins, it is so hard to go back to a normal tone of voice. Sometimes it takes days to get it back under control. Any great ideas to nip things in the bud before they become a problem?
Emily U
April 14th, 2009 @ 11:15 am

Jenny – LOL! That’d do it, for sure.
FoxyJ
April 14th, 2009 @ 11:21 am

My mom was very anti-sugar. She used to buy one cadbury egg and cut it into little pieces so we could each have a sliver. That was our Easter treat each year. We still laugh about it. As soon as I got a job (paper route when I was 12) I started buying myself treats. I used to hoard cookies in my bedroom. I still find myself getting in cycles where I buy a lot of candy and eat it all–it makes me feel like a grownup, and treats are how I reward myself. So I’m trying to do a little better with my own kids and with myself.

I’ve found that the only way to avoid cycles of guilt and binging is to really examine my beliefs. I refuse to feel guilty for having treats–in our culture we tend to describe dessert as something ‘sinful’ or ‘indulgent’. I refuse to see it that way. We have two scheduled nights a week when we eat treats–FHE and movie night. When we have holidays I think it’s OK too. I’ve found that when I don’t feel like I’m constantly worrying about what I’m not eating (not focusing on white-knuckle self-control), I feel more relaxed and it’s easier to not go nuts when I do have treats. I also try and limit what I buy at holidays (didn’t buy any Easter candy this year) and I even sometimes throw stuff out. Anyways, this is long and rambling. I’ve found that for me it works to have some times when treats are perfectly fine and normal, so I know that it’s OK to sometimes have them and sometimes not. When I feel like it’s never OK to have them, I tend to go a little nuts.
FoxyJ
April 14th, 2009 @ 11:31 am

Bekah–I’ve found that you have to get to a place where you accept some imperfection. It’s hard to describe. But I’ve found that when I spend days thinking “don’t yell, don’t yell” it only works for a few days, max. Because I’m still focusing on yelling. Another thing that works is to create some sort of positive behavior to replace the negative one you’re trying to change. Instead of yelling, try hugging. Or counting to ten under your breath. Instead of eating treats, try jogging in place for a minute. If you don’t replace a behavior with something different, it’s not as effective.

By the way, I still yell at my kids and I still eat too many treats. But I’ve been to a few workshops about dealing with addictive behavior and those are some tips that I found worked well. I also read a great article a few years ago about ideas from animal training that could work on people (it was sort of tongue-in-cheek). One thing they talked about that is important is replacing unwanted behavior with the behavior you want.
Jenny
April 14th, 2009 @ 12:06 pm

I say, eat the candy and wake up and work out again the next day. Life is for living, and for enjoying. We can’t get hung up on feeling guilty about a passing holiday and its treats. If you were dying of a terminal illness and wanted to live your life happily until the end, wouldn’t you enjoy the jelly beans and not worry about the calories? Even if you’re not terminal, the idea is that we bask in the happiness of each day. Moderation. In all things.
m&m
April 14th, 2009 @ 12:17 pm

FoxyJ, you have some amazing wisdom, girl.

I think the ideal is to have some balance. Deprivation and self-deprication only makes you want something more, imo. Shame is a really good motivator for holding onto bad habits, because when we feel shameful, it’s really hard to feel motivated in a good, healthy, light-filled way.

But that’s a lot easier said than done.

If the self-control thing just isn’t happening, maybe you could ask your hubby to hide the stuff and pull it out for a once in a while treat. I do that for my hubby, and it seems to work pretty well. He gets his chocolate fix, but doesn’t have it staring him in the face for mindless consumption just because it’s there.
jendoop
April 14th, 2009 @ 3:15 pm

M&m you’re definately on to something, the balance. Don’t workout just to accomplish the waistline of your dreams, do it to feel alive and be healthy (jellybeans make me feel alive, especially the tastebud part of me). And Jenny has good points too, if you were on the verge of death I doubt you would care one bit about that Easter candy, in fact you’d probably sit down and shovel it down with your kids.

Today after shopping at Walmart I had thoughts on how our modern culture has made our every whim accessible. Our culture no longer induces diets, morals, modesty, etc. What I’m saying is that our grandmothers may have had help in controling their waistlines because there was no such thing as “robin eggs, Cadbury mini-eggs, Starburst jellybeans, foil-wrapped multi-colored peanut butter or caramel filled chocolate eggs, peanut and almond m&m’s, dove chocolate bunnies”. In the modern day we really have to exercise a heck of a lot of self-control!

My true confession? I came home from Walmart with Ding Dongs and Twinkies, I never buy those, I don’t know what possessed me! I worked out today too, it’s just craziness
Justine
April 14th, 2009 @ 3:37 pm

Have a Cadbury Mini-egg. They are SOO good! And if you only eat 5 of them, it’s only 40 calories or so.

I could never give it all up. I love my life too much. I love my strangely shaped body, too. It moves and carries me when I run, when I rest, when I savor those mini-eggs. I’m no size 4 (or 6 or 8), but I feel strong and healthy and I want to live a full and rich life, not one where I’m constantly stressed about calories or carbs.

Maybe I should worry more…
mormonhermitmom
April 14th, 2009 @ 3:41 pm

I’ve told my husband not to buy me chocolate anymore and I try really hard not to buy it for myself now. I echo Bekah – same here. I don’t make cookies as much anymore, to the annoyance of my children. I did sneak five pieces of Easter chocolate after dividing the 2 1b. bag amongst my children and husband equally. They got a lot more than I did so I justify that binge that way.

