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I have always been a snacker. When we are babies, we are trained to enjoy snacks of things like fruits and fiber-filled crackers in order to maximize our health and physical well-being. Sugary snacks were doled out more as bribes for the promise of or reward for, good behavior. As an athletic and outdoorsy kid, I constantly searched for a snack because I was simply hungry and the thought of waiting another hour or two before a meal came felt like an imposed cruelty or punishment for my perpetually active behavior.
This is when I developed my hungry whine, stating in a long and dramatic tone “…but I’m STARVING. Can’t you hear my stomach growling?” My mother, the three-meal a day, seven days a week cook for our family of six, would often reply with her go-to response of “Have a piece of fruit”. Since I was STARVING, a piece of fruit seemed like a completely inadequate snack choice. A cheeseburger seemed like a much better option! As a teenager, I no longer needed to ask permission for a snack, and simply helped myself to whatever I felt was the most appropriate snack at the time; potato chips, a yogurt, potato chips, a grilled cheese sandwich, or potato chips. My mother’s go-to responses to my snack-seeking efforts at this point, became more of “You better eat all of your dinner” or “Just clean it up after you are done!”
I have always been fortunate that I have been able to continue to enjoy my snacking habit with very few consequences for my weight, and more importantly, for my health. That is, up until now. My ever-fast metabolism has seemed to, of late, drop into a speed limit of that of what is posted in a crowded urban neighborhood, cautiously moving at a pace which carefully avoids successful digesting of things like cholesterol and sodium, preferring, instead, to keep them inside in places that could potentially cause me harm. The result is that now my snacking inclination becomes a self-imposed battle of not only what I should and shouldn’t eat, but also, when I should eat it, if at all. Let’s face it, if I’ve eaten a perfectly ample and healthy dinner at 6 p.m., having a snack at 8:30 p.m. is not really necessary. And to make things even more transparent, having a snack of cookies or cheese and crackers or ice cream, is completely the antithesis of what I should be doing in order to maintain a healthy diet and the use of the clothing that currently hangs in my closet.
Gone are the days where I can (or should) consume potato chips as a snack. Instead, if I am going to snack, I should opt for something with lower salt and fewer calories….like a piece of fruit!
Karma. Karma.
Kathy Naumann, possessor of NATURALLY curly hair and the understanding that you can’t control everything!
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