When I stopped off at Walgreen's on the way home from work yesterday, I saw that they had their Easter chocolates half off! Wow! My kids would love some chocolate *wink! wink!*. So I bought them three chocolate Easter bunnies and one chocolate bunny filled with caramel. They'd (read: I'd) really love that last one.

Sure enough, the kids only ate one bunny (they're still small children), leaving four and - surprise - I got a bad case of the munchies that evening after I had eaten most of my calories for the day. I don't know - something suddenly happened to my willpower. I wound up eating some of the caramel-filled bunny, along with an entire solid-chocolate bunny. Then instead of eating just one of my York Peppermint Patty's before bed (as if eating all that chocolate didn't count), I ate three. And some more of the dinner chicken. Yeah, I had gained an extra pound this morning.

So - what have I learned? How do I prevent this from happening again? If I'm going to bring the kids home something tasty and off-limits, I should only get enough so that there's nothing left over when they're done. Or either get them something that I'm not crazy about and which my (evidently) shaky willpower can withstand.

Live and learn. Back on the wagon.

The half off easter chocolate was calling to me this morning at the grocery store too. I managed to get away with just looking at it and leaving it in the store, otherwise I'm sure it would not just be the kids eating it.

The extra lb is probably extra water and food in your body as much as anything else, if that's any consolation.

The end of your post says it all: LIVE & LEARN. BACK ON THE WAGON.

In the future, maybe don't get anything for the kids that would tempt you...? How about teaching the kids that fruits and nuts are BETTER TREATS than a bunch of chocolate with caramel, etc? Doing good for yourself while at the same time teaching your kids good eating habits ... what could be better?

You snagged, you didn't fail!! We all have our cheats, bad days, bad ideas, bad purchases...mine was velveeta shells and cheese last week -oops. But exactly what you said, Live and Learn, Get Back on the Wagon!

Screw ups happen, the only failure would be giving up - and you aren't doing that!

First of all, failure means giving up forever. It doesn't mean experiencing a situation that didn't go very well. Don't be hard on yourself!

Second, I guess one question would be why you bought that candy in the first place... why do kids need all that stuff? My personal view (and really, this is just the way I see things, I'm not judging anyone for thinking differently) kids don't need so much junk food. Sure, a piece of cake at a birthday party is fine, and maybe a small chocolate Easter bunny on Easter. But why should it be a regular thing? Why train your kids to expect junk food on a regular basis? It should be a special thing, not something they have just because it's on sale. My two cents.

As for your chocolate bunny meltdown, remember that humans only have so much willpower at any given time. If you have a history of overeating candy, you can't expect yourself to be good and strong and perfect around candy, at least not for very long, and not without building up some resistance to it first (a little bit at a time, baby steps). Bringing a caramel-filled chocolate bunny into your home and keeping it around you... that's the kind of torture I don't think you need right now.

Losing weight is hard enough without the self-sabotage... if you're in an active weight loss phase, now is not the time to test yourself. Maybe that's something you can work on after you've been in maintenance for a while, and have stabilized your eating overall.

Again, my two cents

That's right, bringing trigger foods into the home is self-sabotage and self-torture ...


Heck, none of us do; big kids or little kiddies. Easter is over already ...


OP ~ kudos to you, for learning from this "slip" and jumping right back on the wagon again ...

I keep the off limits stuff somewhere out of my normal sphere of life. Now my kids are older so that makes it easier but even if my youngest asks me for ice cream, he brings it up from the basement fridge and returns it there immediately. Out of sight, out of mind works really well for me!

It happens and it's a learning process. It's a practice. You're looking at this as a learning experience and, for me at least, that's half the battle!