Chocolate cake, dammit!

I am on a diet right now. If you've ever dieted you can feel my pain, I'm sure. Like most people I know, I truly love to eat. It's not just about sustenance for me, it's about the pure pleasure derived from eating and savoring each bite of food. I associate happy feelings with food. Eating out is a celebration, ordering pizza is a treat, ice cream and other sweets are a reward for something I've done well...like sticking to my diet. While some things I find easy to either cut back on or find a low-cal, low-fat substitutes for, some things just don't work that way. For example, last night I went to the store in search of something chocolate. If you're a woman you understand this sudden and sometimes life-threatening craving - as in - "if I don't get something chocolate in the next 30 seconds, someone will die"...if you're a man, then you simply cannot understand my pain, please stop reading now. While wandering the aisles of the grocery store, I picked up such things as brownies, cookies, chocolate ice cream, hot fudge...and put them all down in exchange for chocolate pudding made with skim milk. I was so excited, thinking that this would cure my chocolate craving for the night and leave me content at the end of the day. How wrong I was. One bite of pudding with chunks of pudding powder still standing and I was so disappointed! How could I have thought this would do it? I ate about 3 more bites and put the stupid bowl back in the fridge, leaving the kitchen dejected and totally unsatisfied.

Now you also know, if again, you are a woman, that these cravings, if not quenched, will return. Day after day, hour upon hour you will sit there dreaming of chocolate bunnies, chocolate chips, chocolate cream pies....anything that will do the trick and leave you at peace for just a little while. Today, my dream was realized in a piece of wonderful something that a co-worker made for our vice president's birthday. This heavenly concoction consisted of a chocolate crust, a layer of gooey-chocolate-chippiness, something akin to cheesecake and topped with some other form of chocolate goodness. I am sated. I am satisfied. I can go on with my day and be at peace until the next craving hits...mmm, I could really go for a big bowl of popcorn!