The candy baby

The candy covered the conference table like a decorative runner, the orange, blue, red and silver wrappers calling us with their promises of milk chocolate, peanut butter and caramel.

It sat there the entire class until, at the very end, Dr. Wyatt said, “Go ahead. Make a pile of your favorites.”

We grabbed at the Halloween candy, hoping this was a special treat, maybe because we’d been so good. Then Dr. Wyatt passed around plastic sandwich bags. “Now put all your candy in the bag.”

Once we snapped our bags shut, Dr. Wyatt delivered the news: for the next seven days we would have to keep these “candy babies” in sight at all times (so named for the likeness to baby dolls high schoolers have to “parent” for homework). And we had to return every piece of candy the following week.

My candy baby went with me everywhere. She sat at my desk all day, stowed away in my purse at an awards banquet, and withstood stares from people at the gym.

Co-workers stopped at my desk with furrowed brows, wondering why I would torture myself like this and why I didn’t offer any to them.

"The idea [behind the candy baby exercise] is that sometimes you will be in a situation where something -- candy, a piece of cheesecake, chips -- are going to be put in front of you and you may not be able to control that," Dr. Wyatt said. "What will you do?  What can you control or do it make it less likely you will eat the candy in a moment of weakness?"

I love candy – the taste, the texture, the sugar high, the instant gratification. But fewer than 24 hours after receiving my candy baby, it (mostly) ceased to exist as a temptation. The wrappers’ sheen faded and I could picture the melted and remolded chocolate inside the wrappers, becoming less appetizing with every new location to which it traveled.

Slowly, we’re gaining perspective on some of our worst vices, trying to see them away from the grip they usually have on us, but I think it will take a lot more than one week with a candy baby to make us immune to its attraction, to automate the skills necessary to say no. 

At least Halloween only comes once a year.