Small Victory

For me, Fall brings a lot of what I love in life.  The color-changing Bradford Pear trees that resemble flame  The crunch of leaves as I walk through my yard.  The crispness of the air when I step out my front door.



And Candy Corn.



That sugary, honey, tri-colored goodness that will send the consumer straight into sugar shock if he or she dares to ingest too many in a single sitting.

I have been a fan since I was a small child.  Me being me, I take a lengthy amount of time eating them.  I think it is a cross between the desire to savor them for as long as possible and the OCD in me that is overcome with anxiety when I contemplate eating anything in a color variety.

I will explain.  I am obsessed with patterns: number, color, alphabetizing, chronology...you get the idea.  Life became grand for me when the M&M Mars company began selling M&M's in single colors.  I could then get each color in individual bags, thus satisfying my desire to follow the ROY G BIV of color-coding.  Jelly Belly jelly beans?  Thanks so much for selling variety packages with individual flavors separated.  I appreciate you.

So that brings us to candy corn.  As you can see, three colors.  So, I start by eating the pointed ends, move on to the yellow tops, then eat the orange middle.  Why?  I couldn't tell you.  It is my idiosyncrasy.  I just go with it.

Today, I found myself faced with something that could have been disastrous for the meal plan.   My local neighborhood Kroger supermarket was advertising ten bags of this tri-colored yumminess for the bargain price of $2.50.   You read that correctly.  Full size bags of temptation for only 25 cents per bag.  Not the piddly little Brach's bags.  I was caught in day-glo orange colored bags of carb-laden treats.

And I sent out an SOS text message.  And the response, my voice of reason?  She told me that I would regret it later.

And she is absolutely right.   One, because I feel like I am getting back into my groove.  I have been maintaining my 20 carb per day limit for the Atkins induction phase.  I am feeling pretty good about Monday's weigh-in.  Two, because the over abundance of sugar would have surely led to several days of feeling like absolute crap.

So, I walked on by, checked out, and took my Atkins-approved items home.  I proceeded to make dinner (ham and cheese omelet), and I felt wonderful, both physically and mentally.

I needed help, I asked for help, I got help (thanks to Rachel), and I know I can do it. Temptation is there. It's not going away.  But it's not worth it.

Not even for the bargain price of 25 cents.