Jami and I are trying to eat healthier, exercise more and drop a few pounds as our wedding date gets closer.
The problem with dieting, or eating healthy is that everything that isn’t good for me looks absolutely delicious.
I have never been a fan of Bubble Tape, but now I want to shovel seven feet in my mouth.
Grocery stores don’t make things any easier.
Each checkout lane has shelves on each side of shoppers taunting them with Reese’s Peanut Butter cups, Almond Joys, Whatchamacallits and beef jerky.
Not only are we surrounded by high-caloric treats, sometimes there is no escape.
If someone is in line behind you with a cart, and another person is in front, you just have to tough it out and stare at the ground. I wouldn’t recommended closing your eyes as you shuffle through the line in case the corner of the counter jumps out and catches you. It is at the right height to do some major damage.
I propose a a new diet lane at stores. It would be similar to the express lane, but instead of limiting the number of items someone has, it just has healthy snacks, or none at all on the shelves.
There could be salads, fruits and vegetables, turkey sandwiches without mayo. . .
Sure, I get it that the checkout lanes are stocked with impulse items. That last minute Nestle Crunch bar, or a Slim Jim. But who’s to say that someone may want some kale or butternut squash as a quick snack on the drive home from the store?
My diet consists of a lot of protein and fruit, and I get to eat several times a day.
However, Jami is doing one of the points-based diets where she tracks what she eats and points are assigned to everything from a bottled water (0 point) to margarita (27 points).
Both of our diets change our planning for meals, and cuts out our convenient call ins for large meat lovers pizza (104 points).
Witnessing the point system puts into perspective how terrible my diet has been in the past.
There are some fast-food meals that Jami gets points for if she even smells the aroma. I have to roll up the windows and drive really fast along most of Highway 50.
Jami is doing very well with her change. So well that I am considering the same type of diet.
However, I do have reservations. When I do the math, my average Sunday evening grilled dinner and accompanied beverages would total somewhere in the area of 200-300 points — and I would only be allowed 40 points per day.
That may be a bit of an exaggeration, but I still would have to make major adjustment.
I even could earn extra points by going to the gym. I have already figured that if I eat an entire package of cooked bacon, I can counter those points by walking on the treadmill nonstop for six days. I guess that’s a small price to pay.
