Junk Food day

It’s JUNK FOOD DAY (said to the tune of It’s GROUNDHOG DAY!!!!)

Does this ever happen to you? You wake up in the morning and you just know this is going to be one of those days when words like “calories”, “trans fat” and “diet” simply have absolutely zero meaning because you already know you’re not going to make it through the day without a little help from Monsieur Salée and Madame Chocolat?

I usually get one of those days once or twice during the month… I guess it’s my hormones stirring up trouble.

Anyway, TODAY was one of those Junk Food days.

It started in the morning when I was walking to work. Everyday I pass a boulangerie that makes the BEST pains au chocolat in the neighbourhood. I love walking by and sniffing the lovely aroma of freshly baked bread and wonderfully melted home-made butter. And everyday I tell myself I’ll save the treat of getting one of their killer croissants au beurre for a special occasion. It always makes me smile how I am able to resist the buttery temptation….Except on Junk Food Day. And today being Junk Food Day I walked in and bought myself a lovely warm and crispy, 300 calorie croissant au beurre…. As I was licking off the last of the butter from my fingers I knew I was doomed for the rest of the day.

It didn’t get better at lunch time. Usually the cafeteria at work has a pretty well stocked salad bar… except today they had raw cauliflower salad (one of the very few legumes my stomach simply can’t handle) and lentil salad…. I guess I could have gone for the lentil but since I’d already resigned myself to this being Junk Food Day I decided to shrug it off and head for the lovely, fresh out of the oven personal 4 fromaggi pizzas that were waiting on the other side of the bar. I picked up a diet coke on the way out… might as well….

The traditional four o’clock gouté which usually consists of an apple or a banana was replaced by a couple of mini chocolate sponge cakes to go with my coffee. In my defence, this actually stemmed from an "accident". I had started to serve a coffee for one of our clients and got caught up with something else completely forgetting to turn off the machine. The result was a thinned weak coffee not fit for clients so instead of throwing it out I decided I would drink it myself (I personally like my coffee weak and thin). Although I never put sugar in my coffee, this being Junk Food Day I figured I could indulge in a little chocolate to go with my java, enter 350 calories worth of chocolate sponge cake.

Walking home after work, I am "proud" to say I resisted the temptation of stopping for a “snack” on the road… but when I got home I decided lassagna was the vegetarian way to go for dinner. Lassagna And Grilled Cheese bread. And wine. AND dessert!!

So ok, after the calorie fest I’m left with the horrible nagging question of how come this happens and why is it that we simply cannot resist??? What pisses me the most is not the calorie overload actually (I know I can make healthy choices over dumbass ones)... it's the fact once I've sold myself the "pretext" of it being "Junk Food Day", it's downhill from then on. Why is this? I've always been able to say no to smoking, to drugs, to alcohol (in unreasonable quantities), even to Diet coke which used to be my life support fluid.... but rich, fat, salty/sweet foods are my downfall.... When hormones are raging, and the mouth is watering at the site of a bag of salty chips and taste buds want nothing to do with anything green, WHAT CAN YOU DO?????

This reminds me of that movie Defending your Life. It’s one of my mom’s favourites and for a long time I couldn’t get what the big deal was. In the movie, Albert Brooks plays a guy that dies and goes to Judgment City where he must defend his life and pending “trial verdict” gets to either move on to “Paradise” or back down to Earth and “try again”. Anyway, the movie is more about afterlife and has a pretty interesting plot, but the main thing is that while you’re in Judgment City (and same goes for Paradise) you can eat all you want and not gain a pound!! Meryl Streep, who also plays a fellow deceased-awaiting-trial-verdict character practically pees in her pants about how incredible this is and is virtually seen stuffing her face in almost every scene! I remember when I first saw that movie I thought to myself “what’s the big deal?”, but that was when I was like 15 or something, way before Junk Food Days …… NOW I TOTALLY GET THE CONCEPT OF PARADISE!!!!!!

Fned.