Live For Food

Sometimes it’s difficult to make healthy food choices.  There is always the day when the unexpected happens and you don’t have food with you, and the only option is something you wouldn’t normally choose.

How you deal with these situations could be more important than you think.  Firstly, these situations often arise when you are most in need of healthy food – you may be busy, stressed, or coping with other people’s problems.

Secondly, if you don’t make a healthy choice it could affect your food choices for the rest of the day.  How often have you had a cake mid morning and then been unable to resist the chocolate bar with lunch and the mid afternoon biscuits?  Your brain may decide that the day is ruined health wise anyway, so why make the effort.

I was in this situation earlier in the week.  I went out to a client’s office and had to stay over lunchtime unexpectedly, so I could no longer buy the healthy salad I’d been planning to get from the supermarket.  I was on an industrial estate, and I was very busy, and the nearest food source was a café round the corner, specifically aimed at the mainly male population who worked on the estate.

The menu choices started with burgers and chips, and ended with the “Big Boy Breakfast” – which was the most enormous fry up I’ve seen in a long time!  So, I perused the menu for something with vegetables – vainly – until I finally spotted the words BLT.  Hey at least that was token salad if nothing else.

Then I asked the lady on the counter if she had any brown bread.  I got a funny look, followed by an oh yes, I think there’s some under the counter somewhere.  Not a popular choice!  Anyway, my BLT on brown bread was very nice – although a real door stop.

Given the circumstances and the options available I don’t think I did too bad a job at eating healthily.  And hey how often is it that you get to feel virtuous for choosing a bacon sandwich!

The knowledge that I was at least attempting to make a healthy choice stopped me getting any cake or chocolate to go with it, and day as a whole was not too bad food wise.

So if you get stuck in a situation where healthy food is not really available, have the intention to do the best you can, ask a few questions with a smile about what options are available, and remember that by looking after yourself you will be able to deal with that unexpected situation all the better.