I’m a sucker for Starbucks’ pumpkin scones. And so every workday of last winter through early spring, when I’d go down to the Starbucks in the Social Sciences Building for my coffee, if pumpkin scones were available, I’d get one. Mmmmmm.
But then sense took hold again. Two summers ago I took off 40 pounds. Some of that was water weight (I was doing a lot of low-carbing), but at least 35 of that was honest to goodness fat loss. In any case, of that 40 lost, by last April 16 — the date on which I took the photo above — I’d regained about 20 of it. (Again, some of it water weight — but some of it not.)
I took the photo on the occasion of my first day of looking but not touching (much less eating).
Here’s the trick I use, in five easy steps:
1. Look at the pretty and tasty pumpkin scones.
2. Salivate.
3. Envision the words, in blinking 24-point bold red font-of-your-choice:
480 calories!!!
(sorry, I’d style it that way here, but WordPress ain’t cooperating)
4. Buy a cup of coffee with no cream or sweetener, and envision:
0 calories!!!
5. Congratulate yourself & go back to work.
That’s what I did the day I took the above photo. And I was prepared to do it thereafter in an admirable daily display of self-control in the face of prodigous temptation. But alas! I was given no opportunity, because the pumpkin scones disappeared from the SSB Starbucks daily offering. And nothing else there even tempted me.
Yesterday they reappeared.
I’m happy to say my technique still works. And also that I’m 6 pounds down from where I was on April 16, though of course pumpkin scone abstention isn’t the only step I’m taking.
I expect my progress to continue. Meantime, I continue to marvel at how we marvel at high levels of obesity, when tasty but high calorie items like these are so widely on offer. The 480 calories in a Starbucks pumpkin scone is a third to a quarter (depending on your size & level of exercise) of an average person’s daily calorie need. And not much nutritional value at all. It’s high-end junk food, but junk food nonetheless. So… an occasional treat. Nowadays, very occasional indeed.
Coffee’s good though.
