Day 39 - The Not-So-Last Temptation...

Ask anyone who's been on a diet about the honeymoon stage. It's the stage where you're sticking to the plan; you're in total and complete love with the plan. Your willpower is strong and you tend to make speeches about the merits of the plan and how well you're doing together.

I was on my honeymoon for an entire month, but now...the honeymoon is over. Now I'm married to the plan and although I know it's good for me in the long run, my eyes are starting to wander.

Last month, I resisted temptation(s) without much of a problem. I was able to handle the restaurant challenges and I could bypass my regular naughty haunts with ease, but recently I ran into a problem with a botched oven repair project of mine (long story) that left me with only my microwave as a cooking tool for almost two weeks. If I lived alone, maybe I could have survived on salad for dinner every night, but (here's where she blames it on the kids folks) I have the two teens that insisted on ordering take out every night for dinner.

When you start to slide even a tiny bit (in my case that meant eating things that I didn't personally prepare or wasn't entirely privy to the ingredients), the door to bigger temptations, opens just a bit wider. Through this door, just taunting me with their utter deliciousness were the following:

• Cheddar and Sour Cream Flavored Wise Ridgies Potato Chips
• IKEA Cinnamon Buns

I'll admit it. The chips were my fault. I bought them for my daughter's (you can always blame the kids) little gathering of friends coming over to work on a school project. I figured I'd be out of the house while they devoured all four bags and that upon my return, they'd all be gone (the chips and the company). When I did return however, there were three large bags left unopened on my kitchen counter. I should have sent the unopened bags home with the departing visitors but I had a mental block darnit! And I think I was a bit cocky; thinking that I wouldn't be tempted to eat them. That was yesterday...I want those chips! I want those chips so bad I could go in that kitchen right now and eat an entire bag all by myself. I'm dying here people!


Exposing myself to the IKEA cinnamon buns wasn't entirely my fault. I went shopping for a bookcase yesterday and my friends drove me to that God forsaken place. I should have had breakfast beforehand, but instead all I had was a banana; thinking that we would have brunch before we hit the stores. That plan was blown, but thank goodness one of my friends had an orange in her bag so I wasn't starving by the time we reached the IKEA restaurant that surprisingly had quite a few healthy whole food choices. There was no sign of those luscious cinnamon buns anywhere (oddly enough) and I almost thought I was going to escape the store without a hitch...until I left the checkout...OH GOD THE SMELL OF THE CINNAMON BUNS PEOPLE!!! It just hits you! KAPOW! My enabler...ooops I mean my friend, asked if I wanted to split one with her. I walked as if in a trance directly over to the food section and was just about to say yes. Then I stopped. I stopped and said "no." We all made a bee line for the door and left.


So you're probably wondering about my strategy for resisting temptation this time around. The strategy is simple, but remembering to use what I know is what makes it hard to execute. The strategy is to think about the ingredients; not the calories or fat grams or carbs, but just simply the ingredients. I knew right away that the cinnamon buns consisted of white flour, white sugar and yeast; right away three items I wanted to avoid. And silly me, I figured the chips were fried in corn, cottonseed or canola oil (ALL BAD!!), but little did I realize how long the ingredient list would actually pan out to be once I read it on the bag. Soooo, I just have to keep reminding myself about what's at stake here...good health and peace of mind. Eating whole, minimally processed foods will get me both as long as I continue to educate myself and stay alert. Avoidance is not the answer because it's not realistic. There is bad shit everywhere!


Just in case you're wondering about the complete ingredient lists for both of these temptations, click on the images below.
Note: I tried for the life of me to find the real bona fide ingredients list for the Ikea Cinnamon Buns, but I couldn't find them anywhere. I guess I should have bought them after all. All in the name of research of course. Instead I link to a Swedish recipe I found.