Saturday, March 9, 2013

Unrelenting Consumer Temptation

I've never been to a Fry's electronics store. On a recent trip to San Francisco, my son took us there to check out the myriad of laptops on display. He needed a replacement machine, and thought that would be a good place to check out his options. As we wondered through the unending rows of everything electronic, my husband referred to it as a Best Buy on steroids. I only wish I had noted where my pedometer was as I began.

I was starting to feel a bit of a headache as my blood sugar level dropped, letting me know I'd better find something to eat. I figured the only place to find food in a store like this would be near the check out area, so I headed to the front of the store. 


In order to check out, customers had to walk through an aisle that seemed to be half the length of a football field. As I began the hike, a big, blue plastic M&M had his hand raised as if welcoming me into the land of forbidden fruits. Yards and yards of bags and bars of candy, chips, crackers, cookies and sugary granola treats lined both sides of this land of temptation. Huge coolers offered choices of liquid sugar to wash down your treat. Fighting my sudden urge to grab a bag of peanut M&M's (my former nemesis), I found it. Near the bottom of one rack, my hunt turned up a little bag of nuts and dried fruit. I quickly grabbed it and kept going, looking for a bottle of water. At the end of walk---the oasis. Water was the very last choice. Should have guessed.

It was tough, but I made it through selecting a healthier snack. We all need to be constantly vigilant to the temptations purposely laid in our paths to increase impulse buys and decrease our health. 

How do you handle the lure of all these empty calories?

4 comments:

  1. I can resist the temptations at the check out aisle. What I can't seem to resist is having chocolate snacks in my pantry. Sure Skinny Cow chocolate crisp bars only have 110 calories, but I don't stop at one.

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    1. You are not alone! Some people actually have more trouble with "lighter" foods around. Perhaps it's because they seem less harmful, so we think it's OK to eat more---consciously or unconsciously. Or, it could be that many of these lighter foods are actually higher in sugar, which may increase our craving for them. Either way, sometimes it's best to leave them at the store, right?

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  2. Running the food gauntlet!

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