How Many Pieces of Chocolate Cake Does it Take to Stop a Craving?

This is the time of year of candy and egg nog, cinnamon buns and roasted nuts, and all the trimmings that go along with the festivities of the holidays.  There are the ubiquitous dinners with family and friends; special outings that invariably include restaurant fare; even TV shows that magnify the emphasis on the goodies of the season.  I am as feeble as the next person.  And as tempted.  And I do indulge.  For instance, a couple of weeks ago, some friends invited us to travel with them to their campgrounds two hours away.  Before getting there, we stopped at a very famous Southern breakfast buffet that was decked out with all the trimmings for the holidays, including French Toast, cheese grits, peach cobbler - you know the kind.  By the time we got up, we could barely get behind the wheel to continue the journey.  At the campgrounds, after visiting for a while, drinking some wine spritzers, we sat down under the old oak trees for a holiday feast, complete with spareribs, baked beans, three different pies, deviled eggs, and fresh bread.  Well, you can only imagine!

Last Friday, our Toastmasters group met for our annual holiday get-together.  We met at a local restaurant with live music and karaoke, not unlike our weekly meetings, except much more relaxed by virtue of the endless sangria that we indulged in.  Oh, yes, there was also flan and tres leches!

In a couple of days, there is another party being given by yet another entity at a hotel, and I am told those parties are "to die for."  I can't wait.  It seems holidays can't exist without some kind of goodies to celebrate.  I wonder what we're celebrating.  The holidays are supposed to represent (a) celebratory harvest meal among the Indians and Pilgrims; and (b) the birth of Jesus.  Hmm.  I don't find a single reference to chocolate cake, egg nog or peach cobblers in there!

So, I ask you - how many such celebrations does it take? How long before you understand that the taste and pleasure you get from these festivities are temporary and illusory, to be replaced by disproportionately more guilt feelings and struggles to shed those extra pounds? Does it mean that you shouldn't indulge? Of course not.  It means that you should keep your head.