Clear the way... the potato chip story

The potato chip story

 

Clearing the way to make room for goodness is an enormous topic and can take effort putting into practice.  For some people, clearing out the junk food is best done in one fell swoop.  For our family, I choose to make gradual changes over time (years) in baby steps.  There's no question that having fat/sugar/salt laden foods in our home make it really challenging to eat well.  I don't think anyone is immune to the addicting nature of some of these foods.  If they're there, we'll eat them.  Case in point.....

 

Upon arriving back into town after a gal's weekend road trip up north with my sister Ann, we stopped by the grocery store to pick up a few items for dinner.  We were a bit road worn from all our travel and fun. 

 

"I need some Ranch potato chips" Ann told me as I quickly ran in for just a few items.  Mind you, Ann is health conscious but she had a hankering for some potato chips.  "Sure, anything for you sis."  I was completely overwhelmed as I scanned the enormous section of potato chips, pulling out my reading glasses to scour the ingredient list.  I knew I wanted to avoid the worst culprits - hydrogenated fats and MSG.  I was hoping to find a list of ingredients that was fairly short and somewhat whole foods-ish.  Who was I fooling?  Did I really expect to find whole foods in a potato chip aisle?  I also glanced at the fat and calorie content.  Wow.  I knew I wouldn't be doing anyone a favor by bringing them into our home.  Torn, I wanted to honor Ann's request, but I simply could not bring myself to place a bag of potato chips in my basket.  I proceeded on to get the other few items.

 

I had barely opened the car door when Ann curiously asked, "What kind of chips did you get?"  Grimacing, I confessed that I didn't buy any potato chips.  "You what?!", she yelled at me in disbelief (in a sisterly way).  Back at home, we made do without our potato chips. 

 

A few months later, a Christmas package arrived from Ann.  It contained a cookie tin labeled, "For happy hour".  We curiously opened it up, and there in front of our eyes was a tin filled to the brim with....Ranch potato chips.  Ha ha ha!  No food label information to deter me this time, we dug in as we played our family's favorite board game, Rummikub.  Yet, the competition of the game paled in comparison to the real battle over who got the most potato chips.

The Lay's slogan is spot on: "No one can eat just one."  The food manufacturers add a perfect blend of fat/sugar/salt to create a true party in our mouth.  These foods are scientifically designed to be highly desired by our taste buds.  Scientists are learning that the wiring of some people's brains may make them more susceptible to these additives in foods.

When our taste buds are used to having chips around, who would chose carrots?  We can set ourselves up for greater success in eating well by keeping the "trigger" foods out of reach.

Mile by mile, life's a trial.

Inch by inch, life's a cinch.

I want to clear the way, inch by inch, to make room for the goodness.