I’m what you could call a planner. (Except when I don’t plan at all, but we’re focusing on the planning bits for now.)
Before I started caring about things like calories and saturated fats and preservatives (oh my), it was not a rare thing for me to be out and about, get hungry, and stop at McDonald’s or Wendy’s for a quick ‘pick-me-up.’ Not necessarily for lunch or dinner, either. I’ve been known to stop for a 700-calorie snack on a whim.
The thing is, people get hungry. I get hungry… legitimately hungry! And what’s a girl supposed to do when you’re in the car running from one place to another for hours on end without accessibility to your healthy snacks?
Exactly! You bring a snack with you! An apple or a granola bar (I love all things Kashi). That way, if you get hungry on the road, you have a healthy option available. Without that, it’s a lot harder to resist pulling into that drive-thru.
So that’s the idea, at least. And for a long time, that worked for me: I would bring a snack when I knew I would be gone for a long time, and eat it only when I was truly hungry.
Then, slowly but surely, it turned into taking a snack with me just about every time I left the house, no matter how long I would be gone.
I never bring a snack home with me, either. They get eaten, every time. Usually within minutes of pulling out of the driveway.
Hungry or not.
Damn my 4H-taught preparedness! This is bad. It’s true that a 130-calorie granola bar made with 7 whole grains containing loads of fiber and tons of protein is a much better choice than a McHeartattack and fries. However, eating granola bars – for no other reason than they’re delicious – is not good either.
At this point, it’s just a habit: Upon leaving the house, I grab a snack, and upon leaving the driveway, I eat said snack.
I know I need to reign in this problem before it becomes more serious than it already is, but it’s tough. I can’t just say ‘No more snacks in the car’ because there are times that I really do need to have a snack with me. Just not every day.
Maybe I have an oral fixation and I just need some gum. Thoughts? Does this happen to anyone else or is it just me?
Let me tell you, it’s a good thing pie isn’t very portable.
(mmmm… pie…)
