Terri’s View: Valentine’s Day: a time to let the ones we love know how much we care. A time to show our appreciation for our significant others, to let them know how much they mean to us all year round.  A time for love. A time for romance. A time for flowers. A time for chocolate.

Valentine’s Day is a rough one for me. (I feel like I say that about every holiday!) My husband knows this and even when I wasn’t watching my weight, he knew not to bring home chocolate. I told him not to – I knew I would just eat the whole thing. I’m a practical girl, I tell him not to buy me flowers either as they wilt in just a few days. I would much rather spend that money on a mani-pedi or new blouse. 

But even with hubbs not bringing chocolate home, it still finds its way into our house now that I have kids. Parties at school tend to lead to endless goodie bags filled with one of my favorite treats. I don’t need the fancy, high-end chocolate sold around this time of year - I am perfectly content with the cheap everyday stuff. Which means, what’s in the goodie bags is usually fine by me.

So, how do I make it through this romantic holiday without going totally overboard? Well first off Ed and I don’t really celebrate Valentine’s. That’s not to say that after 20 years of marriage we have lost our romance. As a matter of fact, each of us losing over 100 pounds has injected our marriage with plenty of romance. But what I mean is we don’t go crazy with gifts. If we’re lucky, my sister will watch the kids and we’ll splurge on a date night out and call it our V-day celebration.

But that’s the easy part, the hard part for me is not raiding the kids’ goodie bags leftover from school events. Usually I pick out a few things they like and hide the rest. It’s usually an “out of sight (hopefully) out of mind” kinda thing. I let the kids have a few and save some for dessert but if a day goes by and they don’t ask for it again, I just toss it. Yes, I admit, it’s weak of me not to be able to keep the candy around for as the occasional treat for them but I know my limitations. It may not bother me for couple of days and then I may have an emotional day or PMS and the bag would be gone with nothing left but some empty wrappers and a sugar-overloaded mama.

There have been many occasions where I have had to throw food out to resist temptation - mainly leftover desserts from parties and chocolate from kiddie parties. I feel bad and I try to give it away if I can but if I can’t – in the trash it goes. So this Valentine’s Day keep it about showing your loved one you care by offering a massage (OK, some jewelry probably wouldn’t hurt too) and leaving the chocolate on the shelf!