I have a problem with self-discipline, particularly around eating sweets. For example, I made a half batch of English toffee today with honey and butter and by now – 10 o’clock at night – I have eaten every bit of it except for the last piece. That means I have eaten 1/4 cup of butter today, plus a 1/3 cup of honey, plus a 1/4 cup of walnuts. Those were the only ingredients. Life could be worse. I could have run out and gotten a milkshake at a fast food restaurant – yes, I have a weakness for these – and that ingredient list is mainly chemical, perhaps ALL chemicals. Plus, the calorie count is outrageous. So, the fact that I am electing to make candy with such good ingredients that is homemade is definitely an improvement. The problem is, of course, the high calorie count and fat content. I am going to look up how many calories that make up the ingredients in my toffee – be right back…
Okay, there are 407 calories in 1/4 cup of butter; 340 calories in 1/3 cup honey, and 200 calories in 1/4 cup of walnuts. That is a total of 947 calories for my 1/2 portion of English toffee. Geez, that’s almost a 1000 calories of what should be around a 1200 calories a day diet. Yikes. I didn’t actually know it was THAT high. Hmmm…maybe the milk shake is a better choice. I’m fairly sure it’s not going to be almost a 1000 calories. Wait, I’ll go look it up. Be right back….
A Macdonald’s milkshake – a medium – is 314. What? is that all? Ingredients: Corn syrup, water, vanilla extract, caramel color, citric acid, pectin, sodium benzoate (preservative), yellow 5, yellow 6. Well, those don’t look too good, though I’m still surprised in the difference in calorie count.
I believe it’s time to start counting my points again, meaning heading back to counting Weight Watcher points. I have about 6 pounds from the goal that WW set for me when I was last there, given my age. If I just start counting points and not worry about the rest of it, then I know I will start shaving off the last of the weight that I need to lose.
It’s silly to allow myself to creep back up and gain the weight that I have lost. So, tomorrow is the day. No big bells and whistles, just me with a notebook and a pencil.
Time to build up some self discipline muscles again surrounding eating..
Okay, on that note, I’m going to sleep. And yes, I’ll save that last piece of toffee for tomorrow.
20 Minutes a Day 
I have a big sweet tooth as well. Have you tried following a plan for M-F and then just eating what you want without guilt on the weekends?
I haven’t tried that idea, but I might! I’m open to any ideas at the moment.
Weight Watchers worked for me but that was five years ago. It’s time to go back. Thanks for reminding me. However, I’ve recently heard hoopla that they don’t count points anymore and a lot of people are upset because they’re not as successful as the point system had been. Have you heard anything about that in your neck of the woods?
I went to WW a couple of years ago and have not been back since they started a new program in 2012. So, I don’t know. I was just going to count the points as I counted them before since that worked well for me.