Doritos are the food devil in Chip Form
With their fiery orange color and spicy flavor, crispylicious Doritos are a snackful sin – bad news if you’re a parent trying to instill healthy eating habits in your teens. Still – this parent cannot resist.
I promote the Mediterranean Diet as a healthful one – and it’s the way I eat when I can. All foods in moderation, a healthful variety of meats, seafood, cheeses, fruits, vegetables, etc., in their most natural form, with healthy glasses of wine thrown in there sometimes.
Real life though, means getting up and out the door in the morning, trying to stay on top of every day life, eating what’s on hand – which may be Cinnamon Toast Crunch in the morning with almond milk and a cup of coffee.
I try to bring water to work and a healthy snack.
On my breaks, I frequently walk to get some movement and exercise.
Then that feeling – that feeling of “doing something bad because it feels good” comes over me. I’m 53 years old and a mom. I still have a teen at home and one in college. I have to be pretty responsible. So succumbing to snacking is my rebellious route.
So you’re guessing by now, my bad demon is walking to the vending machine and buying a bag of Doritos.
Not wholesome, not healthy, not cheap ($1.25 per bag) I know this isn’t a good choice. Yet, I love feeling that rush when the little spiral spins and my crunchy Nirvana makes its way down – dropping into the pick up area like a fallen angel into the dark depths.
Seizing that bag, I pop it open and crunch.
I work at a college and the vending machine is in the hallway. The students in class are distracted by the sound of the machine dispensing snacks. They hear that burst of crinkly packaging and I take a deep breath to inhale that unleashed spicy, cheesy scent of my all-too-human foible for savory snack food.
I try to respect the students listening to the professor but I can’t wait – my break is only 15 minutes – so in my mouth that treacherous tortilla goes – God only knows what REALLY makes up the color sprinkled on that chip. I see out of the corner of my eye students turning to look out of the classroom as I walk by.
But I don’t care. My tastebuds are overloaded with flavor and I continue walking as I crunch along. I chew with my mouth closed and try not to crinkle the bag too much. In an instant I’m gone from the students’ view.
For the remainder of my pleasant walk, I continue my Frito-Lay heaven.
I haven’t been pleased lately that in the past 6 months, I’ve gained some weight.
I know from visits to my doc it’s a metabolic change that comes with age and the fact that I’m no longer a “Fertile Myrtle” means that I have additional strikes against me when it comes to middle body weight gain.
By binging on detrimental Doritos, I’m just hurting myself, right?
Or am I really just letting myself live a little?
A single serve bag has 140 calories, 16 grams of carbs and 8 grams of fat.
It’s not a health food for sure.
I eat a bag once or twice a week. Well, most of the time – some weeks I buy a few more, some weeks none.
I can measure all of the nutrition information, but I can’t measure the lift I get from indulging in a snack that helps get me through my busy days. Sorry, but even though I love my sliced peppers, fresh fruit or healthy crunchy snack, I just feel the urge to get something unhealthy out of the snack machine.
My little blog here records what I’ve learned about life, about parenting, what I would like to share with others, and I always invite commentary.
The point here is not to justify unhealthy eating or to make excuses for middle-age weight gain.
It IS to say that sometimes, it feels good to cave in to doing something that gives us a momentary boost – it’s not too detrimental, and doesn’t hurt anybody.
Writing this out reminds me that sometimes it’s OK to live sometimes with “reckless abandon” (Haha it’s just Doritos!) to not take oneself to seriously and to look for the little things in life that make us happy.
Cheers to Chips – once in a while!
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