Embrace candy's pleasure, ignore the guilt
New Year’s resolution season may seem like the time to give up candy, but it should be just the opposite.
New Year's resolution season may seem like the time to give up candy, but it should be just the opposite.
For many American women and gay men, New Year’s resolution season is typically the time of year when candy transitions from an amazing, thoughtful gift to the devil.
During this month of national diets, confections are avoided, thrown away and black-listed.
::Sad sweet sigh::
Of course, as a candy writer, I find this incredibly heart breaking. You see, January is the most depressing month of the year - and therefore the time we most need sweet treats to bring a little joy into our lives.
The brief glimpse of daylight we get each day is shorter than the entire movie “Titanic.” It’s no longer Christmas, not yet Valentine’s Day. The bills are filling up the mailboxes. And the snow has lost all of its purpose, seeing as how it’s only fun to have around when there’s a Christmas card picture that needs to be taken.
Alas though, candy can be our savior - it only we let it.
With each truffle, we can experience a little bit joy, and with every lollipop, we get to taste happiness.
In fact, it seems as though candy should be the star of a month like January. It should shine as the beacon of hope everyone can attain, no matter how dark it is when we wake up each morning.
But even if we can’t get that crazy with things, there is another way to weave candy into the January picture. Two words - guilty pleasure.
As a woman, I can tell you that secretly, deep down, I’m looking for a reason to eat that last piece of chocolate. And because I’m seeking it out, you don’t have to work that hard to get me to buy a box of truffles.
It’s like the girls who talk trash about reality television, but then tune in claiming to be fascinated by the sociology of the situations. Give me a reason, any reason at all, to indulge and I’m there with bells on.
And, because I’m a sweet girl, I’ll just go ahead and tell you the little things I tell myself about candy that helps me justify grabbing the last piece.
No, I don’t get all crazy and pretend it’s healthy. But, chocolates probably help lift winter depression, right? Sugar can give me the energy I need to actually get things done in the winter evenings, don’t you think? And anything with nuts in it totally qualifies as a protein. (That one’s almost too obvious.)
I believe there is a magical marketing place that touches on the justifications women use to eat sweets, a place that reaches into the part of the heart that wants to find any reason, any reason at all, to eat the toffee. And I believe that a month like January is just waiting to be commercialized as the season of guilty pleasures.
