Rationalization and Talking to Myself

It’s funny how humans rationalize things for themselves. Or maybe it’s just me?

I watch what I eat.

I watch what I eat only so I can smack your hand if you try to take any of it! Ha! No, just kidding, I watch what I eat in order to try to lose and/or maintain my weight. I always have, it’s a curse that I was born short so there’s not a lot of room for the weight to spread itself out. Trust me; if I were 5 foot 6 inches tall I’d be svelte and sleek! Like a panther! Ha again!

Being that I watch what I eat I bought this box of Mini Ice Cream Drumsticks.

Photo Credit - Nestles

I love Drumsticks, the crunchy peanuts that go everywhere when you pull it out of the wrapper, the yummy hard chocolate coating, and the creamy vanilla ice cream and then the luscious sugary cookie cone that you can munch on to the end. But as much as I love them, I don’t love the carbs and sugar in them.

I try…mind you I said I TRY, to keep my carbs in check and not eat more than 20 to 25 per day. One regular size drumstick has 33 grams of carbs in it. That means if I ate just one regular size drumstick I couldn't eat anymore carbs for the rest of the day!!!

But these yummy mini drumsticks have 18 grams of carbs per each one. So I rationalized to myself that it wouldn't kill me to eat just one mini one, as a treat, one in a while. Right?

So I bought the box.

 Last night I went to eat one and didn't realize the box has both the chocolate fudge and the vanilla caramel in them. I’m not a big fan of chocolate and even less of fudge so when I took the wrapper off and found out it was the fudge one I was bummed out. But I hate to be wasteful so I told myself, “Self, eat the fudge one today, it’s already open and you don’t want to be wasteful, tomorrow you can eat the vanilla caramel one!” So I ate it.

Photo Credit - Nestles

It was good, but it wasn't vanilla caramel good. An hour or so later, I started talking to myself again and said, “Self, it wasn't your fault that you didn't realize it was a variety pack. You don’t like chocolate, but you were a good girl to not waste it and throw it away, you deserve the vanilla caramel which is what you originally wanted, so be good to yourself, get the vanilla caramel one!” So I did!

Photo Credit - Nestles

And here’s why I need to have a guard with me 24/7 so that I have someone to talk to other than myself because I again started talking to myself, or my SELF started talking to me and it said “Self, you know if you had eaten a regular drumstick it would have been the size of three mini ones, so if you eat one more mini one it’s almost like you just ate a regular drumstick and then don’t eat anymore for the rest of the week!” My SELF needs to gain some SELF control…hahaha! Because I ate a third one! And I have only my SELF to blame!

 

Birthday Goodies - Low Carb Style

I've been trying to post more often, ok…not really! What I've been doing is telling myself to try to post more often.

My sister and I use my blog oftentimes as a history of what we've done in the past and what day and where we went and what we did and what we served as food or what someone served us. But in the past year or so I haven’t been posting as I should and we’re losing track of our history.

So for my faithful readers, all two or three of you, some of these posts may be boring but they are bookmarks in time, so bear with me.

Last month my co-worker Angelica had a birthday. Angelica is not only my wonderful co-worker and friend, but she is my low-carb companion through and through. We help each other and share tips and tricks and encouragement.

During the time of my dad’s illness when I was spending every spare minute I had with dad in the hospital or at the nursing home, Angelica would fix an extra low-carb lunch to share with me every single day! I can never repay her kindness and thoughtfulness; she is a very special person.

For our birthdays, she and I try to make each other a special low-carb treat since we can’t do the traditional birthday cake and ice cream or donuts or cupcakes or whatever other things people do in normal non-low-carb offices.

We each put a lot of thought into what we are going to make for the other. For my birthday in July this year, Angelica spent the weeks before trying out different low-carb ice cream and cake recipes and she created this beauty! A low-carb Strawberry Shortcake with low-carb Vanilla Ice Cream. It was delicious!

So trust me when I say that I was stressing over what I could do to top that. But Angelica has the most powerful sweet tooth in the world! She loves herself some sweets, especially chocolate. That’s why I give her so much credit for sticking to a low-carb lifestyle.

So I knew that what I wanted to make for her was something sweet and it had to be fabulous! I hunted all over the Internet world for a low-carb recipe for Truffles. I must have pinned at least 20 recipes to my Pinterest board for low-carb recipes which you really should visit, I have some great things pinned in there.

I finally found a recipe that looked simple enough that even I couldn't possibly mess it up, so I went for it! So glad I did too as they were a big hit with Angelica and it made me so happy to see her eyes light up when she saw what I had created for her. Ok, maybe created is too strong a word, so she could see what I copied from someone else, just for her!

Now how about that?? Aren't those beautiful? And so easy to make using the recipe I found over at Your Lighter Side. Kimber, the blog creator calls them Mascarpone Choconutty Bites, which is a totally acceptable name, but since I was making these as a gift I wanted to give it a fancy name, so I call them Low-Carb Truffles. You can head over to Your Lighter Side and get the RECIPE HERE.

I did everything exactly as Kimber has in her recipe. The only thing I did different, besides change the name, is once the truffle balls were dipped in the chocolate, while the chocolate was still not set I dipped two in diced walnuts, sprinkled another two with the shaved coconut. Then I made a low-carb faux graham cracker mixture using a bit of almond meal, cinnamon and Splenda and sprinkled two with that mixture. I left two naked with just the chocolate dip on them and then "BAM" as Emeril Lagasse would say, I "kicked it up a notch" and sprinkled two with bacon bits!!! BACON and Chocolate? Have I gone mad?

Nope...I'm a genius! Those were the ones we tried first. Just take a gander! The inside was chewy and gooey and deliciously coconutty. The outside was crunchy chocolate covering and then you had that salty little bit of bacon! They were fabulous!

My co-worker/friend/life saver was thrilled! Thanks Angelica for being such a great person. I am the luckiest person in the world to work alongside you every single day, day in and day out for years upon years!!! Happy Birthday again!