Having the right food in the house when we’re losing or maintaining after 50 isn’t just nice, it’s essential to smart eating versus chowing like a hungry toddler-gone-wild.

I tend to reach for something sugary every evening (update: this was pre-ditching my evening sugar habit, read more about how I did it here). It took time, but I now get that embracing my sweet-tooth is the only tactic that’s worked.

I taste-tested and reviewed a bunch of “friendly” summer desserts, and rated them from not-so-much to awesome:

One

Two

Three

Angel food cake!!!

Love, love, love angel food cake, especially chunked up with strawberries and whipped cream. I mean, come on! So good. That said the grocery store prices are frightening — I haven’t yet adjusted to our new normal — so rather than buy a pre-made angel food cake: get a box mix or make angel food from scratch. The star of the angel food cake show is about 12 egg whites.

Four

Sugar-free chockablock pudding with whipped cream. Delish. This is my go-to when I “need” something fun that looks decadent.

Five

Creamy Coconut Popsicles.

Have you seen the popsicles by Outshine made for adults? If coconut isn’t your thing, they also come in strawberry, mango, peach, tangerine, strawberry-lemonade and more. Really tasty.

Six

Trader Joe’s Macaron cookies!

These three macarons with a good coffee makes me feel fancy.

Seven

When I’m craving something fun that’s not part of my clean eating plan (like, I made birthday cake for my boys), I’ll skip dinner all together and only have dessert.

And btw, I learned this strategy from “naturally thin” who eat what they want and aren’t limited by what dinner is “supposed to be.”

Having dessert for dinner gets all 5 stars because the scale will never be the wiser come morning (if you don’t go wild of course).

Eight

Voortman Sugar Free Vanilla Wafer Cookies.

Five stars. These wafer cookies are so fun. They come in vanilla, strawberry and chocolate with no high-fructose corn syrup plus 30 percent less carbs than the regular wafers.

Be still your heart because this company also makes sugar-free cookies in oatmeal, short bread, key lime pie, lemon, and chocolate chip.

I can’t be trusted with oatmeal cookies — I know my limits — but I can stop at a (sane) portion size with every other flavor.

Nine

Baby watermelons are my healthiest addiction.

I love everything about a ripe watermelon, but I’m terrible at picking huge melons well; I tend to pick mushy or overripe ones every time. I’ve had more luck with the small guys.

When I really need a huge, ripe watermelon, I ask the store’s fruit guy or the serious senior citizen — thumping melons a foot away — for assistance. (It’s never failed, people love to be helpful.)

Ten

My favorite is saved for last: top fresh strawberries with a whipped cream hat.

Berries are a perfect dessert because they’re beautiful, delicious, nutritious and don’t propel you into eating everything sugar in the kitchen. Five stars.

I love hearing your ideas! How do you keep your sweet-tooth from wrecking your clean eating days?

♥, Wendy

P.s. Are you new to the Inspired Eater? Welcome!! This blog won’t make much sense until you first read the Aunt Bea post (and you’ll find Aunt Bea on this page to the right under my short bio. After you enter your email address, the Aunt Bea article will be sent to your email’s inbox. If it’s not there, you might check the spam folder. And always feel free to email me at Wendy@TheInspiredEater.com and I’ll get Aunt Bea to you right away!

You know the scoop. Some links might be affiliate links and as an Amazon Associate, I may earn from qualifying purchases. Of course you incur no additional cost and I’ll always be totally upfront with you.