Eat The Ice Cream Already!
You know you want me!
We all have a food we crave on a regular basis. And I don’t mean something “healthy” like salad. Something we want and love, but feel bad about eating. For me it’s ice cream. Something cold, creamy, and chocolaty. Preferably with ribbons and chunks of some kind. Like Phish Food, Chocolate-chocolate chip, and Moose tracks. Yum.
I’ve learned how to eat ice cream in small portions. I use the little white ramekin dishes as my ice cream bowls. And I choose an ice cream that’s rich enough that I don’t ever go back for seconds. So, why do I feel guilty for eating it?
It’s not because it’s bad for me. Hello, dark chocolate is an anti-oxidant. And I eat natural ice cream with a short list of ingredients. No mono-unnutrisized-globbins for me. If I can’t pronounce it, I don’t eat it. That’s my healthy eating rule.
But sometimes I fall prey to media pressure. Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers commercials telling us we’re all fat and we should be eating egg white omelets and plain baked chicken. I look around and feel like Everyone else is eating healthy but me. I start to feel bad, guilty, ashamed. And Everyone seems to LOVE eating healthy. They’re like “bring on the celery and kale chips, so delish!”
I really hate Everyone.
And then there’s me. I love chocolate, so I must be bad. Then the punishment begins. I throw away the ice cream I have and refuse to buy any more. I pass the freezer section completely at the grocery store. Don’t want to run the risk. The rest of the food in my cart is pretty much the same as what I always buy. Veggies, a meat, some grains. The truth is, I am naturally a pretty healthy eater. I love spinach and broccoli and seasoning with spices. I don’t like fast food or pop.
But Everyone doesn’t eat ice cream. So I go home without.
For the first few days I’m ok. I eat my dinner and have fruit or tea afterward. But, by the time the weekend rolls around all I can think about is ice cream. I eat it in my dreams. I try to calm the craving with anything sweet I can find. Hot coco, honey on toast, and a banana covered in almond butter and chocolate syrup. I know I’ve hit rock bottom when I’m dipping the baking chocolate in sugar and gnawing on the big slab.
And that’s when it hits me. I’m stuffing myself with replacements when eating the ice cream would actually be better for me. A small serving of ice cream is much healthier than half a jar of almond butter and a brick of unsweetened chocolate.
When I let myself have what I’m really craving, I’m satisfied when it’s gone. I’m not rummaging through the kitchen like a drug addict looking for my next fix.
The funny thing is when I have ice cream in the house and I know I can eat it, I don’t always want it. When it’s in the freezer it’s not a compulsion, it’s just dessert. The way it should be.
And really, who wants to be just like Everyone? Everyone is kind of lame.
What food do you crave? Do you have a sweet tooth? Does it make you feel guilty?
I love ice cream too! But like you, I felt guilty eating it. (Those darn Jenny Craig commercials!) So to battle the guilt, we buy the Skinny Cow cones and ice cream sandwiches – must less calories! My husband and I only eat it when we are together, that way I don’t get to indulge in the yummy goodness without him. And since he works 3-4 twelve hour shifts a week, it helps keep me out of the freezer and it gives us something to share that we both enjoy. Its one of “our things” now.
My other craving – salt and vinegar potato chips. Haven’t found a non-guilty fix for that one yet – but I’m working on it!
Jennifer
Now I’m to the point where I don’t feel guilty about it, and it’s such a good place to be! My aha moment that a little ice cream is fine was a big shift for me. I think it is true for most things. If you can have a handful of the chips you like, then why not. Or only buy them once a month. Everything in moderation is healthy. Cutting things out will only lead to binging in the end, I believe.
I don’t have a sweet tooth, but processed snacks are my downfall. Doritos, Ruffles, and the like. The only thing that stops me is the guilt afterwards, as you pointed out. *sigh*
But just a handful can’t hurt. Right?
Yes, Fabio, you are right. That was my point. If you don’t give your body what it really wants you’ll just eat a lot of other crap in its place. Give in to what you really want, but don’t eat the whole bag. Once it’s not off limits it won’t have power over you. Then you probably won’t crave it as often.
I totally have a sweet tooth, and like you, I indulge in small portions rather than giving it up. We use small custard cups for ice cream at our house. I find myself craving dark chocolate most often, but I only feel really guilty when I eat way too much in one sitting. There was a dark chocolate peppermint Theo bar that disappeared suspiciously fast this week…
Dark chocolate peppermint? You can’t be held responsible for that. Too good not to eat! You don’t do that everyday.
