I define dessert as something sweet to end a meal.

A cookie at 3 in the afternoon would not be a dessert (for me).

Good luck.

i don't think I have a definition of 'dessert.' Since my youngest was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes when he was 3, I focused on the word 'treat' instead. One treat per day is our family rule. A treat may be a cup of cocoa with your breakfast, but it could also be a hot fudge sundae after lunch.

On another note, I always advise people looking to reduce sugar intake to look at the 'hidden' sources. I used to be crazy for ketchup. This is my mother's fault. The Heinz Keg o'Ketchup was a staple in our household. She cooked all meat until it was dry as dust and then told us to put ketchup on it. Kicking the habit was a big win for me, and today I cannot stand the stuff.

I know this is controversial, but I also do not eat a lot of fruit. It's just sooooo sweet. It really triggers sugar cravings for me. Maybe one serving a day. I eat a lot of vegetables.

By definition, desert is the course that ends a meal and is sweet. That leaves lots of loopholes for eating sweets.

Dessert. By my weird standpoint, something that is too sweet for me to ever care to eat, unless I absolutely have to be polite. (Okay, a few exceptions, but not many.)

Dessert is the reason I eat a meal. Yeah, pie. Cake is a close second.

I would define it the same as maddielie. However I personally would see no point in limiting my dessert consumption if I was eating sweets at times other than the end of a meal. When I first read your post I thought sweets in general - limiting to 12x per year - which would mean any kind of concoction made with some kind of sugar-like sweetener. In that case the only thing I'd exclude that I'd consider as an alternative dessert/sweet would be fruit.

I think of dessert as the end of a dinner. Usually when dining out. Rarely will I eat a sweet/dessert right after dinner at home I might have a cookie or ice cream much later on.

I think you need to redefine dessert. I Understand you mean anything sweet that really isn't necessary for a healthy diet. If you had a piece of fruit after dinner, would you call it a dessert? Probably not.

I applaud you, but I am confused about the WHY? of it all. As a WW life time member, I am used to eating everything I choose as long as I am mindful.

Since it is YOU who is restricting yourself, dessert can mean whatever you want it to mean :)

My son has always needed a little something after his lunch, so for years now we've been having "lunch dessert." To me, dessert is something sweet after a meal.

Also, I don't want to start anything but this talk of pie forces my hand; cake>pie. Team cake.

I've found myself lately starting with dessert so I can enjoy it. 99% I'm full from the meal and don't enjoy the dessert...I still eat it though.

I do enjoy a sweet at the end of the meal, but since I'm a lifer with WW, when I'm losing weight like now, a dessert for me will be sliced banana or strawberries or peaches with perhaps a sprinkling of unsweetened cocoa powder and a squirt of reddi whip. Sweet and fancy enough to count as dessert for me, but it only counts as 1 point at WW.

I like the idea of eating it when you can enjoy it. For me that is more often to top off lunch not the evening dinner meal. I agree with Maddie, if you are talking DESSERT. If you are talking sweets/sugar/those things not nutritious/empty calories then a cookie in the afternoon would count.

Thanks to everyone who commented. I really wasn't trying to be clever or trying to redefine dessert-I do know what it means to me. But I was curious about others' opinion.

Having something sweet, regularly, like at least once a day and maybe more, is what I am changing. I don't include fruit because for me it doesn't trigger cravings. But I do include things like hot chocolate and graham crackers. For the record, we don't have real dessert hanging around here regularly unless we've had company. My favorite dessert is dark chocolate chips.

I do feel that sweet things like this trigger cravings for more of the same for me. I am interested in seeing what happens if I stop eating these things. I have always been pretty careful about reading labels to see how much sugar there is in a serving of something. I don't eat a lot of processed foods, and I am a very picky eater in general, so that eliminates a lot of hidden sugar possibilities.

I totally get why this may seem like a crazy idea. I've done things similar in the past, but for only a month, and it's been years since I've tried. The last time I eliminated chocolate for a month DD2 said, "Mom. What if you die tomorrow? Then the last month of your life you wouldn't have had any chocolate!!"

In honor of this thread, I just defrosted a Gravenstein apple pie I made late last summer, and will eat it all myself. Not at once, but probably for breakfast and lunch until it is gone.

I like chocolate just fine, but it's not the end-all as for some. I'd choose berry pie over chocolate cake. Mostly I prefer savory to sweet food. Last night I hosted my book club and had cheeses, olives, smoked salmon, etc. They went crazy over a pumpkin spice bread I made at the last minute from a Trader Joe's mix. Go figure.

First of all - dark chocolate is a food group and not a dessert.

We never eat a formal "dessert" but there are often homemade cookies in a container on the counter. You won't find pie or cakes in the house. If I feel like spoiling my DH I will buy him a slice of layered lemon cake from the bakery section of our grocery store. I'm not a diet goody two-shoes by any stretch (see comment re dark chocolate) but I've never understood the habit of having dessert.

So what is dessert? Perhaps it is simply a habit.

