Read About My Midnight Nut Frenzy

Even nutritionists lose control of their intake of certain foods. This week I ended up going “nuts over nuts”! It all started with my quest to sample new food products so I could share the info with my clients and readers of City Girl Bites. But it ended up in a nut fest at midnight.  Read about my story and learn an important lesson as we enter into the holiday season as it’s highly likely that most of us will be tempted with problem foods.

So here is how it started
One of my clients told me she found 100 calorie  bags of Blue Diamond nuts in yummy flavors including Cocoa, Wasabi Soy and Cinnamon Brown Sugar in her local Gristedes grocery store. It turns out we both shop at the same store, so I made a point to search the aisles to find these little treats. (I have a slight obsession with mini bags of snacks!) I found them and purchased a box of each (7 packs per box for a total of 21 bags). I am somewhat of a chocoholic/sugar addict, so as I was purchasing them,  a warning bell was going off in my head. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea. However I rationalized that I would test one of each and then give the rest of them away to my boyfriend that night to take away as I did not trust myself having them around.

And then the nut frenzy continued 
I tested each flavor of nuts. They were all delicious but my favorite was the cocoa – NO SHOCKER there!  So of course, I had to have another bag of the cocoa flavor.  Now I was up to 4 packs of nuts. I quickly told my boyfriend to put the rest of all the nuts into his travel bag so I couldn’t get to them later in night. At least I acknowledged a there was a problem. However the damage had been done as my “sugar cravings” had been ignited …  I wanted more. I tried to go to sleep but kept thinking about the nuts (this sounds very strange I know, but you sugar addicts out there can understand!)  Finally I got up, rummaged through his bag while he was sleeping and ate about 5 more bags of the nuts (cocoa and cinnamon brown sugar). THEN I stopped.

Lesson learned
My behavior may seem strange to some people. Why can’t the nutritionist control her intake of these nuts? Here’s the deal – I do not have an eating disorder, but do have trouble controlling my intake of sugary foods IF they are in my environment. If I am in a restaurant, I enjoy a few bites of a dessert and I’m fine. But the problem occurs if I keep these kinds of foods in my apartment. Even if I hide them, I keep thinking about them. When I bought those nut packs, I knew in the back of mind  it would likely be problematic – however another voice said “go ahead, buy them – you need to test them out for your clients. You will be able stop after one pack”. Wrong!  (I think I got my sugar/chocolate “issues” from my dad. Here I caught him eating a Snickers candy bar and drinking regular sugar laden Snapple lemonade while he was supposedly taking a walk!) 

Bottom line
Don’t tempt yourself. Willpower doesn’t always work. If you have issues with controlling your intake of certain foods or beverages, keep them out of your home or office as best as possible. Because once you start, it can be difficult to stop!  Keep this in mind as we go through the holidays. If you get a gift of tempting food, secretely give it away. If there are tempting goodies in the office, avoid the room where they are kept until your co-workers finish them.

*BTW – nuts are a great snack as they are super healthy and filling. I would highly recommend these Blue Diamond mini bags of nuts … assuming you can control your intake of them!

Do any of you City Girl Bites have trouble controlling your intake of certain foods? What can you do to solve this problem? Does anyone have issues with 100 calorie packs?