I say anything goes, as long as it is in moderation. You could feed your body celery, poached chicken and water and not exercise and you wouldn’t be any healthier than the person who sits down to a burger and fries once a week- at least that is what I think:) My sister is a dietician and fitness trainer and she and her husband LOVE chocolate. They eat it without guilt, because they know they eat plenty of healthy stuff too and they exercise. Enjoy your bowl of ice cream. I love chocolate too and I also love salt and vinegar chips with a really cold coke every once and awhile!
I’m in total agreement with you. And glad your trainer-sister would say I’m healthy!
This post made me hungry. Is three in the afternoon too early for dinner?
No way! It’s actually tea time, I believe, which always includes a snack.
I crave potatoes and bread, two things I should not be eating. And every time I take a bite of one I feel guilty. I feel like a failure. And I’m always wondering why that skinny Everyone over there never has issues with either bread or potatoes. It’s not fair darn it! Never have craved sweets, although I will admit a certain addiction to dark chocolate. As most of my friends will attest, it’s not sweet really. That’s why they hate it. More for me I say
I love dark chocolate, too! I say have the potatoes & bread, just in small doses. And let go of the guilt! That never makes us feel better & it doesn’t solve anything. We must crave things for a reason, right.
Every single tooth in my mouth is sweet!
My biggest craving is dark chocolate, but if I have just a couple of small pieces of the really good stuff – (like Ghiradelli) then it satisfies my craving. If I don’t have the good stuff, I’ll have a handful of semi-sweet chocolate chips to get me through. So I always try to have at least a bag of chocolate chips around, because if I don’t, I also (like you) try to substitute the craving with something else, and it just doesn’t work.
They do say dark chocolate in small amounts is healthy for you. Sometimes I’ll even wash it down with some red wine to be super healthy!!!
What a great strategy. You’re practically a health nut!
I definitely have a sweet tooth! And I’ve learned that if I don’t eat what I’m craving (at least a little bit) then I will eat far more calories when I try to make do with a “better” sub.
Exactly! You are right on. We need to learn to honor our cravings and just watch the portions.
I’ve never met so many dark chocolate fans in one place! We should start a club
. I do the chocolate chip thing too…I keep them in the fridge. They are soooo yummy cold 
Two great ideas! I’m going to try putting them in the fridge. We could start the Dark Chocolate Lovers Society.
Have your chocolate ice cream! I like soda, specifically coca cola. I crave it. I like chocolate covered pomegranate from Costco, so good! I feel bad buying them after a while, then I just replace it with a bunch of healthy stuff but that craving doesn’t away till I get what I want then the world is better and sweeter again
Thanks, Girl! You with Coke is like me with coffee. I really can’t go without it. But, I don’t understand why anyone would want to!
I’m with you on the ice cream! In fact – I swear I’m not making this up – I just finished a small bowl of Caribou Tracks right before I hit your blog LOL! I always remind myself that it also has lots of calcium in it too – something many of us don’t get enough of. Another thing that helps keep the guilt at bay is I use an Android app to track my daily calorie intake. If eating that bowl of ice cream doesn’t boost me over my RDA (or I’ve had several days below), I go for it!
Wow, you are very disciplined! I don’t even look at calories when I eat, let alone count them.
When I was younger, the doctors thought II was allergic to chocolate. Can you believe that? So my grandpa would bring over chocolate for my older sister and butterscotch for me. Nilla Wafers, vanilla, carmel and butterscotch for me. Strawberry Nestle’s Quick, not chocolate, strawberry. As I got older, I realized that chocolate was not my enemy. Anyway, I digress. What was the original question? Oh yes, what do I crave? Butterscotch. Takes me back to my childhood. Vanilla ice cream with butterscotch swirls. I, too, use the small ramekins so I get just enough to satisfy my craving, but not enough to feel guilty. And then I hit the gym the next day. Just don’t get me near a root beer float. Oh baby!
Wow, great minds think alike!
Oh gosh, I wish I could trust myself to just eat a little ice cream and be satisfied. But right now I’m more likely to fill my tiny bowl with some ice cream, finish it, wait 10 minutes, and then rush back to the freezer for another 2 or 3 bowls. I’m at a point where I have to cut myself off from all sugary and salty snacks since I have zilch self-control. Instead, I’m substituting in things like strawberries (to get my sugary sweet fix) and almonds, which seems to be working. Maybe later on down the line I can go back to having my yummy dark chocolate bars, but only after I can be content with 1 or 2 squares a day.
Like Everyone here apparently, I HAVE A SWEET TOOTH. For Christmas my parents got me and my sister a 2 pound bag of M&M’s and it was gone in like 2 weeks. UGH, though I do like dark chocolate more than anything. When I was 8 I hated it, now I am 14 and LOVE IT I am so like My dad
Also, I just made chocolate peanut butter cup ice cream and chcolate frozen yogurt.