31 Aug My Love Affair with a Snickers Bar
What is every-color-of-the-rainbow, everywhere, and delicious?
I was driving through the hills near Budapest, Hungary in August, marveling at the thick fields full of corn stalks. On the roadsides here and there were stands selling plums, apples, squash, cucumbers, and multi-colored peppers…veggies and fruits of all colors, shapes, and sizes.
God’s creativity, self-expression, and generosity abound here as throughout the globe.
So why did I choose a Snickers bar when we stopped at a gas station? (Snickers also abounds around the world.) With such beautiful, delicious, body-enhancing choices, why did I choose a non-living, manufactured thing?
Is a Snickers really more delicious? Not really, when you think of sweet, juicy, vine-ripened plums or pears.
Is it cheaper? No, about the same price.
Was it an addiction to processed, refined sugar? In part, possibly.
But for me, a Snickers bar represents something rich and scrumptious and abundantly indulgent. It represents escaping from everything and losing myself in that moment of sheer bliss. (Wow, that sounded like a TV commercial). It started back when I was in junior high and after school my friends and I would go to a local corner store and buy up whatever “delicacy” erased the day’s stress and immersed us in the fun of the moment. Yep, emotional eating started at a young age, and continues to get triggered in my adult life, leading me to make choices I’d rather not make.
With all of our eating issues, the reasons we make less-healthy choices are multifaceted. Looking back on that day in Hungary, I was escaping some stress-of-the-moment through food. A little indulgence every now and then might be okay, but for most of us, it can be a slippery slope downward into a lifestyle of unhealthy food choices. And if you’re struggling with health or weight issues, you can’t afford to start down that slippery slope.
So after a summer of sliding pretty far down the slope, I’m ready to get back into the food choice habits that provide health, strength, and mental vitality. It always helps me to remember that after a couple of weeks, the battle isn’t so hard, and my body and mind fall more easily into the groove of saying “yes” to certain foods and “no” to others. Like a rebellious toddler that receives boundaries and discipline, my appetite more readily submits after a period of re-training.
Someone said: “Inside of us is a healthy person struggling to get out, but she can usually be sedated with a few pieces of chocolate cake.”
So this fall, I vote for letting that healthy person emerge and thrive. After I’ve been indulging her for a while, that sultry, seductive Snickers will be much easier to resist.