19 April 2019

Guilt-Free Easter Candy, Anyone?

Hey there Team!
I hope that you are all doing well, and that you will be able to do something really nice for the Easter Holidays. The weather is looking awesome over here, so I will make sure to hit the beach!

Today is Good Friday and the Easter Weekend tends to be the culmination into a mountain of chocolate eggs, and all types of other Easter candy! For some, this time of the year is a pure joy of indulging in lots of yummy treats.

However, for plenty of others it can be quite stressful. Many people are trying to adopt healthier habits and want to minimize dairy and sugar intake. But because the Easter candy comes wrapped as a gift, we feel obliged to eat it. What to do with all that guilt around the chocolates that you have received???

Just because you receive a gift of chocolate, or any other treat for Easter for that matter - you are not obliged to eat it! I say again: You are not obliged to eat it! All you have to do is to be grateful for the kind gesture that someone was thinking of you, and wanted to do something nice. Giving thanks does not equal having to eat the gift. (Repeat loudly for the diabolic part of your brain!)

"The true purpose of a present is to be received. Presents are not "things" but a means for conveying someone's feelings. When viewed from this perspective, you don't need to feel guilty for parting with a gift. Just thank it for the joy it gave you when you first received it."[1] Marie Kondo

So let's practice this. You are at home with your chocolate eggs that you have received from your lovely friends. But, as you have already decided before Easter, this is not the kind of processed foods that you want to put into your body.

Pick up the gift, and in your mind say something like "Thank you dear friend for thinking of me and going out of your way to give me this lovely gift. It is very much appreciated and it made me very happy. However, eating this gift will make me feel guilty and unhappy and therefore I won't do that." Then donate it or discard it.

"But surely the person who gave it to you doesn't want you to use [eat] it out of a sense of obligation,...only to feel guilty every time you see [eat] it. When you discard or donate it, you do so for the sake of the giver, too." [2]

If all else fails try to trick the diabolic part of your brain with sarcasm "Thanks for getting me a step closer to diabetes!", and then donate or discard.

Alternatively write a blog about how to get rid of your Easter Candy...it will reduce your chances for having to deal with too much candy in the first place!

If you do want to eat it - do so and then really enjoy the moment! Eat the lovely chocolate because you want too. Not because your mind is making you feel guilty, just because it was a gift.