I’m a big fan of chocolate sundaes.  A couple scoops of ice cream, some chocolate sauce, preferably hot, with a few nuts and a cherry on top.  Delicious!  Brings me back to my childhood.

Just the thought of a chocolate sundae brings me so far back to childhood, I’m also reminded that I used to weigh 400 pounds as a teenager.  My mom and I would drive every night after dinner to the ice-cream store for one.  Sometimes we’d have two.

These days, chocolate sundaes seem to be plain.  There are lots of ice-cream stores that have “perfected” them into brownie sundaes, candy-bar sundaes, mix-in candy ones, hot fudge and marshmallows with crushed cookies on top sundaes.  Don’t forget the whipped cream!

No wonder I weighed 400 pounds from eating them every night.  I’ve done some research: there’s a national ice-cream chain that sells sundaes with variations of cookies, candy bars, cookie dough and whipped cream – it has 1,290 calories and 33 grams of saturated fat in it.  That’s like eating three giant cheeseburgers.

They also serve soft-serve sundaes with chocolate brownie pieces and hot fudge (and of course whipped cream).  That one carries 1,900 calories and 39 grams of saturated fat.

Think of it as a special treat that you can easily exercise away?  OK – get ready to walk as fast as you can for seven (7) hours to burn that one off! Just the fat in one of their sundaes is the amount an average weight person would consume in 2-3 days.  That’s total fat, if they ate nothing else.

I don’t mean to be a bring-down.  I just want you to know, and to be conscious, and free to choose your treats, without compulsion.

If you want a sundae treat, try a scoop of frozen yogurt or even fat-free ice-cream, or a delicious fruit sorbet.  Or a sugar-free frozen treat.  Those have about 150 calories or so, with 4-5 grams of saturated fat.

If you absolutely MUST have a regular chocolate sundae.  Try having half of it.  Ask the scooper to make you a “mini.”  Or better yet, share it with two friends!

After a lot of research on myself, the love of sundaes for me translated into needing love from my mother.  Those nightly jaunts to the ice-cream palaces weren’t about the ice-cream; they were really about being together with someone who loved me.  I’ve learned to get love from my family, instead of from such damaging desserts.