It's That Time Of Year Once Again!

Yes, it's that time of year once again, and I'm not talking about spring. No, not spring. It's once again time for those deceptively cute little Girl Scouts, with their toothy grins, to deliver the cookies you so cavalierly ordered a few weeks ago. This annual ritual has become as entrenched in the American fabric as Mom, baseball and apple pie. Every spring is fraught with anticipation, all of us waiting for our little boxes to arrive. We all started our diets in January, and just as those of us who have stuck to them are beginning to reap some hard earned results, these tiny terrorist show up at our doors to sabotage even the most stalwart of dieters.

I guess you can tell that my personal little saboteur arrived at my door this weekend with my heavenly, delectable, down right scrumptious Thin Mints. She also delivered Bec's cookies to my house. When Bec arrived to retrieve her cookies she immediately opened them and scarfed down a couple. I smugly announced that I had tucked mine away in a safe place, and would not eat them until I had reached a certain goal in my weight loss saga, or until something really bad happened, and I needed some emotional soothing that only, my dear old friend, chocolate, could accomplish. Patsy called it a chocolate band-aid. Very good metaphor, don't you think?

Our Weight Watchers meeting was Sunday morning and Girl Scout cookies were on the agenda. Can you imagine all these chubs discussing the point value of one serving of Thin Mints? When was the last time any of them had eaten only one serving of cookies? Please! I paid no attention because I knew I would not be eating mine anytime soon.

Then the evening came, and I ate dinner, a nice low cal, low fat, appropriate portion sized dinner, and I was very satisfied with my weight loss for this week, and all was well until I started to rationalize. Oh, yes. This is my forte. I can rationalize the candy right out of a baby's mouth. In my personal values, I am unscrupulous only in this one area. Promise.

Well, here's the straight scoop. I talked to Bec and asked her for the point value of four cookies. She told me what she thought, and then I checked the nutritional information on the box, and figured it out, just to make sure. They are three delicious points per serving and four cookies equal one serving. Then I promptly ate six cookies. Yes, that's it, six of the little honkers. I sucked them down, and I don't care. It was akin to a guilty pleasure, and did I mention, I don't care? It was worth it.

Go ahead folks, it's ok. A once a year, guilty pleasure, how bad can it be? I'm still licking my lips.