Blizzard of ’09: Healthy-wise

Yeah, so West Virginia and surrounding East Coast states experienced quite the blizzard this past weekend. It started here at around 3 o’clock on Friday, and caused total chaos for everyone trying to get home from work, get to work, get to the grocery store, travel through the area, etc. Craziness all around. My family and I typically love the snow, and we love huge snow dumps like these, but it’s tough when some of us aren’t safe at home to watch it fall. It’s also tough, I have found, on the ole Healthy Diet.

For me, it started at 4:05 when I left work Friday evening. I ended up being in my car on the way home (with a few breaks in between, like the grocery store) for over five hours that night. Walked through my door for the evening at around 9:30. Needless to say, after 2 hours in the car sitting in traffic, 3 trips outside of the car to scrape snow out from under my wipers, and one emergency pee stop, I was not only a little on edge, but I was truly hungry. I remembered that I have an entire bag of snack food sitting behind my seat, so I dug in. Usually I relegate myself to only the granola bars and healthy stuff in the bag, which make up about 5% of the bag’s contents. This time, however, I grabbed what looked like the most spectacular thing I had ever seen: an unopened canister of full-fat Cheetos. I thought to myself, “Well, I can have one serving of this, right? Sure I can!” I checked the label, and it said one serving was 180 calories (22 Cheetos), and incidentally, the full canister contained 4.5 servings. I figured this sounded reasonable.

I proceeded to eat one Cheeto. Mmmmm. The next one was small, so I figured 2 small ones make up 1 regular one, right? Okay, 2 of those then. “As long as I eat them one at a time…” I thought. Meanwhile, I have moved one quarter of a car length. Before I know it, I’m eating them two at a time, and I don’t even care. Next thing I know, half the can is gone, and you know how it is… who wants half a can of leftover Cheetos? Plus, I’m really hungry! And stressed! And these stupid cars aren’t moving! And the light is friggin’ GREEN!

Needless to say, a few minutes later the canister was thankfully empty. I de-cheesed my fingers without the use of a napkin, and tackled my son’s water bottle in the back seat. 

Thus began my long weekend of the Blizzard of ’09. There was much food made lovingly at home (remember, “lovingly” means I’m allowed to eat it no matter what the contents), and much merriment in the form of alcoholic beverages (some warm and spicy, some cold and long-necked).

I found comfort in knowing that many healthy eaters out there like me were having trouble this weekend, because this snowed-inness was certainly much less expected than the Holiday parties and Christmas feasts we were all anticipating. This literally fell on top of us, and we had to deal with being stuck wherever we were, and bored for several days. I knew there were many of us out there, and some of us might find ourselves “derailed” after the weekend passed and the snow melted. I was determined that I would not be one of those. I know how my crazy mind works, and I am working to make it less crazy. There is no need to ruin the rest of my life because one snowstorm kept me cooped up for the weekend.

So, my New December22nd's Day Resolution: I will fear no food! (well, except donuts & cookie cake) No food can derail me (except aforementioned). And by the way, the weekend was awesome! We had time to relax with family, crazy overnighters, home made meals, Christmas presents, snowman making, shoveling, tottie-drinking… it was great. We were all safe, most of us remained warm (or were rescued by miracles and made warm), and all the Christmas bustle was ground to a beautifully screeching halt. It was fun. And healthy-wise, I am moving on.