Candy Dishes?

A few weeks ago Ross and I went to my sister's house to help her and her husband dig fence post holes for a privacy fence they are putting in. At one point during the day, I went inside her house to get a drink and saw her candy dish sitting on the counter. The candy dish, as usual, was filled with M&M's. Each time I go to Stephanie's house, I can always count on her candy dish setting in the same spot on the counter and always filled with "good" candy.  I love M&M's, so walked over to it and took a handful. I had to—the M&M's were screaming my name. Seriously. And I may or may not have had a few more handfuls of M&M's throughout the day, too.

I imagine this is a trait my sister picked up from my Mom. My Mom ALWAYS had and still has candy out in her candy dishes. I can still see some of her "holiday" candy dishes setting on the glass sections of the coffee table we had while growing up. She had "good" candy, too. M&M's, Hershey's Kisses, mini Hershey's and Snickers bars . . . you get the point!

I remember my Mom always commenting about how quickly the candy disappeared whenever our friends would come over to play. She always wondered if their parents didn't have candy out all the time like that, so when they saw it at our house, they couldn't keep their hands off of it.

I never have candy out at my house. Mainly because, quite frankly, I have NO self-control when it comes to candy. I've bought candy to have out at home a time or two before, but it's never pretty. I fall into a vicious cycle: I take a handful and go back. Take another handful and go back again. Take yet another handful and back again.

Well, I got to thinking that if I had candy out all the time like my Mom used to do, then maybe I would get used to it always being there and not feel the need to eat it all at once. One of the past few times we went grocery shopping I decided to put my theory to the test. I bought 2 bags of M&M's—one plain and one with pretzels. I found a small candy jar with a lid (loved the lid, thinking it would help me not eat as much . . . makes sense, huh?!) and poured about half of each bag into my jar.

Unfortunately, my theory didn't work like I thought. I found myself back in that darn vicious cycle yet again. Oh well! At least I thoroughly enjoy myself while eating the candy, and know that I'll work it off in one of my bootcamp classes!