My wife and I usually have a group of people over to our place every Monday. We like to share our lives with these folks and discuss things of mutual interest. So, anyway, we also serve coffee and cookies. Now, I am a sucker for pastries, pie, some cakes, and some cookies. I also like to explore new kinds of cookies. I found it interesting that some kind of computer programming led to identifying “cookies” as those little objects placed on my computer that allow another computer to recognise my computer; I’m not talking about those kinds of cookies. I like to eat the cookies I’m talking about, so I like to explore all kinds of new cookies whenever I can.

One of our problems, however, is that my wife and I (she likes to claim that I am the one who is always doing this and not her) find ourselves eating almost all the cookies before and after our guests on Monday nights have come and gone. This is not helping our plan to lose weight.

So it was that we found ourselves shopping over the weekend, and when we came near the aisle with the cookies, I turned the shopping basket — yes, I’m a control freak who has to push the shopping basket — into that aisle with just a bit more enthusiasm and energy than I had done when turning down the aisle with toilet paper. That is when my wife caught up with me and started monitoring what I was putting into the basket.

I had found these really great looking cream filled cookies from a different bakery. I had never seen them before, and some of them were banana flavoured and some were other things. So, she picked them up and scolded me that they contained a very high percent of saturated fat. Okay. We put those back on the shelf, and in their place I grabbed a couple of other packages. These were mint something or other, and I held onto them so they would not disappear.

Then, my wife said, “What about fig bars? Do you like fig bars?”

“Well, yes,” I said, knowing that fig bars are a favourite. Some things don’t have to be new; they can just be good over and over and over again. There are actually two packs of fig bars in each box, so it feels like you’re getting more than you are, and that’s a good thing.

So, she said she would go get the fig bars and we proceeded to check out. When we got the fig bars home, she opened them and ate a couple. The opened package remained on the counter, and we nibbled on a few at a time. Just two or three fig bars couldn’t hurt. Then, two or three more. Then, two or three more. Somewhere in the course of the evening we went through one entire package and opened the second. I told myself, as I opened that second package, “Well, we’ll save a few for our guests; they usually don’t eat that much.” So we nibbled. This morning, the fig bars are all gone. But that’s okay. We’ve still got the mint something or others, and if our guests don’t really like them, then I’m sure my wife and I will be able to figure out what to do with them.

So, here is where I take note that being smart about one’s health includes allowing oneself a few simple pleasures. Someone has advised, “Everything with moderation”. I believe in that. I rehearse it in my mind’s ear.

However, self-care must include elements of play and behaviour that is fun, or else it becomes drudgery. This is not the same thing as wild impulsiveness and total loss of inhibition. Play is something we do naturally as children and only teach ourselves to give up in favour of getting ahead in life and being more “mature” and adult. Ironically, some of the most successful adults are those who never really did give up play; they have managed to keep having fun doing the things they do in business and professional life. For them, work is a game. It’s like turning the shopping basket down the cookie aisle and playing with one’s wife to see who can manage to get the most cookies out of the market before the other one guilt trips them back onto the shelf.

What’s that? You think I’m being a bit too self-serving in my analysis of cookie eating? Spoil sport!