How I Dropped A Whole Lot More Than 20 Pounds By Eating Chocolate Chip Pancakes…

Over a nice breakfast this morning, my kids were quizzing me about pancakes. 

I am by no means an expert because pancakes add little value to the outcome of my life.  But their questions reminded me of when I was a kid how I learned an important lesson about pancakes – of the chocolate chip variety.

When I was 12 or so we didn’t have a lot of money to go out to eat.  So it was a rare occasion I found myself out to eat breakfast.  But every time we had breakfast out,  I dove into the menu searching for the coveted chocolate chip pancake dish I longed for.  Often times the restaurant wouldn’t have it.  When the restaurant did have these morsel laden pancakes, my Mom wouldn’t let me get them.  She had good reason.  Before I hit my teens, I was overweight and meals involving chocolate and pancakes would contribute to my chub-factor. 

But this one Sunday was special.  She wanted to celebrate a job promotion, so it was a Sunday breakfast out and Lo, they had Chocolate Chip pancakes on the menu!  I sheepishly asked if I could order them to which she replied “just this once.”

I couldn’t wait.  In my mind, these pancakes would be like getting a 3 big chocolate chip cookies stacked on one another.  How happy I was at last to finally taste the sweetness of this coveted dish. 

Mount Everest

When the dish finally arrived, I’ll say it looked even better than it did in the picture.  The plate was huge.  Chocolate chips were not only baked into the pancakes, there was a generous pile forming a mini-Mount Everest of cocoa of them on top of the cakes.  And to top everything off, there was whipped cream cresting the outer edges of the flapjacks thereby sealing the visual representations of the neighboring Himalayan peaks.  Ok, I’m on a mountain theme, just work with me.

The first bite was wonderful.  A dream come true.  The cakes were perfect, the chocolate decadent.  I took another bite and then another.  What joy to be a kid devouring a mountain of chocolate, whipped topping and pancakes.  Was this heaven? 

Base Camp #3

Then, I hit a pitfall.  I got to about the half way mark on the pancakes.  Like reaching base camp 3 on an Everest expedition, my mind threw me.  I was a little dizzy and sick to my stomach.  In an instant, I knew I had too much.

I must have done something wrong, I thought.  Maybe I should have started on the south side and skipped the base camp of whipped cream topping.  Or maybe I should have forgone the chocolate chip peak for a tour of the lower foothills.  I had no idea.  But I did know it was too late. 

To save face, I put on a big smile and offered some to my sister, hoping, no praying, she’d take the other half.  No, she said.  She wasn’t having any of it.

Maybe my mom would want some?  “No you enjoy them.” she said.

I was stuck.  I stared down at the plate of now gooey chocolate, cream infused batter and became more nauseous by the second.  Maybe I could take them to go and sneak them into the trash when nobody was looking.  No, they are getting soggy as-is.  They won’t keep.  My Mom said.  If you want them, go ahead and finish them up.  I don’t know if she even had a clue I wanted to throw up.  She may have thought I was still enjoying them.

Descending From The Peak

Finally, I had to come clean.  They are making me sick, I told her.  Thankfully she said to stop eating them.

To this day, almost 30 years later, the thought of chocolate chip pancakes makes me a little nauseous.

Bottled Oxygen

But the experience was important because I learned two lessons that day.  First, the old saying “be careful what you wish for because you might get it.”  I got what I wished for and regretted almost every minute of it.

The second lesson was that food can’t make me happy.  Chocolate is good but only if taken in small quantities.  The same with cake.  But neither can make me happy. 

In retrospect, I think the great chocolate chip pancake experiment drove a wedge deep in my mind about how eating can be both pleasure and pain.  That small portions are good, large portions are bad.  Like the adult who doesn’t drink alcohol because he threw up from drinking as a 15 year old, I formed the same association with food.

I have been thin since high-school (minus my first year of marriage when gained and subsequently lost over 50lbs. due to Kim’s delicious cooking.)   I still like chocolate, but I am careful with it.  Never too much.  I still like pancakes but 1 or 2 is plenty. 

If you struggle with weight loss, you can draw upon a similar event from your childhood.  Maybe you ate too much ice cream one day or ate potato chips until you were sick. 

You don’t need to scar yourself for life like I did but maybe just thinking about those incidents more often would help.  Or try pinning a picture that represents your eating to the point of nausea to your refrigerator to remind you that you should both be careful what you wish for and that food cannot make you happy…

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