DON'T-Nuts

I'm so excited and I've got so much to blog about, but I'm going to take it one breath at a time. I don't want to overload my readers (not sure there really are any, but thinking you may be out there keeps me honest) and I need to pace myself.

Today's topic: Donuts.

For anyone who may not know, donuts are my weakness. And, for purposes of this discussion, let's also throw Twinkies and Little Debbie's in the donut category too. I've gone 10 months without a donut before, but the fact that I even kept track of how long it had been, speaks volumes.

One weekend in the summer of 2006, Tony came in from the garage, holding a mostly empty box of donuts with a weird look on his face. He stood there for what seemed like forever, just looking at the box. Then, looked at me and asked, "April, what is this?" My stomach dropped. He'd found my stash that I kept in my trunk. That particular box was one of two that I bought the week prior. I'd had a bad day at work, so I went home for lunch, stopping by the store first. I had a box of the mini white powdered donuts for lunch and one normal sized cinnamon one for dessert. The rest went in the trunk for an occasional nibble. It wasn't the first time I'd resorted to hiding them, but I knew this would be the last.

That's when I marched myself to Weight Watchers and changed my life – no donuts = 54 pounds gone.

But what do you do when the donuts don't go away? I'm 9 pounds from my getting back to my goal weight and no matter what I do, people still keep making, promoting and selling those things!

Last Wednesday, I was having a really rough day at work and instead of dealing with the issue, I casually took a walk. Instead of just walking around the building, I found myself at Starbucks. When they asked me what I wanted, I heard myself say, without hesitation, "Two apple fritters." I planned to save one, but we all know that I didn't. And, I felt pretty ill afterwards. One apple fritter is 11 points. In a world where my points target is 20….*sigh*

I thought my best bet would be to stay away from donuts forever – stop cold turkey – and I had a good streak. BUT, I ask again "What do you do when the donuts don't go away?!" I have to coexist in this world with them and clearly, denying myself only leads to binging. Then, I saw the photo above. I'll blog next about where I found it, but it changed my world.

"They're not called DON'T-Nuts!"

So, I decided to set up guidelines. As a reward for losing weight, on Monday mornings, I will by ONE Top Pot apple fritter from Starbucks. I will cut it into five pieces and each day, slowly enjoy that piece with my coffee and record 2 points a day. Now that they're not out of bounds, my prediction is that I will tire of this practice, but we'll see…..

"mmmmmm…..d.o.n.u.t.s….." – Homer Simpson