Surely Those Goldfish Won’t Kill Them

As I push my adopted cart with one wobbly wheel through the grocery store, I peruse my list and hit up the produce section first.  I remind myself that I’ve read you should stay on the perimeter of the store, since the healthiest food is located there.  I remind myself of this every time. I load up on different colored peppers and apples and a bag of “cuties”.  I toss in bananas, broccoli, even beets (only for me, no one else in the house will touch them), Brussel sprouts (same with these) and a bag of spinach.  Our family of five may not eat it all this week but I have high hopes during every shopping trip that we will.  I am a produce eating optimist. The glass is half full with kale juice. (That would take a lot of kale).

I round the corner to the meat section and fill the buggy with pork chops and chicken thighs, guaranteed to have no antibiotics or hormones, and some grass feed ground beef.  I go over the week’s dinner menu in my head and mentally check off the list that sits in my purse.  I snatch some organic deli turkey and a few pounds of bacon.  My husband (and the kids and dog) loves bacon!  Applewood smoked, even better. The next area is the snack aisle.  I loathe the snack aisle, full of tempting cookies and pretzels, crackers, and wafers.  I typically skip this section all together because I’ve read the labels and watched the documentaries and we are not supposed to eat any of this stuff.  It’s junk and so bad for me and for my kids!  I’ve heard it many times.

Most of the things in that aisle have white processed flour, with little to no healthy properties, and contain sugar, lots and lots of sugar.  And if it does not have much sugar to begin with, well it has nasty carbohydrates that will eventually convert to sugar in our bodies and make us fat and sick. I ate so much of this stuff when I was a kid and in my head I have to wonder if it is not part of the reason  I struggle with my own weight.  My mom always had (and still does) packaged cookies around and she made sweets quite a bit when I was growing up.  I ate them gladly and without hesitation. To this day I have hard time turning those kinds of things away.  It is difficult for me to resist these purchases and I find myself at the store rationalizing the hell out of why one little carton of ice cream or a package of chocolate chip cookies is not going to be the death of me.  Or my family.  And so I settle for one package of “whole grain” goldfish.  That is all I take…

I want to be able to have this stuff without worrying about gaining a pound (or three). It seems I do just by looking at a package of vanilla wafers, that would taste so good in banana pudding. I’ve tried to stop eating these things.  I’ve lost weight while on a “low-carb” diet and running quite a bit.  When I have done so I have felt better but then the cravings come back with a vengeance and I get so mad that there are people out there who can eat this kind of stuff all the time and do not have two “spare tires” on their tummy like I do.  I figure my kids can have a little bit of this stuff, I mean they are kids! They burn off so much energy, right?

But admittedly, it is getting more difficult to ignore the worry and not feel guilty buying it when I see how sick we are as a country.  Nasty things like cancers and heart disease and that terrible thing called diabetes.  I worry for my children who have some of my same DNA and I know it is a good chance someday they may struggle like I do now.  I am trying to teach them that these things are “treats” and not to have them with every meal or even every day. I want them to know they cannot subsist on things made from simple carbs.  I need them to know that green things and protein are good but foods with ingredients you cannot pronounce are bad.

However, it is really hard because I enjoy those foods so much myself and I get sad just thinking about not having them. Yes, it’s true – I get sad.   Sugar and I have always been besties, so it’s much liking losing a long-time, comforting friend.  It’s also probably why I am 25 pounds overweight.

 

If there is any lesson I hope to teach my children about food it will be that sure, you can have those treats occasionally, for celebrations and the like.  However, you need real nutrients the most and in turn those things will taste even better when you do have them, and your body will surely thank you for it in the long run.  And that no, a small handful of goldfish will not kill them.  But the less of them they eat, the less I will worry for their well being.

Now if only I could teach myself these things too…