LOVE:HATE (PART 1) - DONUTS

So I have this thing about donuts. It is an ultimate love/hate relationship.

The intense calling of these sugar and calorie bombs is like the Sea Siren calling wayward sailors. How can you resist them? They offer the promise of sweet satisfaction and comfort. Many are beautiful in presentation with their glossy frosted coat beaconing for a bite. Escalate the experience by warming up one of these morning cakes and I'm a goner. Have you not had a toasted apple fritter from Starbucks? A warm and fresh blueberry old-fashioned from a bakery?

And donuts always seem like a good idea at the time, don't they? Usually when you are hungry and just want something quick and easy... Something that you know and trust to be satisfying... Of course, these are the times when a) your expectation doesn't match up - similar to finally giving in to your McD's french fry craving and finding them cold or b) you splurge on a donut and go overboard, possibly eating 2... Or more.

Then, it's a bitter resentment of this comfort fraud. You're hungry within half an hour, you're cranky from the sugar crash and you're pissed because you realize you just ate over 400 calories of emptiness and you still need to lose 5lbs. And, all this can often be accompanied by a headache or stomach ache, or both.

Recently, I've had the mother of all donut cravings. Several weeks of pondering it's sugar on my tongue. Several weeks of fantasizing about the flavor and variety I would choose. Weeks of wishing there were a Krispy Kreme within a 5 minute drive. After all, my donut lust really only seem to hit about twice a year. And usually accompanied by a brisk fall streak of rain and wind.

So I did it, I gave in. First on an overpriced old-fashioned from Starbucks thinking that would do the trick. Unfortunately, it was cold and unsatisfying. This left me in a bit of a diet-guilt tailspin. I just gave up 400 hard earned calories on a bad donut and I was feeling vulnerable and helpless to the charms of a better crafted option.

Thanks to a good friend and a Groupon from months earlier, I met my match in a designer donut shop that offered 2 dozen varieties of donuts. Armed with my Groupon, a tall americano and a friend to eye my consumption, I picked out a DOZEN donuts. To share with others, of course.

My first satisfying bite was on a fresh, warm, blueberry frosted cake donut. It was perfect and did the trick. Unfortunately, hours later as I was hostage in my car with the box of donuts and 2 sleeping kids who desperately needed naps (where stopping the car would have meant waking up) I had to eat another donut because I was starving! This pumpkin flavored creation with dollop of real whipped cream laced with white chocolate and nutmeg set me over the edge. Of course it was DELISH, however the instant headache that followed was not.

This begins my current resentment. I think the devil makes donuts. They tell you, "just have one, no big deal. Eat me and everything will be fine.". Well, everything will NOT be fine. You will feel sick and you will hate donuts.