Oh, and a hot fudge sundae is not a treat but rather it is 500 empty calories full of fat and sugars.

leela - Like you I grew up eating dessert after every lunch/dinner/supper. I stopped when I moved out on my own. Didn't even think about it. I just didn't want it. All of my siblings still eat dessert. They look at me funny when we go out to eat and I say "No, thank you." when the dessert question is asked. I'll have a very small piece of whatever is offered when I'm a guest at someone's house but never eat dessert otherwise. I rarely eat non-dessert sweets either. I just don't crave sweets. Good luck with your challenge but I don't think you'll be a "failure" if you have a nibble of chocolate once a week.

I do feel that sweet things like this trigger cravings for more of the same for me.

I'm the same way. If I decide to have a pack of M&Ms at 3:00 one day, the next day, right around 3:00 I start craving M&Ms!

I recently did the Whole 30 diet - no sugar, sweeteners of any kind, no dairy, no grains, no legumes - and I actually found it incredibly easy. And I have a wicked sweet tooth! I only lost a couple of pounds, but that wasn't the point for me. I wanted to see how it felt to not eat any sugar, or have a sip of wine. And it actually felt pretty damn good!

2 years ago I decided to quit added sugar. I eat fruit, drink wine, etc. I am not a fanatic in the sense that if I go to a restaurant, and the sauce on something turns out to be sweet-- I eat it. But not eating pie,cake, candy, etc. is something I have stuck to, and I will look at labels in the supermarket and avoid the sugars.

When I first started this my only plan was to see if I could do this for a month. It was hard for the month. But then I thought maybe I'll try for 3 months. After 3 months, the urge totally disappeared I just didn't see the point of going back to square one. I love food, but I don't see it as depriving myself. Because I honestly don't miss it.

Leela I can't eat sugar at all unless it's an apple or banana or other fruit. Everyone else has to eat a portion for me :-).

I say you could continue to eat sugar whenever you feel like it. Just make sure you feel like it.

If you are craving more after you eat a certain type of sweet just wait 20 minutes; then wait 20 minutes longer and so on. That's what I used to do with my cravings and it worked very well for me. Usually a craving doesn't hang around for a long long time. Also just because you have a craving doesn't mean you need to listen to it.

I did silly things like talk to my cravings too and thanking them for reminding me I needed to get some protein. Which they used to say you needed when you had a sugar craving.

When you limit food with added sugars, same goes for salt, you start to taste the sweetness/saltiness in it's natural state in the food.

ETA: Bunny, all this talk about pie, I just made a pumpkin pie to surprise DH. (I'll have some too)

eld, now that’s the spirit! I’m just about to nuke a piece for pre-lunch.

Apropos of very little, back prior to retirement, often at the lunch table I'd tell everyone I was headed back into the cafeteria to pick up dessert. (For the last 5-6 years working I pretty much had brought in my own lunches, which simply by so doing I'd lost 40 pounds...) At any rate, the regulars at the table rapidly learned to know what I meant.

The not-so-regulars at our table were always stunned when I'd come back with a dish of spinach or asparagus. Yep, dessert, end of meal treat for me! (That cafeteria always made the best asparagus, had to have it!)

I do something similar at sushi bars on occasion: "Time for dessert! Yes, I'd love a yellowtail scallion hand roll, thank you!"

(I do eat sweets on occasion, but there are really very few I truly enjoy. Quality dark chocolate, some cheesecakes, strawberries or raspberries, ice cream... and I don't have the cravings often.)

Bunny, I just skipped over the rest of the replies to say I loved Gravenstein apples and have missed them in Texas. Sounds like a great breakfast to me (though I don't know that I could eat a whole pie of any type before it was past its prime). Enjoy that pie!

Who eats one cookie? ....Maybe that's the key to my problem, and pie for breakfast.

lascatx, if this pie passes its prime before I finish it, I will give it a decent burial. The crust is particularly delectable, a friend's recipe. It's rather on the short side and a little difficult to handle, but it virtually explodes with tender flakiness.

Hey, Bunny. No need to let your pies pass their prime. Do you slice it before you freeze it? Then you just pull out one piece at a time to defrost. Or would that assault your senses? The day after Thanksgiving, DH and I enjoy a slice of pumpkin pie for breakfast. Or maybe apple cranberry crisp.

Honu, I don't bake it before I freeze it. Instead of going into the oven, it gets triple wrapped and goes into hibernation in my freezer. So when I do bake it, it's like time stood still and this is a fresh pie, like I sliced the apples yesterday. Can't tell the difference.

Oh that sounds delish. I’m on my way over to help!

Well, I'm in the eat-dessert-first camp if I feel like it (rarely do, though)...but I would say that dessert is the after meal sweet...

However, if I told myself I would be limited to 12 a year, that would be like a challenge to my stomach, so I would be setting myself up for failure straight away.

My preference is a cookie (or 10) once in a while (or everyday). I'm usually too full after a meal.