Respecting his Appetite

Growing up, I had the BIGGEST sweet tooth ever.
If we ever stopped by the gas station on the way to church to fill up the car, I'd run inside and buy a pint of icecream with my own money and have that for breakfast. I'd eat half a gallon of icecream in one sitting at home. It's amazing how I was not an obese child growing up. I'd having hot wing eating contests with the guys, or eat full large pies of pizza on orchestra trips in high school. It's really bad and borderline amazing how much I ate growing up... and still stayed ever so tiny. Of course as I got into college, that magical metabolism went away, and I could no longer expect to go to Waffle House at 2am, and maintain my clothing size.
After a while, my sweet tooth was replaced with this love for spicy things. I will put tabasco or whatever other hot sauce is available at the time to anything and everything. I love hot wings. I love dipping my french fries in ketchup mixed with tabasco. I love squirting Sriacha sauce to anything relatively asian. And I love adding some habanero sauce to anything Tex-Mex/Spanish/Mexican. YUM. #mouthissalivating.

So, when I met Michael, it was so strange to find someone love sweets as much as he does. He loves icecream, chocolate, oreos, french toast.
And very recently, we have been trying to be healthier. Not for the sake of seeing a certain number on the scale, or to be able to fit into clothes from x seasons ago. But just for the sake of being healthy. So when I send Michael out to the grocery store for one thing, and he shows up with that one thing plus icecream... it's half humoring, but also when my control gauge turns on.
Several weeks ago, I bought a pack of oreos because I wanted to replace the oreo icing with toothpaste and give them to him as an April Fool's joke. I failed. So Michael's been able to enjoy some oreos every evening. Serving size is 3 cookies, but he insists on having 4. Last night, he snuck in 5.
And later that evening, I realized... instead of chasing him around the house to try to grab that last cookie from him... I should have just let him have it. He's been doing well all throughout the day. He's been making an effort to eat his 5 meals a day. He's been staying away from the heavy stuff and icecream at work. Just let him have a piece of heaven in the evening when he's trying to unwind from the day.
Because I've never snuck in a Girl Scout cookie, or stopped by McDonald's for their fries before..... ;)