No thanks, I don’t eat sweets

One night about ten years ago, I made a batch of two dozen cookies cookies. They were amazing, but nobody else wanted any. So I ate almost all of them in fifteen minutes, alone in the kitchen crouching over the cookie sheet like Gollum.

I felt horrible the next day, both physically and also like “what the heck is wrong with me, who sits there and eats 20 cookies?” That led to me Googling my way to this talk:

I watched that and thought “ok, that’s that” and I stopped eating sweets. My rule is: if it tastes sweet and has added sugar, I don’t eat it. So that includes granola bars, most cereals, jelly on toast, etc. But raw fruit is OK!

Now, a decade later, I could probably count on two hands the number of bites of desserts I’ve had since then. (They were almost all because one of my kids baked something and of course I had to try it and tell him it was delicious). I know I’m missing out, but it just isn’t worth the struggle.

It makes some situations awkward at first, like not eating cake at a birthday party (GASP). But now it’s a known thing and a running joke in among family/friends. Someone will show up with cookies and tell me “oh don’t worry they’re not sweet, they’re steak cookies.”

Trying to limit sweets took enormous discipline, but cutting them out completely barely took any at all. After I made the decision, I barely had to think about it.