I'm a cookie monster too! I can't have an open packet in the house - an open packet is an empty packet!

Recently DH brought home the tail end of a packet of chocolate digestives that had all melted and stuck together, there were about 4 in the bottom of the packet. He said we could bash them up and put them on ice cream... Well they didn't even get that far since I nibbled a little bit at a time, and a little bit, and another little broken off bit... till... the packet was empty. *sigh* I really can't have an open packet in the house. I don't mind buying them for DH since I send a whole sealed packet with him to work. I can cope by thinking they're HIS but oh lordy, put cookies in front of me....

I was even thinking the other day, if someone asked me to look after an open packet of cookies, and that they'd counted them, and that I wasn't to eat them. Would I be able to do it? Probably not! I'd probably lie and say they miscounted!

I'm going to stay with Mum and Dad this weekend - the home of the biscuit tin! I'm going to lock it in the shed!

Ya just had to go there dintcha?

Hello, my name is Gina and I'm a cookie-holic......

Actually store bought I can take or leave...homemade? One side or a leg off... I stay away unless the amount available is finite....and small.

Tinned shortbread cookies were the trigger for a 3 month descent into bingeing h#!! for me last year. I haven't really baked in 5 years except for my husband's annual birthday cake (ds wants his from the local VERY GOOD French bakery) and I don't plan to start again. The upside is that my 16 year old son has learned to bake
his own cookies from scratch and even cleans up If he makes them, I won't eat them.

Since discovered that I'm gluten sensitive, I've found another reason to stay away from baked goods. I always knew that they bloated me beyond reason and that I ate them beyond reason. Knowing why has really helped my not want them. Now if I could just find a reason to avoid nuts!

Mel

That's me with chocolate. I can eat a smallish chocolate bar and be satisfied. But I can't eat half a big bar, I just have to finish it off.

At the moment I'm struggling. I got given a gorgeous box of chocolates by a client, and I really want to eat them (sensibly). Calorie wise I could eat one or two per day between now and christmas and not have to adjust things too much to cope with it. They would be worth it. But I know that once they're open I won't just eat one or two a day. Absolutely no chance.

I want a mature relationship with that box of chocolates, but I just can't trust myself with them. At the moment they're staying in their sealed box, inside a bag where I can't see them (even though the bag has the name of the shop on it doesn't set me off). I'm trying to think of a way to make myself eat them slowly, but I just can't work it out.

Possible options, Helen:

1. Regift immediately. My recent solution for a package of chocolate mint cookies I got for Christmas from a coworker - I included them in a package for my "adopt an elderly" person for the holidays, hopefully she will appreciate them.
2. Open package, take out 2, immediately take package to coworker and tell her/him they are in charge of distribution. If you want candy, you have to go ask for it (hopefully, they will keep it in a desk drawer you just can't go shamelessly pawing around in). This method worked great for me a few holidays ago when I got a wonderful bag of truffles for Christmas, a friendly coworker helped me eat them in a reasonable fashion (they lasted until Easter IIRC)
3. Bring them with you to a party/meeting/event. I have a very hard time being eating badly in front of an audience. I would only be able to eat 1-2 pieces while "under observation". Share them with other attendees and refuse to take any remainder at the end of the meeting.
4. Open the box, grab some baggies and individually wrap 2 candies per bag. Seal bags snugly (make it kind of a pain to get into). Store out of sight, allow one baggie a day (keeping it out of sight is key for me). This works for me at home with cold cereal (which I adore and would eat way too much if it weren't measured).

Make a promise to yourself that if any of your "mature" options fail and you start to eat more than you want, you will immediately pitch the box/give the rest away.

Ok, it is all cookies and not just sugar and shortbread. The agony! They were so good.

I had to make a public declaration in front of 3 people that I was NOT eating any more. And I didn't because I don't want to look like a total lying wuss in front of my co-workers. "Only" 4. Sigh.

I wonder if the cookie detox at the major cookie holiday of the year no less is the reason I've been so irritable lately?

Helen, I like the way you put the 'mature relationship'. Glory has some great suggestions. I'm not sure I have any other good ideas, unless you have any really long runs planned sometime soon. The one bright side of overdoing sweets for me is that I run beautifully the next day. Not exactly mature though. In fact, pretty darn childish.

Anne

I haven't made any cookies yet and the natives are getting restless!

SIL's shortbread, made from a recipe that's old ... and really good. I only had two and coffee cake with cranberries in.

I feel you guys. Sigh. I LOVE cookies.. they're like my trademark. I don't buy store bought because to me they aren't as good as homemade. If I bake them.. agh I could eat the whole pan. I haven't had cookies in a long time though and haven't found myself wanting them.. -phew-. I amazingly don't have a problem with chips or such because I don't find them filling at all. I do like the taste of cheetos, but I rarely have them. Sweets are my big problem and the reason why I gained half my weight back.

Hi Pixie! I'm just like you with cookies -- the original Cookie Monster. They used to be my trademark too, when I'd make 17 kinds at Christmas every year (and eat large quantities of each of the 17 kinds )

I still bake for DH and holidays, but it's much less often. And it's still a trial for me, but so long as I don't have the first cookie, I'm usually OK and won't eat a dozen.

It's funny, but it seems like people are either "sweets" people or "salty, crunchy" people. You and I are sweets people and chips don't bother us. Others can have cookies in the house and it's nothing, but a bag of Cheetos ... !

I guess it's a case of know your enemy and be prepared.

BTW, I still crack up at Anne's post three above this one in the thread.

Hello, I'm Heather, and I'm a sweets person.

I will let myself have a cookie or a brownie out of the house from time to time, but I do best when it's the LAST one on the plate. otherwise--

Luckily, I can keep dark chocolate in the house and not go crazy on it!!

I'm fortunate in that I don't have to bake for a lot of events -- so I can keep the temptations out of the house a little easier. But for those of you who bake, are the events you bake for ones that really do require cookies or brownies? Or can you come up with other substitutes? Baking cookies I can't/won't eat sounds like torture to me!!

Ah, DH is lactose intolerant AND picky, so I'm the designated baker. No store-bought substitutions possible. But honestly, I'm so used to saying NO to myself that cookies are just one more NO. I'm OK so long as I don't eat the first one -- and I constantly have to remind myself of that fact!

You know, I'm still have that week in #23 over and over and over again.

Unfortunately I have both the sweet and the salty genes. Sigh.

Anne

Anne, I like the sweet and the salty too. I have a real problem with salt & vinegar chips; I do a terrible job of being moderate with them. Once chips are in the house, I have a very hard time staying away from them.

But I really love home-baked goods in a deep, passionate and perhaps slightly less compulsive way. I love to bake, too. I actually believe that chocolately baked goods are at least half the reason I got fat in the first place (the other half being an excessive dependence on rice, pasta and potatoes as the basis of my meals). We'd bake cookies or brownies in the evenings all the time, and eat three washed down with big glasses of milk. I calculated the calories in my favorite choc-chip cookies once--something like 350 calories apiece! 1050 cals in cookies right before bed is not, it turns out, good for the waistline