One of my clients sent me a Harry and David gift box. It includes all sorts of stuff that doesn't fit into my calorie plan: dark chocolate cherries, chocolate covered graham crackers, chocolate stars, cookies, cashews (my favorite nut, to make matters worse). It also includes some fruit and I thought I could at least eat that, but even it is a problem. The apples weigh in at 12 oz each (I've never seen such HUGE apples!!)--assuming only 10 oz of edible fruit, that still 150 calories for just one apple! And you can't really eat half an apple and save the other half for later. Same thing for the pears.

Since I work full-time at home, I don't have any coworkers that I can pawn this stuff off on, it's just me and my SO. He is eating the stuff, but he tends to eat it really slowly (which I guess is partly why I have a weight problem and he doesn't) and in the meantime it is just sitting around tempting me. To make matters even more depressing, he had one of the chocolate covered graham crackers the other day and felt obliged to tell me how good it was. He's normally very supportive, so I'm not sure what he was thinking (well, clearly, he wasn't thinking).

I have formulated a plan to regift this stuff in the Christmas baskets that I hand out every year to my family. Luckily my family is 2,000 miles away so I think I'm just going to ship it all out now so that I get it out of the house. I've already eaten one of the chocolate covered grahams (who can fault me after the comment from my SO) and a cookie (a moment of weakness after a glass of wine so it was doubly bad), so I've clearly got to get this stuff out of the house.

It was so exciting to get a surprise package and then so disappointing to open it to realize that I really couldn't eat most of it.

Book club? Church? Helpful friend/neighbor you need to thank for something? Take it to a nursing home and possibly brighten the day of an elderly person? Nearby fire station? Take it with you when you go to the hair salon and let the folks there share it?

Keep the apples, eat half and pitch the other half if you have to - you should get something nice from your basket. I don't mind "brown apples" so I could easily keep one half in the frig. Isn't there a trick with lemon juice to keep apples from discoloring? Keep a few cashews, they are great added to stir fries

I would have to have it out of the house immediately, no will power.

Oh, I totally feel for you. Harry and David are so decadent and I'd have an impossible time not eating them. And a whole box to yourself!! Eek! Good idea to regift it right away. I was going to suggest giving it to a group or bringing it to a pot-luck.

Give that stuff away and go out and buy a bag of Dove Dark Chocolate Promises. They are like 35 calories each and 2.5 grams of fat 1 gram of saturated and they include a lovely little fortune or words of wisdom inside on the wrapper. Plus there is an article in Prevention that deems this particular chocolate as some of the best for you in terms of antioxidants. I eat 2 pieces EVERY DAY and I've lost 65 lbs! Just make sure you don't drink milk with them it lessens the potency of the flavinoids. So you can eat dark chocolate and be ok. Trust me. You deserve a treat you can enjoy.

Split the apple in half and give half to the SO?

Good call, Libby. I myself am completely in love with the Lindt 70% cocoa bars. REALLY intense flavor, and it's not so sweet that it sets off sugar cravings.

Happy "Halloween-een", everyone!

The box is going to be packed up and shipped off tomorrow so that I can regift it at Christmas (what else is family for if not to eat the foods you want to avoid ). I've had it around the house since last Wednesday, so I think I can restrain myself for that much longer. At least this saves me some Christmas shopping time.

I love Dove chocolates but I don't trust myself with them right now; limiting myself to just one or two per day would probably be a problem. Chocolate is a real weakness for me. Thanks for saying I deserve a treat but I think the chocolate covered graham and the cookie I ate already count as my treat!

If only, but he doesn't eat fruit. I count myself lucky that I get him to eat vegetables!

The sad thing is, I don't even like apples or pears that much. I like almost any other kind of fruit you can name, just not apples and pears. In the winter, when there is a dearth of fresh fruit available, I will eat apples but I prefer Fuji or Granny Smith (and these apples don't appear to be either). Things have to get pretty desperate before I'll eat a pear. I know Harry and David are supposed to have super miraculously good fruit so maybe these will turn out to be the best apples/pears I ever had...but I'm skeptical. Alas, if only I could have gotten a bag of tangerines, a few mangos, some pluots, or heck, even some bananas!

OK, I'll stop whining about my gift box now. My mom always taught me not to look a gift horse in the mouth, so I need to just move on.

You can make applesauce with the apples. I add homemade applesauce to unsweetened oatmeal, yum.

I eat dark chocolate every day (sometimes as much as two ounces), and I've lost 50 pounds. I just make sure to keep within a certain range. And I enjoy every bite. No guilt.

I imagine you could safely eat one or two items out of that box every day and it wouldn't set you back, you just have to compensate elsewhere.

cheers,
Sue

Nutritional info is included for all the items except the cookies and these things are super high in calories. One chocolate covered cherry is 50 calories. A chocolate covered graham is 140 calories. I can only eat 1400 calories per day, so shorting myself on good food so that I can eat a chocolate covered cherry or two means that I'm going to be going hungry for a good part of the day. I have to be very careful about how I plan my calories or I end up hungry. Plus, the only thing keeping me from eating the entire bag of chocolate covered cherries all at once is the fact that I haven't opened it. Once I open it, it's over; that bag (a total of 720 calories) is toast. I might manage to drag it out over a day (maybe even two), but I know I'm not going to just eat one cherry per day. This is also why the whole bag a cashews is getting shipped out, cause I know I'd eat that whole bag (over 1600 calories) as soon as I opened it.

Nope... it's all getting shipped out today.

It's great that you can eat just a small amount of chocolate per day but I know myself and I know that I can't do it right now. I recently had a bag of trail mix in the house that had some chocolate chips in it. I went through the whole bag, something like 1600 calories, in less than two days. All I could think about throughout the day was the trail mix. I just kept thinking I would have just one more 1/4 cup (I even measured every 1/4 cup) and before I knew it, the bag was gone. I now refer to it as the "Trail Mix Incident" and I've decided it's best to not have food like this in the house. I used to be able to so maybe one day I will again, but not right now.

Wow! You have an excellent attitude! That's a great plan, to regift and get those things OUT of your sight! Congrats on your weight loss! I'm sure you'll keep it off!