Day 83 -- I Want Candy!

So it's been 83 days since I've eaten a piece of candy.  And tomorrow, it will be one day since I've eaten a piece of candy -- or two or three.  I won't go into details of how the candy came to be in my bag, only that I didn't buy it for me.  The offending brands?  Tropical Flavor Starburst and Hershey's Mini chocolate bars.  Specifically, I ate five Starburst and a bite-size Hershey's Special Dark chocolate bar.  At the time of the crime, I didn't know if these were vegan or not and I didn't really care.  Candy should always be exempt from all dietary categorizations.  It's candy!

I could have done without the candy.  It wasn't that I was desperate for chocolate or sugar.  I just caught myself in a rebellious moment.  Why can't I have a piece of candy if I want one?  My vegan diet did cross my mind.  I knew dark chocolate sometimes didn't include dairy.  But I suspected that the Starburst contained gelatin.  But I didn't care!

In the end, this wasn't about the candy or my vegan diet.  Over the course of these 365 days, I'm learning that maintaining such strict control over my diet isn't always the healthiest attitude to have.  I'm eating vegan for health reasons and five Starburst and a bite-size dark chocolate bar are not going to put me into cardiac arrest.  And while we're on the subject, I also ate vegan sushi rolls with avocado -- which I'm not supposed to eat either since avocado is so high in fat.  So it was a either a really bad day -- or a really good day, depending upon your point of view.

I'm choosing to see my little candy crisis as a good thing.  Eighty-four days ago, I would have eaten a half bag of chocolate (and I don't even like chocolate!) and more than a handful of Starburst.  I enjoyed the few pieces I ate and that was enough.  I was able to stop before eating an amount that was unhealthy.  And after my debauchery, I don't feel guilty AND I've lost a total of 40 pounds since the first of the year.