Smug Wanna-be Health Nut

Signs I am becoming slightly complacent about this whole weight maintenance thing: I hit the health food store.

Seriously.

This happens every few months. I feel like I’m doing fine – like, hey, I can live with the amount of food I’m eating, but wouldn’t it be better if it were a little healthier? (I definitely don’t eat enough vegetables, I haven’t met a carb I haven’t befriended, and I’ve been known to make both of my allotted snacks chocolate.) So I read food blogs, consider cooking, and then walk up and down the aisle of the health food store, contemplating things that might taste good and then – as always when I buy new things -- wanting to eat them all. One after another.

Why am I such a slow learner? I should have this down by now: Too much choice is bad for me. Studies show that when people are given more kinds of food they eat more. I had a nutritionist tell me that most people eat the same 12-14 foods. So does it really matter if I eat the same things day in and day out if I like them and they fill me up? Honestly, I think I just like the smug factor that comes with shopping in a health food store – and the feeling of shopping, period, since I don’t dare shop for anything but food (hello, can you say “made redundant”?) I can always manage to justify any non-binge food expense…

Today’s purchases: Organic porridge with seeds; milled flaxseed, sunflower and pumpkin seeds (see me pretend I’m going to add this to my porridge – it is 163 calories for a 30g serving. That’s practically the calories of a 30g serving of Green & Blacks!); a cashew cookie Larabar (definitely will eat that), a 30g Montezuma’s milk chocolate (I tried to talk myself into dark but frankly, I don’t really like dark chocolate); a single serving of beetroot, parsnip and carrot crisps (just reread article about the 12 foods we’re not eating enough of, and one of them is beetroot); a coconut bar (for my porridge – keep reading katheats.com and thinking about experimenting though I fear having to cut down on actual porridge quantities to make room for topping calories); and wholewheat ravioli in a pumpkin vegetable sauce (seriously delicious – just had for lunch). Total bill: £23.

I am pledging here not to binge on this stuff (I know, I know – but I could binge on anything.) And if thinking about it – or how to combine any of it – sends my head into too much of a tailspin I am binning it.