My Relationship With The Lemon Cookie In The Kitchen
Food relationships. Most women have them. It seems less true for men, based on anecdotal discussions about weight loss, but I’m sure some do. I just entered into a relationship with a lemon cookie at the office. It was a tumultuous affair…
It all began when I walked in to the kitchen to get some salad for lunch. There they were, the cookies. Now normally I do pretty well in the face of temptation. I can resist a brownie, some candy, a pastry, but lemon cookies? Eek. The only thing worse would be a lemon bar. I love the crisp, cool flavor of a citrus dessert. So there it was…beckoning salaciously…tempting me with its carnal scent. I retreated back to my desk, waiting until others were around, knowing I’d be less likely to dive into dietary turpitude in front of others, relying on peer pressure to help me resist. Then I loaded up on salad and went back to work. And yet periodically a sense of prurience permeated through the office. Was it just me? I found myself waiting, hoping someone else would grab it. Devour it. Save me from myself. PLEASE. All afternoon, this back and forth flirtation until… at 4 PM we did it. We hooked up. Nooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!
So, now what? Time to calculate the damage. From a quick online search, it seems that single lemon cookie may have put me back anywhere from 80 – 150 calories. Could have been worse, I suppose. Now its time to balance my nutritional checkbook and erase that indulgence. I did a quick check on how to burn 100 calories (http://bit.ly/N0TeXF) and decided to double the required exercise as it was a pretty generously sized cookie. To burn 200 calories would require 22 minutes of stair walking. Suddenly, my lascivious lemon indulgence didn’t seem so bad. I can do this! Alternatives for paying back the calorie debt also included 46 minutes of casual bike riding, 16 minutes on the elliptical, 40 minutes of walking, or even 40 minutes of dancing around my living room. It was W.T.C. after all! (Worth The Calories, as opposed to most desserts which are N.W.T.C. or Not Worth The Calories.)
So remember this friends…when you are tempted by an irresistible treat and you enter into a relationship with a piece of food that tempts you to your core, it IS okay to indulge as long as you pay back your calorie debt. Just don’t make this sort of treat a daily occurrence and you’ll survive the occasional tryst.
