Something Sweet…Every now and then, I just have to. So I tried a new product last week: 1-2-3 Gluten Free Chewy Chipless Cookie Mix. www.123glutenfree.com .





Since it’s a chipless product, I threw in a bag of mint chocolate chips that had been in the pantry for months and were just begging for a purpose. The combination was DIVINE.  And by that I don’t mean the cookies were OK for a gluten-free product. The 16-year-old food critic of the house who’s not gluten-free declared them the best chocolate chip cookies he’s ever had. Further evidence that eating gluten-free is not a punishment, but rather, a pleasure. 





And speaking of pleasure (one of my favorite topics), part of how I’m maintaining a 185-pound weight drop includes retooling my definition of pleasure.  These cookies were fairly good sized so I had one.  I was clear about the purpose of the cookie:  a little psychological pleasure. And make no mistake, it’s an essential element of life. Just ask any chronic yo-yo dieter if you don’t believe me. 





But the operative word here is a little pleasure.  I ate the cookie with focus and awareness, enjoying every crumb. Four years ago, my definition of pleasure was to eat as much as I wanted of a good-tasting food and it effortlessly spiraled into a way of life for me that felt normal. It was also a custom that got me into a bit of a pickle physically. 





So yesterday, instead of half a batch of these little gems, I ate one. Something I’ve learned in all this:  the freezer is my FRIEND!  I’m now the queen of squirreling away a surplus of Almond Meringue Cookies or slices of gluten-free chocolate cake. It’s wonderful to have them lying in wait at my disposal when the mood for pleasure (not to be confused with numbing out and escaping) strikes me. 





These lengths I go to may sound time-consuming and elaborate but they’re really not.  Like anything else, if I do it over and over it becomes…you guessed it…a habit!  And I do it because I want to keep my current wardrobe. And because it’s so much easier to move around the world (and staircases and the back seat of a two-door Hyundai) if I eat for one and not seven. So now, smaller, more strategically applied forms of pleasure it is. Believe me, it’s a very fair trade.





Bon Appetit!