The other day, my son, Andrew, had a few friends sleep over and while they still were sleeping the next morning, a mom of one of the friends stopped by to drop off doughnuts for them.
I took the doughnut boxes out of the bag and put them on the kitchen table. As I placed the boxes down, I swear I heard one of the doughnuts with chocolate frosting and sprinkles speaking to me, saying, “Look how yummy I look! Please eat me right now!”
Never one to be rude, I contemplated eating the doughnut, thinking different thoughts, such as, “Hmmm … I’m trying to eat healthy today but if I eat the doughnut, I could just count it as breakfast since I haven’t eaten anything yet.”
I also thought, “If I eat a doughnut, it would just be like having two healthy breakfast bars.” And I continued to think, “Even if I eat the doughnut, I could still enter the calories in the My Fitness Pal app and maintain a healthy day if I stayed on track.”
Moments later, I was saying to my husband Bill, “mhre, mhre mhre, mhre, mhre,” which is doughnut-speak for, “Oh my Gosh! This is the best darn doughnut I’ve ever tasted!”
After eating my almost healthy breakfast, I ran a bunch of errands and did some work around the house. Around lunchtime, I walked into the kitchen to make myself a fabulous salad and on the table, I noticed one, lone chocolate frosted doughnut left over from the sleepover.
I kind of felt bad for the doughnut. Like, why was he left there when all of his frosted friends had been eaten? At this point, I thought to myself, “Well, if I eat the doughnut now, I can just count it as lunch and have a salad for dinner instead. And I can still enter it into My Fitness Pal, stay within my daily calories and consider this a pretty healthy day.”
So, for lunch, I had a doughnut, which I loved.
Later that afternoon, I went shopping and on a long, fast-paced walk with my friends Ally and Amy. It was so beautiful outside that after the walk, Ally said she wanted us all to get some frozen yogurt.
“Um, I accidentally had a doughnut for breakfast and another one for lunch, so I’ll just sit with you guys while you have yogurt,” I said.
But when we walked in the yogurt store, and I saw all the delicious-yet-low-cal flavors, I decided to get a little bit of yogurt and just count it as a healthy afternoon snack, especially since I knew I would be getting a salad for dinner.
I also limited myself to two toppings since I was trying to keep it light. That’s how healthy people think.
For dinner, we went out with friends. But I actually did have a salad, although I might have inadvertently topped it off with a few crispy onion straws and some crunchy noodles, and maybe a miniature corn muffin on the side. Some days are just like that.
And actually, those are some of my favorite days.
Susan Dubin is a freelance columnist for Pioneer Press. Reach her at gabbin@susandubin.com.
