Warning: Adult language

Please do not read any further if you are offended by adult language.

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Okay so I slipped up last weekend.

Like hardcore.

We went out of state to visit my bro. He and his wife just had their third baby and we needed to meet this new little nugget.

Omg she is so precious! I ate her face off.

But let me tell you, her face isn't the only thing I ate. Dear Lord, I was eating like I was gettin' paid.

It didn't help that my brother has this gorgeous gourmet kitchen (which is bigger than my damn house, btw). I mean, you don't want to leave this kitchen. It is so big and beautiful and omg the endless cabinetry.

Total storage porn.

I don't think I have enough stuff in my entire house to put in all those cabinets and drawers. Seriously, it's a dream kitchen and I just felt like I needed to be in there. I wanted to sleep on the damn island (Which is way big enough!).

So this kitchen doesn't just have one pantry, but it has two (One being a walk-in pantry. Yes, I know. It's sickening.) Okay, I know, I'm digressing. I'm getting to the slipping up part. I start to ramble and lose focus.

So one of the pantries was completely filled with snacks and sweets. Now I usually have no problem sticking to healthy eating; however, it's much easier for me to do that because I don't keep anything tempting in my house. I don't know what happened to me this past weekend but, for whatever reason, I turned into a hungry beast with a bottomless belly.

I slayed that pantry like nobody's business.

(My bro on the island when the kitchen wasn't completed yet.)

I may have lost 120+ pounds and I may have kept the weight off now for almost six years, but I am a food addict. That just doesn't go away. Like any addiction, you need to stay focused and work hard to not fall back into bad habits. Food to me is like a drug. My weakness is all sweets, but my drug of choice is chocolate. And there was chocolate everywhere I looked!

I keep dark chocolate in my house, but I do a pretty good job at portioning it. But all the milk chocolate candy and peanut butter cup stuff, I can't be around it. Even if I don't eat any of it and I make the right choice, it haunts me knowing it's there. It's torture.

It's not so hard if I'm at someone's house for an evening because in a few hours I know I'll be home and back on healthy territory, but last weekend we stayed at my brother's house so it was a deeper level of temptation. I couldn't get away from it. That devil shit hounded me until I succumbed.

And let me just say, it was ugly. Every piece of chocolate in that goodie pantry was running for its life. I was unstoppable.

I ate it all.

I even ate the chocolate that my six year old niece put inside of a homemade gift box that she made for my daughters BEFORE she even gave it to them. So when she went to give it to her cousins, it was gone. Ya, it was that bad. I have to mention though, that I had no idea it was a gift for my girls nor did I know she made it. All my beastly self saw was chocolate sitting right there on the island and it was calling my name.

Now, even though I spent a lot of time in that kitchen trying to win a make-believe eating contest (which I would've totally won first place for), I did manage to get outside and soak up some Vitamin D.

There was some major biking being had. And yes, I put in some time on the Green Machine :)

We took family walks.

The Littles played with bugs:)

We even fired off some rockets. Super fun!

I didn't realize I'd love the rockets so much. It's funny what things bring out the kid in you!

See, I may have been a chocolate ogre who lived in the pantry last weekend, but I did step outside long enough to have some fun too :)

Okay so the moral of this story is that no matter how disciplined you have been and how long you've been on the right track, sometimes you're gonna eff up. It happens. You gotta shake it off.

I have slip ups quite often. Maybe not as big as my past weekend beast-fest, but I still make mistakes. And you know what? It's okay.

Nothing moves in a straight line. Success is not a non-stop flight to your destination. You'll have connecting flights, you'll have lay-overs, you'll have turbulence.

Forgive yourself and move on.

That's what I did when we got home from our weekend trip. I didn't even think twice about how I was an unstoppable, eating machine. It happened. Screw it.

As soon as I set foot inside my front door, it was game on. Back on track and motivated. In the past, I would've beaten myself up and drowned myself in guilt. Instead of getting back on track, I'd use my guilt and disappointment to justify quitting. I believed I was a failure and when you truly believe that, it's worlds harder to find the motivation to jump back into motion.

Okay so what's the deal with the cinnamon apples?

Here's why I tried this in the first place. When we got home from my food-a-thon weekend, I was so used to sweets that I couldn't shake the craving for sugar. I was in withdrawal from all those countless goodies I shoved down my throat for three days straight.

I needed something sweet and yummy, but it had to be healthy.

I had my bag of organic red delicious apples, which is one of my favorite foods ever, but I needed something more sugary sweet. I love the cinnamon-sugar combo, so I got to thinking. I started thinking about an apple pie and how the inside is so yummy with all that cinnamon-y, gooey, and sugary goodness. But I didn't have time to try to come up with a healthy apple pie recipe because I needed something sweet and yummy like right-the-hell now!

This throw-together, healthy treat hit the spot! Anytime I felt a sugar craving, I made this. It worked. In two days, the cravings disappeared. I tricked my body into thinking it was getting sugar so after a few days of NOT having sugar, the cravings stopped. But I didn't stop eating this stuff :)

My kiddos love it too. My youngest may actually turn into an apple. No matter how much I make her, she still eyes up mine. Lay off me, kid!

2-MINUTE SUGAR-FREE 100 CALORIE CINNAMON APPLES

WHATCHU NEED:

One Coffee Mug (Microwavable)
One Apple (Any variety you prefer. I used red delicious.)
1/4 TBS Butter (REAL butter! Not the fake poison shit.)
1/2 Tsp Ground Ceylon Cinnamon OR Regular Ground Cinnamon
1 Stevia Packet (More if you prefer it sweeter.)

WHATCHU DO:

1. Get yo apple.

2. Now dice that bitch up.

3. Put your butter in the mug with your apples and nuke it for 2 minutes.

4. Take mug out, add stevia packet and cinnamon, and stir.

Nuke it, spice it, stir it, nosh it.

Notes:

Don't be afraid of butter. Real butter is not bad for you if you use small portions. Butter actually has some health benefits. The fake, plastic butters are what you need to be afraid of. That stuff is not real food! Do not put that toxic shit in your body!
The apple will cook down quite a bit. That's okay, it's supposed to do that. But at only 100 calories per serving, you can have two apples :)

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*The information on this site is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. All content in this article is for general information purposes only. I am not a doctor, nor am I a dietitian. Talk to your physician before making any changes in your diet or exercise regimen. The information found in this article is from various sources which include, but are not limited to, the sites listed above. I encourage you to do your own research and talk with your physician before making any changes in diet or exercise. What has worked for me may not work for you. This information in this article or on this website should never replace or serve as medical advice.

NEVER DISREGARD PROFESSIONAL MEDICAL ADVICE OR DELAY SEEKING MEDICAL TREATMENT BECAUSE OF SOMETHING YOU HAVE READ ON OR HAVE ACCESSED THROUGH THIS WEB SITE.

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