Discussion Board

Do any of you ever enjoy a dessert and if so, how often and what do you do for dessert?

It sounds a bit nutty, but I picked up this trick from Pinkrose. I have my dinner starch - typically a sweet potato, brown rice or half a winter squash - as my dessert. A normal dinner for me is a big salad, bean soup or stir-fried veggies, and my starch, served separately as a dessert sweetened with a little stevia and a sprinkle of cinnamon. It's simple, satisfying and doesn't add any additional calories to my diet. I'm simply moving the placement of my evening starch. But making that simple change has made my meals that much more enjoyable. A big salad topped with salsa, a bowl of 3-bean chili, and a sweet potato for dessert has become one of my favorite meals.
Kate

Dessert for me is: a cup of black grapes; or two slices of melon; or a bowl of applesauce.

Sorry, I guess I should've been more clear in my question! I was wondering if you actually ever have special occasion type extra unnecessary calorie sort of 'treats' not for nutritional value at all but just pure pleasure. Dessert in the more traditional sense, if you will... like a cake for a birthday?

@Katydid, I think I can one up ya on the nuttiness, I consider my salad a dessert... even as a kid I would always save it -being the best part in my mind- for last!

I have a vegan chef for a SIL--this is NOT a good thing. Her food is vegan but full of fat, so I avoid it, but occasionally give in and have a cookie or a piece of her cake at a family gathering. I almost ALWAYS experience McDougall's revenge afterwards and find that now that my taste buds have changed her desserts are WAY too sweet for me now. So I do it less and less.

Fruit is plenty sweet for me now--my fave dessert is some frozen fruit in a bowl, warmed in the microwave. The warming brings out the sweetness. My fave is peaches and cherries.

We occasionally have cookies, cake, or other treats. We made some of these treats for Christmas. All are made with on plan ingredients and we do not make them a regular item for consumption. We also use fruit as a desert item and for general snacking.
f1jim

I don't eat what is usually termed "dessert," as in cookies, cakes, etc. My salad is usually my dessert, or a baked sweet potato. Or some fruit.

But I know myself. Eating vegan desserts could really set me off, so I don't fix them.

Nettie

How often would you say? Is this just during the Christmas/New Year's holiday season or do you also have these for birthdays, anniversaries, celebrations? Do you have a defined limit? Do 'on plan ingredients' include sugar and maple syrup -nutbutters?

Thank you so much for the all the feedback here... the dessert issue is one my family still goes round about on so I was curious how successful McDougallers approached it.

The deserts almost always revolve around a holiday or event like a birthday. They also revolve around a social event with others and serve to show one can involve oneself in these social events and not be a pariah. Everyone we know seems to enjoy these treats and are surprised by the ingredients used to make them. There are tremendous recipes out there from many sources and we have learned to adapt recipes from more traditional books, too. I'd say we have them at a much smaller pace than before McDougall. Perhaps we consume them 20% of our previous quantity. We tend to use a bit of maple syrup, honey, or even stevia as a sweetner and even will use regular sugar in very small amounts in certain recipes. We never make these treats as snacks. We reserve fruits and even popcorn for that.
f1jim

Do you mean added fat like oils or just richer foods like nuts and seeds? Do you think it would make any difference for you? I'm torn between the idea of an occasional richer food for fun that we get from somewhere or someone else versus ones we make at home that are healthier but then it's a lot more and a lot easier to come by. They just opened up a shop down the road from us that serves vegan sorbets and it sounds appealing to think about being able to take my kids for a stroll on a hot summer day and stop and buy them a cool treat, but we also have a wannabe vegan chef that would love to experiment with healthier dessert options at home.

Both. She uses a lot of Earth Balance (fake butter), oils, etc. She thinks they're healthy.

YES. I know this b/c I lost weight McDougalling before and it was fattier vegan food that put the weight back on. See my Star story for more info. Trust me: I can't eat that stuff and stay slim, and neither can most people. "Just richer foods like nuts and seeds" are FULL of fat--if you eat more than a VERY small amount of them you will gain weight unless you have an abnormally fast metabolism.

What would be "a VERY small amount".... one slice of cake a year, one cookie every fortnight...?

(and I actually meant do you think if your sil only made desserts from 'on plan ingredients' that it would be more enjoyable and not an issue for you, but it sounds like, if I'm understanding your response correctly, that it doesn't matter either way, it's the fact that it's a richer dessert type food, not what the particular ingredients are, is that correct?)

I think this varies for everyone.

Here's the thing: for me, stuff like this is a gateway drug. Ditto hummus (made by anyone but ME), pretzels, etc. They seem relatively harmless in "small amounts" but eating them tends to make me want more, or to feel that it's OK to have them again another day, or to have something else of that ilk.

It's a slippery slope--IMO it's best to stay off the slope entirely rather than keep having to pick myself up and crawl back up, only to slide down again!

This would be my preference, but the rest of my family is not so convinced! It's hard for me to balance considering typical desserts don't really appeal to me at all (I'd go crazy for some rock candy though!) but they seem to make my family very, very happy and it's not like a pleasure trap issue since it's so rare for us.... sounds like for the most part Star McDougallers forgo dessert though?

I guess this is what I'm wondering. I wonder if there really are any Star McDougallers that include dessert as part of their regular diet, however infrequently. Maybe it doesn't really vary that much... is it really possible to include a regular dessert (more than once or twice a year) and still be 'successful' ultimately?

It's so refreshing to be able to talk about stuff like this with folks that don't eat baked sweets for breakfast, candy bars for snacks, drink sodas and/or coffee milkshakes all day and have a high fat high sugar dessert every single night... now that's nuts!