As part of your quest to become a more Playfull Human, have your sweet treat before dinner once in a while. Yes, you heard me. Eat dessert before dinner. Why?
Well, dessert is delicious and not a crime in moderation. So eat it first! After all, how many times have you looked at the menu and seen the chocolate lava cake with ice cream (my personal fave) or creme brûlée and thought…I am having that after dinner! Or after dinner at home, you plan to have a scoop of ice cream from the quart of Baskin Robbins Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream that your spouse lovingly purchased and put in the freezer. (Yes, he’s a sweetheart.)
But, then you eat dinner. Perhaps too much dinner, and oops! No room left for dessert. So you skip it. Sob. Sob. Sob. Or for you indulgent types, you eat the dessert even though you are completely full and now you have to unbutton your pants because your belly is expanding like you’re Violet Beauregard. No bueno, friends.
If you need a better reason, here’s one. Sugar can actually make you hungry. So, it’s better to eat it first because it makes you hungry for dinner. Who knew? Actually, my kids’ pediatrician knew and told me. In. Front. Of. My. Kids. (Sigh.) So, to the contrary, if you eat dessert after dinner, you may actually stir up your appetite and get snacky before bed. Then you end up diving into that bag of chips that you didn’t intend to purchase in the first place or digging into your stash of Girl Scout cookies at 9pm. Again, no bueno. So screw it. Open that quart of ice cream and dish out small scoops all around! Order that Bourbon Bread Pudding as an appetizer. Then sit down and eat your chicken and asparagus. We all know you’re not going to overeat that.
If you’re with other adults, help them be Playfull Humans. Give them permission to order a dessert appetizer too. Share one if you feel like you are breaking a cardinal rule. Here I must give a shout out to my friend Brian who partially inspired this post. He does this on a regular basis when going out to dinner. Kudos, Brian!
If you do this with kids, you will blow their mind. No joke. Here is my son the other night when we told him we were ordering churros before dinner.
And here is my other son when the churros came. It’s as if you’re cheating at the game of life. It’s awesome.
All hail dessert! Now, go forth and be Playfull.