24 Points worth of cupcakes ...

That's them, over at the right: The Carrot-Pumpkin Cupcakes from the latest issue of Weight Watchers magazine.

They're 3 Points apiece, so if you count the one on the cooling rack in back, that's 24 Points worth of cupcakes.

Thank goodness I didn't eat them all! I actually managed to restrain myself and eat just one, if you can believe it.

Actually, I was more than a little restrained: The recipe said it made 16 cupcakes, but I ended up with 17. I froze nine of them for later and made half a batch of frosting for the rest. I ate one the first night I made them (and gave one to the roommate's husband. I’d have let her have one, too, but she just started doing Atkins again, and they had way too many carbs in them for her.) I ate a second one Monday night when I got home from work.

Then, knowing my dentist was on WW too, I took four of the five that were left to him Tuesday morning, saving just one more to eat myself. My ploy to butter him up didn't work, though: I still need a root canal. Bummer.

Successful or not, that leads me to my tip for the day: If you must bake (and sometimes feel I must), don’t eat all of what you make yourself. Share it — with friends, family, co-workers … whoever you can get to try a “healthy” treat.

(My Boyfriend, unfortunately, need not apply. He doesn’t do healthy. I wish he did, because then I wouldn’t have to stare down a bag of Sour Cream and Onion Ruffles. Right now, I’m winning. I counted out a serving — 11 chips for 4 WW Points — and am studiously avoiding a second helping.)