Monkeys and rabbits loop the loop

When I looked in the fridge yesterday morning, I realized I didn’t have anything to bring with me for breakfast. D’oh! Poor planning is one of the simplest things that can totally screw up my diet. I ended up skipping breakfast, so of course I was ready to chomp on the chipboard laminate of my desk by 3:00 p.m. However, my boss frowns on us chewing on the furniture. He’s such a hard ass. So I went to the vending machine two floors down on the other side of the building. At least I burned 20 or 30 calories getting there.

Out of all the sugar-ridden, carbohydrate-laden items available, the Animal Crackers seemed to be the best choice. Plus I’m a sucker for food pressed into the shapes of elephants and sheep. I dropped in my 80 cents, the spiral wheel turned, and…my crackers got stuck! Ever since I saw an episode of The West Wing that claimed more people are killed each year by vending machines than by wolves, I’ve been hesitant to rock or shake the machine to get an item. So, I put in another 80 cents to get my crackers, but I also ended up getting the item that was right behind them…Chips Ahoy Chocolate Chip Cookies. Dun, dun, dun!

Low blood sugar leads me to acts of madness, so I snatched up both items and devoured them. In retrospect I really should have just left the cookies in the bin to cheer up someone else’s day. My mother would call it a random act of kindness. But the money conscious part of my brain couldn’t deal with the fact that I would have wasted 80 whole cents if I didn’t eat those cookies. Yes, I screwed up my diet for 80 freakin’ cents. I should never underestimate my ability to rationalize things I know I shouldn’t be doing.

This event underscored for the me the importance of how much your environment can effect your ability to stick to your diet. I would never have set out to get cookies, but when the cookies were dropped right in front of me, I snatched them up. If I had been prepared enough to bring breakfast or had time to stop somewhere before work to get something, I would never have gone to the vending machine in the first place and would never have faced this dilemma. It was like a chain reaction car accident that started in the morning when I skipped breakfast and ended with a three car pile up outside of the vending machine. Only I experienced a sugar crash instead only an hour after partying with the enriched-flour sheep and literally wanted to take a nap at my desk at 4:00.

The one good thing about this incident is that it reminded me of how crappy I feel when I eat crap. Why do I forget that? I suppose like with my health I never appreciate how good I’m feeling until I’m not. Oh, the importance of contrasts!