Easter random thoughts

I had a Cadbury creme egg

I view the Cadbury creme egg as a decadent indulgence that is now forbidden, because each one would require two full 10K circuits around Burnaby Lake to burn off the calories they contain.

However, I spied a 3-pack in the store post-Easter at a discounted price I could not resist.

I had one.

It was…OK! Not particularly decadent. The surprising part is the calories per egg is only 150. I think this comes down mainly to the eggs being smaller than in days of yore. They are 40 grams each today. A cursory search of the internet suggests they may have shrunk by 7-11% in recent years. Part of it may also be that *I* was smaller when I used to eat these semi-regularly, so the eggs may have seemed bigger back then in comparison.

In any case, I’m sated now and still losing weight. Win-win!

Of Easter candies past

As I am still trying to lose weight, I am opting out of indulgences this Easter, but I can still wax nostalgic on the candy I enjoyed in days past. Here is my reminisce, in handy list form:

  • Cadbury Creme Eggs: I used to buy three-packs of these and eat all three eggs at once. Well, one at a time, but one after the other. The thought of doing so now makes me queasy. These were and are super rich. One is enough. For the entire year. Maybe longer. But as a kid, I loved these.
  • Chocolate Easter Bunny: The hollow ones were never as much fun as the solid ones, although the fact that they could make “hollow” chocolate amazed me as a kid. The solid ones, on the other hand, these had some serious heft. Eating one (starting at the ears, of course) was something to be tackled over multiple sessions, gnawing away like a dog with a chew toy. Thinking about it now makes my jaw tired. And to be honest, the chocolate wasn’t great, but I was not a discerning young lad.
  • Cream Half Eggs: I can’t remember the name of these, and today you can probably only get them via established brands, such as Oh Henry, but back in the days of yore, these eggs (flat on the bottom, so shaped like an egg cleaved in two from end to end) had a creamy filling that wasn’t as sickly sweet as the Cadbury eggs, but were still yummo and probably my favorite of the bunch.
  • Marshmallow Eggs: Never a real favorite, but I never turned one down.

You may notice this list does not include Peeps. That is deliberate.

If I do have a snack on Easter, it will probably be a bowl of low sugar cereal. Woo.

Easter 2019: Eggless

Or more accurately, eggless thus far. Tomorrow is Good Friday, so I still have a few days to rectify my egg-free situation.

In the meantime, I recall as a kid I loved Easter because of the copious amounts of Easter candy. I don’t recall the origin of Easter turning into a candyfest and even though I could easily look it up now (thanks, internet!) I don’t really need to know. All I know is I loved Easter for the following reasons:

  • Chocolate bunnies. The hollow ones were fine, the solid ones were the kid equivalent of gold bars in value.
  • The cream-filled eggs that came wrapped candy-bar style. They weren’t true egg shapes, as they had flat bottoms, but they were very yummy. The Oh Henry! variant was quite good.
  • Cadbury Creme Eggs. Interestingly, these have been hard to come by this year. I don’t think I’ve seen any in stores. Did they stop making them? (Fake edit: No, they just changed the packaging to confuse me.) They are apparently only 150 calories each. I say “only” because I don’t think I’ve ever eaten two in a row, or ever could. They are, as they say, rich. But they were always my favorite. And who am I kidding? As a kid I probably ate a three-pack in a minute flat. 450 calories–I could burn that off in a 10K run now. I’d be tempted, but I really don’t think I’d make it through three. I’d need days to recover before I could even think about running to work them off.
  • Pretty much any other bunny or egg-shaped candy, unless it contained black licorice. That stuff is grossbuckets. I’ll happily eat broccoli as an adult, but black licorice was and still is still a no-go.

Anyway, here’s to a happy Easter. The weather is supposed to be decent-ish (cloudy, seasonal) so I may go out and pretend to hunt for eggs. Then buy some for half-price the day after.

Easter before Valentine’s? Yes!

Yesterday was February 13, the day before Valentine’s. As I was shopping for groceries I wondered if Easter candy would be butting up against the shelves stuffed with Valentine’s confectionary (Easter is on April 16 this year, over two months from now). I suspected this would be the case–and I was correct. There were chocolate Easter bunnies and candy eggs and other assorted Easter goodies right next to the heart-shaped chocolates.

We are one step closer to uberholiday, when all holidays merge into one giant, continuous celebration. It sounds grand in a hedonistic kind of way but the reality would just be endless ads all year long, an unrelenting assault on the senses (well, more so than usual).

The next step toward uberholiday will be Mother’s Day stuff showing up before Easter. Soon people will buy bunnies for Mother’s Day. Next will be bunnies in heart-shaped baskets for mom. From there will follow a full descent into holiday chaos and madness.

Happy Easter! Bonus: My sore back, Day 2

I find myself distracted on this Easter Sunday by my back. Sleeping with the pulled muscles last night was not as bad I had expected, with it only being an issue when I wanted to roll over. Starting the rollover motion was a bit of a pain (ho ho). I tried to just lay on my back but when I’m awake I’m like a shark, I need to keep moving. Tonight I plan on having my brain and back discuss this and come to an agreement of sorts that will minimize anything that will hurt.

Putting my socks on this morning was also not the most fun thing I did today but by afternoon I was well enough to walk to the store. I sometimes even had it slip my mind that my back was sore at all. I am skeptical about being ready to run tomorrow, but hope springs eternal and all that.

In the meantime, peeps are still weird*.

* Easter-related content