Dessert can help you break bad habits. Seriously.

For all my readers with a sweet tooth, this one's for you!

Go open your refrigerator right now and tell me what kind of sweets you have in there? I bet most of you have Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches, lowfat ice cream, reduced fat cookies and fat free cool whip lurking around. Maybe some fruit popsicles? And why do you have all that within reach? Because you have that nasty sweet tooth that I, too, suffer from. You eat a healthy dinner and then the urge strikes. And if you are like me, you cannot relax until you satisfy it. I have been known to make some strange combos to feed the beast.

Well, I have been trying a tactic to keep my sweets cravings at bay that I promise works!

It's an easy 3-step program.

Step One:
Clear out all the lowfat goodies. All of it. I know. It's scary. But trust me. Leave only healthy fruits.

Step Two:
Do not eat any sort of dessert at all. Don't cheat. Nothing lowfat or real. You may have a small cup of fresh fruit (no added cool whip or sugar) each night (or whenever .

Step Three:
Eat dessert – a real gooey, delicious dessert – on the ONE day that you do your most intense workout. For me this day has been Saturdays. I call it "Sweet Tooth Saturday." But only ONE real dessert each week.

Here is the Strawberry Cupcake that I indulged in this past Saturday...it's pink in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness. That's clearly why I had to have it.

Easy. Real dessert one day a week. That's all.

Not convinced?

Here's what happens: you try and trick your body with sugar-free, lowfat and sub-par replacements and while your body might sigh and say "fine, I guess that's satisfying," your mind doesn't accept it. Your mind knows that you are compromising. If you feel deprived, you will crumble. You will binge. Diets and healthy eating lifestyles don't work when you feel like there are too many rules, too many compromises. But when you feel as though you have a real reward at the end of the week (or whatever day you deem appropriate), then you have something to look forward to. Something to earn via a great workout. Something REAL.

Still not convinced? Let's do the math.

I would go weeks where I would have some "fake" dessert almost every night, thinking that I was doing so much better than I really was. But I was wrong, wrong, wrong. The delicious, gooey strawberry cupcake set me back 485 Calories and 24.4 grams of fat. My 7 Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches (ok, 6 on a good week) set me back 840 Calories and 9 grams of fat. Yes, less fat and there is some dietary fiber in a Skinny Cow, but mentally I hurt myself. And they are processed. The real good desserts are made with real sugar, real butter, real cream, real chocolate, REAL stuff!


Give it a shot and see how it goes. I guarantee that you will be happier at the end of the week!

Would love to hear your feedback!