Now I gotta figure out where to put the exercise. Baby steps.
Kristin
April 14th, 2009 @ 6:11 pm

First off, I truly laughed out loud at jenny’s comment.

My 2 cents…“True doctrine, understood, changes attitudes and behavior. The study of the doctrines of the gospel will improve behavior quicker than a study of behavior will improve behavior.”

This is one of my favorite quotes in all the world. It was taught by President Packer.

There is plenty of doctrine out there about the body. About how it is a temple. About how jealous Satan is of it. About what a gift it is. About how to properly care for it. About the importance of agency, and maintaining that agency by shunning addictions.

Through recent experiences I have gained a firmer testimony of the importance of the body, and this has helped me to be better at getting up in the morning to run, limiting those things that ought to be limited, increasing my fruits and veggies, etc.

Do I still slip up? Sure. Don’t ask about my weekend when we went away, and I missed my Weight Watchers meeting. (What you do away from home doesn’t count, right?)

But I find that because I am now trying to treat my body better in order to be kind to myself and help myself feel the spirit better (rather than just to “be thin”), I am better able to let go when I mess up, and still take comfort in the fact that overall, I am improving.

I also try to build in some days where I am a little more free to have a treat than others. Too much deprivation definitely can lead to rebellion.

It sure is a learning process for me. I have never been good at moderation in all things, but I think I am closer than I used to be, so at least there is progress!
Tay
April 14th, 2009 @ 8:13 pm

I just try to take in as many calories as I use in a day. I’m not terribly active, so I moderate my food intake to what I need. Holidays are exceptions. And pregnancy, seeing as I’m nourishing another. But honestly, when those mini-Reese’s are in the house, they aren’t going to be around for long. Thank goodness for the Wii-Fit, right? Lots of exercise at home that way… usually…
Jennie
April 14th, 2009 @ 8:51 pm

My body is a temple. Could it perhaps be a chocolate covered one? I have two reactions. One is to throw the candy in the outdoor garbage can (with the smelly diapers.) I have been known to fish candy out of the kitchen garbage can and eat it anyway. (can you say “addict”?)

The other thing that I do is to promise the Lord that I will not eat sweets until __ (there has to be an ending date or I’ll mess up for sure.) The fact that I’ve have sincerely promised the Lord makes me extra dedicated. I had three huge bags of Easter candy sitting in my closet for three weeks and didn’t even touch the stuff.

As far as having plain-old restraint? I have no advice because my natural man is definitely an enemy to God when it comes to food. I’m such a glutton.
wendy
April 14th, 2009 @ 8:52 pm

I like the words on balance above. I have done no-sugar and no-chocolate in the past. I don’t think I will ever give them up again completely. It wasn’t hard. I even lost a fair amount of weight (no sugar lost me a pound a week for ten weeks–woohoo!). But I enjoy good treats too much, and trying to have balance works better for me in the long run. After doing the no-sugar thing, I did find it easier to be selective about what kinds of sugars I partake of. Many things are too sweet for me now, even a few years later. I ask myself if it’s calorie worthy sometimes. Dark chocolate is always calorie worthy. Jelly Beans just don’t do it for me, so they were the first to go. I didn’t even need to take a bite of a peep, and the chocolate caramel egg got one disappointed nibble. The rest went into the trash. Sometimes I overdo it on those that are “calorie worthy,” but it’s been pretty easy to say no to the less desireable candies.

Re: your current candy holdings, I suggest asking yourself if you really want it. If you throw it away, and find yourself regretting it, you can easily buy more. If you really want it, don’t guilt yourself so much. Easter only comes around once a year. There’s not a good candy holiday for a long time.

Sometimes if I let myself have a really good holiday pigout, I don’t need anymore for a long time.

Apples and oranges are good replacement snacks.

Good luck–and great post!
m&m
April 14th, 2009 @ 11:27 pm

In addition to the balance thing, I really think we each will have a little different approach on this. I really don’t think our doctrine requires sugar and treats to be completely gone in our lives — in general. But as someone takes this issue to God, the answer might be to avoid it for a while, just to show yourself that you can.

KWIM? Balance for me won’t necessarily be balance for you. Weakness for me won’t necessarily be weakness for you. My answer and approach won’t necessarily work for someone else, and vice versa.

(And my grammatical error up there is bugging me but I can’t get my puter to cut and paste so I can redeem myself. Not that you care, but I do, even though I shouldn’t.)

What was that I was saying about us each having different weaknesses?
wendy
April 15th, 2009 @ 1:54 pm

I like what you said about balance different for each of us, m&m. And even different in our own lives at different times, y’know?

p.s.–grammar schmammar
Kristin
April 15th, 2009 @ 3:40 pm

m&m, I agree that different people will find different levels of balance. Good point. I also agree that we needn’t banish treats forever. Chocolate is divine, right?

And wendy, I think you are right about that balance being different for us at different points in our lives.
Kay
April 16th, 2009 @ 1:52 pm

Seriously girl you are doing this whole chocolate thing the wrong way round. It is all a matter of perspective. Of course you feel guilty when you run and then eat chocolate, it is normal. Just reverse the equation. Eat as much chocolate as you want because it gives you energy and then go run! You will then burn off all the calories you have consumed. No problem in my book.