As we closely approach the halfway point here, I thought I’d share a rant with ya’ll that may help with nutritional vectoring/compliance.
Ever notice how much junkfood is in your workspace? And when I say “junkfood”, I mean it in two senses. One, in the traditional sense of junkfood: food that is devoid of redeeming nutritional quality and simply there to taste yummy. But, in addition to that, it’s also “junk food”: it’s BAD junkfood.
What do I mean? At my office, someone brings in 3 packages of iced oatmeal cookies twice a week and leaves them out there for everyone to eat. Already, that’s junkfood…but these are the Walmart “Great Value” brand iced oatmeal cookies. It’s not even GOOD junkfood! It’s like the bottom of the barrel junkfood. It’s not even the Keebler ones, with the adorable elves on it: “Great Value” won’t even bother to put a pretty drawing or a cartoon character on it. It’s the “Malt o Meal” of cookies to the rest of the world’s Kellogs or Post.
Or what about the litany of candy dishes stocked with generic and off brand chocolates and sweets. Has anyone EVER been excited about a tootsie roll? I am fairly certain they are made of the same material they are wrapped in.
The generic box of donuts from god knows where? A dollar a dozen, and worth every penny.
Folks, if you’re going to deviate from your plan, WHY would you deviate with junk junkfood? Why would you let THIS tempt you to stray? If you’re going to stray, at LEAST do it on something worthwhile. If chocolate is your weakspot, don’t eat a tootsie roll: get some Godiva or Sees (my California roots are showing). If you’re going to have a cookie, at LEAST get in from the venerable Mrs. Fields, but ideally have it homebaked from someone who knows what they are doing. Get a gourmet donut that is ridiculously decadent. Falling for this junk junkfood in your office space simply because it’s there is like eating a hot dog from a street vendor using the 99 cent white bread buns when you’re standing outside a Costco that can at LEAST get you the time honored $1.50 hot dog combo (which has been DEMONSTRATED to result in weight loss!)
I used to fall for this trap as well. I used to eat “junk junkfood”. I’d tell myself it was part of my weekly carbloading, and I’d binge on all manner of gastrointestinal monstrosities. Fast food burgers and tacos, storebought bagged “goodies”, packaged candy, etc etc. Meanwhile, my wife is a phenomenal cook and baker, and in our home we’d only eat “on diet” stuff…it was SO backwards. These days, if I’m going to eat “junkfood”, it’s going to be amazing! Homemade cookies, cakes and bread, fantastic pasta dishes and casseroles, grilled cheese sandwiches on homemade sourdough with gourmet cheese and grassfed butter: REAL good junkfood. In turn, when I walk through my work space, none of this junk junkfood even registers to me as a temptation…or really, even as “food”. It’s just there.
If you’re going to deviate from your plan, MAKE IT WORTH IT. You don’t want to be kicking yourself over a stale 60 cent donut that you absent-mindedly munched on simply because it was physically within your presence: take the time to find some GOOD junkfood, sit down, enjoy it, and then get back on point.