Easter

It is that time of year again where crazy shoppers argue over who gets the last decent Easter egg. It can also be a parent's best worse nightmare, after Halloween and Christmas, where they get to eat their kids' left over eggs. Easter eggs are only the tip of the iceberg. If you have a traditional Irish mother then a lovely roast lamb dinner is on the menu for Sunday dinner. Dessert may consist of cakes and more chocolate. Lets not forget the copious amount of alcohol that will be consumed as well. See http://eabhabear.blogspot.ie/2013/03/alcohol-propoints.html for propoints for alcoholic drinks.

Now is the time to make the decision. Are you going be good or bad? If you want to take Sunday off, or the weekend, then there is nothing wrong with that. If you do decide to do this, then relax and enjoy the weekend. Do not feel guilty about the choices you make. Just make sure you get back on track first thing Monday morning. Most of us are off on Monday so use it wisely and go to for a run/walk or dust off the workout DVDs. No matter how much alcohol or food you consume, make sure you WEIGH IN next week. Your leader will only be expecting a few to see a loss on the scales next week and who knows you could be one of the lucky ones!

If you decide to be good, now is the time to start planning and preparing. Just because everyone else is drinking it does not mean you have to. A concept lost amongst us Irish! Decide now when you are going to drink and what you are going to drink. Put it into your tracker straight away.
Tomorrow is Good Friday. Even if you are not religious, it is a great excuse to incorporate fish into your diet (http://eabhabear.blogspot.ie/2013/03/happy-fish-day.html). It will set you in a healthy frame of mind for the weekend. If you have nothing planned for Saturday then stick to your daily allowance. Try to be as healthy as possible. Do not allow any Easter eggs or chocolates to be opened until Sunday.
Come Sunday, you should still have all or most your weeklies. If you think you are not likely to pick at Easter eggs or other foods, then allow yourself your own treat for whatever amount of points you have left. See below for a list of Easter treats.
If you are a picker then do not get your own treat as you will be more likely to go over points if you do. Make a note of EVERYTHING you put into your mouth that was not planned. Make an estimate at how many points every little bite is. Remember it is better to over-point than to under-point! Keep the list in your view during the day so that it easy to keep track and that when you reach your limit, you may just conjure enough willpower to stop. Even if you do not stop at your point allowance, at least you know exactly what you ate and you can look at cutting back during the week or increasing your exercise.

Whether you plan on being good or bad this weekend, everyone should try and limit the amount of food that enters your house. Do not buy treats for the possible guests you may have. You do not need desserts on top of eggs. Allow one or the other. Tell aunties, uncles, grandparents etc. not to buy your children Easter eggs. One egg is enough for anyone, young or old! Ask them to donate the money they would spend on the egg to a charity. If you are like me and your only source of an egg is from your mother (yes I am 23 but still a child at heart!), then tell her you do not want one. Or offer to halve one with someone. Remember the bars that come in the eggs are nothing special. You can go down to Centra and buy them anytime.
If you do end up with more than one egg in the house, give it away. Give it to a brother or boyfriend or husband. Bring it into work with you on Tuesday. Throw it in the bin. I used to buy junk food and then decide I am going to be good but only after I eat the junk food because I do not want to waste food or money. Your health and your weight loss journey are more important. Just before I sat down to write this blog, I poured a share bag of Malteasers into the outside bin. I got given them earlier as a gift on my sick bed. My usual garbage bin aka my brother was out, so I just got rid of temptation myself. Or, even better use the left over chocolate to make low point treats for yourself and the family.

Yes Easter, Christmas, Halloween only come around once a year. As does Paddys day, Mothers day, birthdays (your's, your partner's, your best friend's, your parents', your siblings', your children's), bank holidays, Christenings, weddings oh and of course Saturday nights! That is why it is important you take control. Decide which events you will be WW concious and which events you will allow yourself to relax. Easter is one day, so if you are good for the remaining six, there is no reason you cannot see a loss at your next WI.

So to help with your planning and to hopefully shock us into staying away from the goodies over the weekend, I have pointed all the Easter treats I could find information for. The nutritional information for a lot of Easter products is not easy to find. So I have sourced my information from various sites on Google. I cannot guarantee they are 100% correct but they will give you a good guideline. Do not forget to add extra propoints for the bars. The points below are for the eggs only. Most standard bars average 6-7 propoints while the mini bars average 2-3 propoints. Sweets such as Celebrations average 2 propoints per sweet. WARNING: do not forget to check for extra points when having more than one bar. You could find that one bar is only 5 but two 11. If you are lucky you could find you save a point!

Aero Mint Lamb 4pps per 27g
Cadbury Buttons Medium Egg 24pps per 162g
Cadbury Caramel Egg 5pps per 38g
Cadbury Caramel Bunny 6pps per 40g
Cadbury Creme Egg 5pps per 39g
Cadbury Crunchie Medium Egg 24pps per 167g
Cadbury Dairy Milk Large Egg 50pps per 343g
Cadbury Flake Medium Egg 22pps per 153g
Kinder Surprise Egg 3pps per 20g
Kit Kat Chunky Egg 34pps per 235g
Lindt Chocolate Mini Eggs 1pp per 5g (for 1)
Malteaster Bunny 4pps for 1, 9pp for 2
Milkybar Mini Eggs 7pps per 50g (half bag)
Cadburys Mini Eggs 0pp for 1, 1pp for 2
Cadburys Roses Large Egg 45pps per 307g
Smarties Small Egg 20pps per 138g
Smarties Mini Eggs 13pps per 100g
Cadburys Twirl Large Egg 47pps per 325g
Galaxy Medium Egg 24pps per 167g
Mars Medium Egg 29pps per 198g