An Exercise in Self-Control

Let's play a game, "Two Lies and a Truth." I'll go first.

I want a cookie. 

I deserve a cookie. 

I need a cookie. 

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever

Can you spot the truth? There are two glaring lies I tell myself all the time about what I need, and what I deserve.

The real truth is I deserve to be healthy and strong, and what I need is some self-control. I can want a cookie all day long, for all the good that will do me.

Why do I bake these little temptresses, you may wonder. Well, I am married to a wonderful man who exercises extreme self-restraint when it comes to desserts, and really, any carbohydrate. He is the one who DESERVES the Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Ever.

When we go to a restaurant for breakfast, he orders a meat skillet, biscuits, and sausage gravy, and the smallest number of pancakes allowable on the menu. He eats all of the meat, a half of the biscuit, most of the skillet, and then, to finish his meal, he spreads the dollop of creamy butter on one little portion of one single pancake, drizzles a bit of syrup on it, and eats a bite or two, and then pushes back the plates, and declares his breakfast perfect.

When I bake these delightful chocolate chip cookies, he takes two or three to work each week, and nibbles at them to make them last all five work days. There is always a baggie with a chocolate chip cookie waiting for him on the counter. After dinner each night, he breaks a cookie in two, and joyously eats his half a cookie to finish off his meal with a sweet.

A half a cookie? I know, right? Who DOES that? Chuck does that. It happens all the time. 

Then there's me. Once I start to eat a sweet, I eat it until it's gone. I can eat desserts; let me tell you. I know there are recommended serving sizes on packages. I'm with those who believe Oreo cookies are consumed by the sleeve.

So today, I sent Chuck a picture on his phone of the cookies that had just come out of the oven for him.

Our texting went like this:

"I still haven't had a cookie. I'm thinking there should be some sort of prize for that. Do you think Her Royal Highness would knight me?

"And if the Queen won't knight me, will you at least pretend to bow down to my exquisite self-control today?

"A little ooh-ing and ah-ing would be much appreciated."

"I will bow down for my queen, and her splendid self-control," he responded.

I continued, "I never know how long these moments will last. I'm trying so hard to follow your lead, but I don't think you know what it's like for your mouth to crave sweet, crunchy, chewy things all day long."

He suggested I have ONE, then lock the rest in a time-release cookie jar, a cute little gadget we'd recently seen on Facebook.

Time-Released Cookie Jar

"If only; the battle is hard for me."

"Be strong, Stuart." (His new mouse name for me.) "Even in Little Mouse there is much strength."

So, here I am, waiting the last hour before my sweet husband will begin his long commute home to me. I still haven't had a cookie. I'm still wanting one. But knowing he thinks I'm strong made me feel as though I were today. 

The cookies will be there later...in the freezer...for when I really think I'm ready to eat JUST one. Until then, I just better wait. This Little Mouse has much to learn about self-control.