Choose You Blog

It’s my shelter in a storm; my most reliable and trusted companion, the longest and happiest relationship of my life—my love affair with chocolate.

And though I’m willing to put that precious relationship on the line for the sake of my health —and though I know the Choose You program is inspiring women to put their health as a priority—still I have to confess I’m a little confounded that the American Cancer Society chose to start Choose You last week.

This meant coming dangerously close to violating the most sacrosanct rule of Mother’s Day:  Mothers are officially required to indulge themselves on the one day that is absolutely guilt-free no matter what they said about cutting back on sugar in a previous post.

It was my son who got me to commit to Choose You. On Mother’s Day, my husband  stuck to the program and did NOT buy me any Sees’ candy as he usually does.  (I haven’t forgiven him yet for taking me seriously.)

My daughter didn’t get the word in time—and she NEVER forgets a special occasion. She also didn’t forget that I never forgot–or forgave– Mrs. Fields for closing her Carmel store the week we moved here.     The day before Mother’s Day,  Alli’s package arrived.

No parent wants to crush a child’s feelings by not treasuring their gifts.   I still haven’t recovered from giving my dad ties every Father’s Day that he never wore.   Though Alli was hundreds of miles away, I consider it my sacred duty as a Mom to fully embrace her gift—in fact I called her immediately because I couldn’t wait so she could share in the moment I took my first bite of her cookie.

I’m using that word kind of loosely;  I don’t know if you can tell from the picture– this “cookie” is the size of a pizza.

Which makes this a good time to explain my philosophy about participating in the Choose You program.   So far I’ve only discussed sugar.  I know it’s bad for my health, still I’m not planning to quit cold turkey.  Or completely.

My goal is is to scale down (Scale possibly being my least favorite word in the English language)….to eat sugar sparingly.   In moderation.  (another word I don’t like in conjunction with chocolate.)   I’m not aiming to weigh a certain amount or look a certain way.  My goal is to do what I know is healthier;  to BE healthier.

I think of cancer prevention not only in terms of physical health—but also emotional and mental health.  For me, Choose You is equally important to help me focus over the coming weeks on other areas I want to improve:  including  stress relief, activity level,  and sleep.   For health, they’re all part of the total picture….

….which is the perfect segue into this picture—that I took three two days after the cookie arrived.

As bad as it looks, this is probably an improvement from my dalliance with dulce de leche. So moving onto week 2,  hopefully I’ve taken a step bite in the right direction.

Darryle  Pollack writes about other things sweet—and sour–at I never signed up for this….