Monday, June 24, 2013

Fat Kid Travels

I love road trips. I always have. Regardless of it's a 35 minute ride somewhere, or a 30-hour cross country ride, I love road trips.

Even more than the drive though, I love the snacks.

Salty. Sweet. Bottles of water. Wrapped up sandwiches in foil or baggies. Chips. Cookies. Pretzels. M&Ms for "something sweet".

I'll spare you from the vending machine visits.

On this journey of compacting a large personality into a medium-sized frame, I've been doing a lot of pondering on what my life was like not even 10 years ago. I was in PA this weekend for a friend's wedding, and we went to Wawa a couple of times. Now, you have to understand, in college the food was terrible. I mean, there were putrid rice balls one time. I kid you not.

They were literally putrescent*.

Suffice to say there were many, many times where the dollar menu at Taco Bell & Wendy's, or a splurge to Wawa, were our only refuge. I walked into that yellow and red convenience store this weekend and was overwhelmed with all the memories.

Coffee rolls.
Hot Mac & Cheese.
Toasted Roast beef subs with bacon and cheese. Allegedly there was ranch dressing.
Herr's Cheese Puffs.
Old fashioned donuts.
Wawa brand Mint Moose Tracks.

Thighs, meet your demise. Hind quarters, meet your new roommates.

Truthfully I don't believe in regrets, because frankly, I have better stuff to do with my time than sitting around lamenting my poor life decisions. I wish I ate better in college. I do. But all I can do now is look at that stuff and say…

The years I spent (5, to be exact) pumping my gullet with tasty yet poisonous treats... I guarantee I can't pronounce ½ the ingredients in that stuff up there. Um, ew?

I informed the Bearded Wonder that once we're married, I really really really want to eat all natural/organically. Not that I want to be a hippie, but come on. Why would I want to eat something that 1) was made in a lab somewhere, 2) can't be pronounced sans dictionary, and 3) is only going to make me feel worse? It may be more expensive up front, but we'll be saving loads of money in medical debt down the line.

Oh and am I the only one that gets acne from crap food? No? Yes? Show of hands? I lived with a family in NC for 3 months during an internship, and my skin had never been better. The lovely mom has Crohn's, and they choose to regulate her illness with diet. Not pills. Not science. Just good, wholesome food. It's still hard sometimes, but think about the pills she could be taking instead. Look at the rise of gluten intolerance. Processed food is killing us and making us feel like crap in the process.

Rant over. I'm taking baby steps, I'm not overhauling everything right this second, primarily because I don't have time or funds for that. It's on my short-term goal list. I've made steps like cutting out soda, cutting down substantially on Starbucks**, not eating as much pasta or bread, not eating out as much, cutting out fast food for the most part, and I'm still trying desperately to cut down on sugar the weeks inbetween the weddings. Thankfully Beardy is OK with my "grand plan", so once we're married he's going to get a crash course in cooking. =P

Speaking of which, how are you doing if you made The Resolve with me? 
I've been pretty good today, save for ~10 M&Ms in some trail mix I ate earlier…

A Redhead

*Note: That's one of my fancy college words. Totally worth the payment every month.  
**Note part 2: Let's be honest, Starbucks will never really go away...


  1. OH - don't forget the Pop'ems and those cheese-filled pretzels that don't actually include any ingredients on them because you just KNOW they're not good for ANY living soul, you don't need to be told... :)

    1. Mmmmm Pop'emmmmmmmmmms… =P

      I almost bought one of those awful cheese-filled pretzels when we were there! I was judging myself though. =P

  2. That is the second time I've seen the word putrescent today. Something very strange is going on...

  3. I've done teeeerrible!!! Terrible!!! I was supposed to be off sugary caramely Starbucks or Dunkin coffee. But I had one from each over the weekend. To try to make up for that, I've stopped drinking coffee at work.