"Though no one can go back and make a brand new start,
anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending." ~ Anonymous

Monday, September 14, 2009

Old Baking Habit

Have you ever had an old "bad" habit come around that you haven't dealt with in a while and it surprises you? This happened to me last Thursday night as I was making cookies for my son to take to school.

Without even giving it another thought I took a bite of cookie dough while putting dough on the cookie sheet. Then after the first batch had cooled a bit I took a bite of cookie to make sure they were alright. Of course, I finished that one, so no one would have to eat after me.

It didn't even cross my mind to watch out and be careful not to do this. It wasn't until I was taking out a second sheet of cookies, and feeling a bit full, that I stopped and thought, "What am I doing?" I had eaten pretty well that day, but it was a rough week for me and the last thing I needed 36 hours before my weigh-in was more sweets!! But there I was, having a bite here, testing a cookie there, without even thinking.

I suddenly realized that this was a habit I hadn't had to deal with lately because I haven't made cookies in a long wh
ile. Cakes, yes, but not cookies. It seriously took me by surprise.

Wow. So, I didn't eat the whole tray, only 2 1/2 cookies (if you count the dough), but I learned that night that it's another habit I'm going to have to learn to break. I'm not going to stop b
aking for my family, but I'm going to learn to not eat lots of it while in the process of preparing and baking it.

6 comments:

  1. Food habits are the hardest to break, aren't they? They become so mindless and ingrained that you have to actually *notice* that you are doing them to learn to stop!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh how I know what you mean. What's interesting for me is that now that I've tried to be aware of that, I almost don't want it - and then I will allow myself to have that one or two good ones if I have the calories available. And then I'm done. Weird - when I was a lot younger I could eat chocalte and sweets by the bucket, but as I'm getting older, I find that a little goes a long way (except when it's TOM!!!!) :) WTG with becoming aware - one more step towards your ultimate goal!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lori - Thanks for stopping by! It definitely is a new thing to notice for me.

    Steph - Someday I'll bake and not taste them..then have the tastiest ones when I've saved up for them. :)More steps in the right direction. :) Yay!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Leah, I think this is one of the hardest habits to break. We sometimes do things like this instinctively, which of course means we don't think about it. We have to train ourselves to stop instinctive eating and eat with a plan in mind. There will come a time when our eating is once again instinctive, but for me that is a long way off. That new instinctive eating will be much different than the instinctive eating I am trying to break free from now.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh, this is super hard to break! I did the same thing, only I never was able to stop myself. Those little cookies just looked so incredibly inviting, and who would know if I had 5 or 15?

    In fact, the first time I didn't eat a bunch of my oatmeal/chocolate chip cookies before serving them to the family my hubby said, "Wow that really made a lot." I just nodded, knowing that it always made that many, I just usually ate a bunch of them.

    I think it's great that you were able to stop and think, "What am I doing?" That's major progress right there.

    By the way - love the pictures in the previous post. I can tell a huge difference!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I absolutely LOVE to bake, I find it theraputic somehow. I chew minty gum while I'm baking to prevent bowl licking and I get my husband or kids to do taste tests. Then I package everything up and send it off to work with my husband. He works for a construction company where there are lots of hungry men who don't count calories!!

    ReplyDelete