This is a Test… This is Only a Test

Buoyed by my newfound self-confidence and self-control where food is concerned, I decided to test myself on Thursday. I bought a carton of ice cream. Zoiks!

Now, let me just say that ice cream (which, in my mind is personalized to be referred to as “Ice Cream”) is one of my biggest weaknesses. I cannot have it in my apartment as I do not know when to say, “Stop” or, “Enough is enough.” In fact, there probably isn’t such a thing as “enough” where Ice Cream is concerned.

It almost doesn’t even matter what flavour, although I do have my faves, which basically includes anything with chocolate, coffee, caramel, toffee, marshmallow, almonds, pecans or cashews. If someone made an ice cream with ALL of those ingredients, I would be a slave to its goodness.

The urge to buy the Ice Cream – which I had successfully controlled for longer than I can remember – was spurred on by a discussion on my running forum about ice cream. I mentioned that I had not been able to find my fave flavour – B&J’s Coffee Heath Bar Crunch – as they ever only had the vanilla variety whenever I went into the store. Also, I’ve been very good about not buying Ice Cream and taking it home, rather indulging in a scoop here and there in a shop or restaurant.

Then, Thursday evening I was in the grocery store and my gaze was drawn to the freezer cabinet where the Ice Cream was. Normally, I spend my time in the Lean Cuisine section of the frozen foods aisle, then fixing my gaze straight ahead without a sideways glance into the frozen treats section. But all that talk of Ice Cream earlier in the day made me look.

And then I saw it: B&J’s Coffee Toffee Crunch! My fave flavour had been RENAMED! But it was still my beloved! I guess the name change is because we don’t have Heath Bar here (the closest thing is called Skor). I was in heaven!

It was $6.49 (CAD$) for the 500mL carton. Without guilt, I picked it out of the freezer and popped it into my cart, right next to my fresh produce.

I never got a chance to have an afternoon snack, so I hadn’t eaten since 1:30PM. I did laundry after work and then grocery shopping, so by the time I got into the car to go home around 7PM I was ravenous. I find I get something akin to “low blood sugar rage”, which is that I start to get very angry and agitated when my blood sugar drops too low.

I managed to get some food into me relatively soon thereafter and then I went in for the kill… B&J’s Coffee Toffee Crunch has 300 calories per 125mL (1/2 cup) serving. That’s ¼ of the container. OK, I can do that. I portioned out what I thought was ½ cup into a little bowl and settled in for some cold, creamy goodness.

It was like heaven. I had missed it so much. I did have one scoop of green tea ice cream over Christmas, but that was no comparison to this. I don’t think I had had “real” ice cream since the summer!

After nearly licking the bowl clean, I hunkered down to watch TV and read some blogs. Just about the time The Office was starting, I could hear these muffled screams coming from the kitchen. I’m not sure if it was Ben or Jerry, but one of them was calling my name. I opened the freezer door and there it was staring at me – mocking me – DARING me! I opened up the lid and peeked inside. Hmm, there’s a little around the edges of that top quarter of the carton that never quite made it into my bowl – better clean that up.

But I’m happy to say that after that half-spoonful of Ice Cream, I put the lid back on, put the carton back in the freezer and closed the door.

And there it's been ever since.

I went out Friday evening and didn’t get home until late, so no temptation there. Saturday, I rode my bike in the morning and then went out for the rest of the day. I went to KH's place for dinner, so no opportunity to indulge as I went to bed as soon as I got home (although I did have cake at her place).

Today, I ran in the morning and then went for brunch at a friend's place. I think I overindulged a bit on all kinds of goodness there, but thankfully there was no ice cream.

So now here I sit on my couch. I KNOW that it's there in my freezer, untouched since Thursday. I think that's some kind of new record! My goal for the next few days: no more than ONE ½ cup serving at a time.