Small Enjoyments

Like many (most?) people my age, I need to watch what I eat to maintain a healthy-ish weight. For several decades, part of watching my calories meant I was drinking 2% milk. Somewhere, I'd internalized the notion that that's what I needed to do to keep the weight off.

Now, there's nothing wrong with 2% milk. It's got enough cream to give it some flavor, and it does a decent job of frothing up in my morning latte. But, while young Joe was living here, they recommended whole milk for him as he was weaned off formula. It seemed a bit silly to try to keep two kinds of milk in the already-crowded fridge, so I switched up my morning brew just a bit.

Young Joe and his parents left several months ago, but I haven't yet switched my brew back, nor do I intend to do so any time in the foreseeable future. It turns out that whole milk tastes better than 2%. A LOT better to my senses. Who knew?

I checked the labels, and found that all those years of 'virtue' were saving me a whopping 30 calories per cup, which, for me, translates into about 45 calories on an average day. I do recall the article I read some years ago that informed me that 150 calories per day is the difference between maintaining weight and having the pounds creep on, but I've decided to shave those calories somewhere else.

Turns out, I find the higher fat beverage to be more satisfying; I feel full longer. It tastes better on my oatmeal, it makes a creamier latte.

One of the things I'm working to weed out of my life as I bumble along this new path of mine is needless guilt and deprivation. Somewhere along the line, I learned that it's virtuous to deprive myself of small pleasures, as if skipping those 45 calories each day would somehow make me a better, stronger, happier person, help save the whales, and improve the lives of starving children in some unspecified far away place.

Eh. Not so much.

These days, I'm working on a new approach. Allowing myself the small enjoyment of savoring the creamy taste of the new version of my morning latte helps me to start my day off well. It's a small thing, but I've learned it doesn't take a lot of small good things to change my attitude for the better, and I need all the better attitude I can find these waning days of the pandemic. (To the best of my knowledge, the lives of the whales and hungry children have not been negatively impacted by the change - if I thought they had been, I would reconsider.)

Somewhere along the line, I clearly learned a lesson - indulging myself is a bad thing. If I give in on the milk, who knows what will come next! Cookies for breakfast? Eating dessert first? It's the start of a slippery slope! Hmmm. Clearly, that lesson is outdated and needs to be reframed. I'm pretty sure a lifetime of good eating habits isn't going to go down the tubes just because I enjoy my breakfast a bit more.

Besides, I'm worth indulging