Monday, December 8, 2008

Time for a Sweet Tooth Extraction!

My dad is one of my heros. I would LOVE to inherit a lot of his attributes - his amazing patience, his ability to keep his cool (I can count on one hand the number of times I have heard him yell, and both times it involved me sassing my mom as a teenager), his abilty to be friendly to anyone with a heartbeat...However, though I will probably be striving for those attributes into the eternities, the one thing I inherited from my dad that is already well developed is a sweet tooth.

Now, I don't know how bad it is for my dad, but as far as my sweet tooth you need to know what I am talking about. Most of you who know my love for fitness might not even know or suspect this about me. But I don't have just a "having a hankering for sweets on the every few days" type sweet tooth. No, I mean that "I would literally be happy having sweets for every meal of the day as well as my two snacks" type sweet tooth. I love them. They hypnotize me into wanting them constantly, and of course not just one bite.

So, I am declairing war! I am afraid Nathan has inherited my sweet tooth gene and has become an unfortunate mini-me, wanting something sweet all day long. I know these types of resolutions don't usually come mid December, but it is something that is already over due. Carpe Diem - the time is now!

I have seen enough dieting to know that absolute removal of any one food group or making a food "forbidden" (da-da-don!) is not wise and can often lead to over indulgence. So, the new Michaelis family standard is that we will have sweets once a week (typically on Monday night for FHE treats), and on birthdays and holidays. Matt and Carter probably won't notice any difference, but if you see Nathan and I looking a little shaky or seeing just down right cranky, you will know it's just from chocolate withdrawls.

There is something suspiciously wrong with food that does nothing to satiate your hunger (as food is for), but only whets your appetite for MORE. So, for most of the week, I am boycotting it! And if goodies come our way, no problem - we will just freeze them until next FHE treat (my mom was the QUEEN of freezing - you can freeze almost anything). But, don't be offended if I turn sweets down or ask for them to go.

I am going public with this so I have to do it. Feel free to bug me about it, stare at me as I go through an appetizer/dessert line. Please do so I know YOU know of my resolve and our resolve as a family.

Now the real question is...is there a tooth fairy for extracted sweet tooths?

5 comments:

Callie said...

Wow!! You are amazing! I could never commit to something like this (I'm constantly sneaking chocolate chips like every couple of hours!) Can I bring you chips and salsa or something for a holiday treat?!

Christine said...

Well I am glad to know you do have weaknesses Miss Autumn, becuase pretty much you're good at everything you do and I am just in awe at you girl! And your little Caroling performace was the CUTEST thing in the world! SEriously I love that you did that! NO ONE ever carols these days so I'm so glad you resurrected that wonderful tradition that I can only wish my little family will do one day! And the kids were so great at singing and shaking the little bell...watch out Van Trap Family Singers here comes Michaelis' Melodic Messengers! And I want to adopt your sweet tooth resolution cause this time of year is SOOOOOOO hard to keep from indulging in sweets all day long! So I will be watching you...and trying my best to follow suite. So does that mean you are banning things like fruit snacks as well? Or just candy, cookies, etc.? I don't know if we could survive without a few essential kid snacks. But I did take candy away from Marcus for a week after Halloween and it was great! And I hadn't had candy for a month until I went to that darn cookie exchange and then I just had to try one of each! So i really do want to try again. Ok enough of me but seriously thanks again and what a great idea with the chips and salsa...we all get way to much of the other sweet crap that its refreshing to hvae somthing salty! Now I'm questioning my idea for neighborhood oreo treats!?!

SevenVillageIdiarts said...

OK, WOW, what a good resolve. I've often though I'd like to do the same, but never followed through. I will think on this one.

Secondly, I LOVED the salsa and we ate it right after you left, so you should have brought it in a trough instead of all nicely wrapped! ha, ha. . . Thanks!

BeantownFam said...

Well, Autumn, I totally can relate. I'm a dietitan with a sweet tooth just like yours, and that just sets me up for feelings of guilt all the time. I have made a tradition with the last month of two of my pregnancies of not having desserts or sweets so I don't produce a mammoth baby...this time around it has been much harder to stick to. But, the best thing I did was to tell people about it because I am shamed into following it. (I even worry that someone will catch me in the Costco sampling something I said I wouldn't eat!) Anyway, I'm proud of you and good luck!

Kristi said...

I thought that I had already left a comment, guess not.
Well, after today I am ALMOST ready to join in your quest to omit the sugar.
I too ate your salsa right after you guys left. We went to DQ after our lesson, but I just ate the chips and salsa. They were super duper yummy. Thank you so much.
As for today, I made poor choices. I almost feel like I am not responsible enough to make my own food choices. I need a mom telling me when I have had enough like I do with my kids.