Happy End of May, Thrivers!
Let’s get right to it.
Pearl One
I don’t have a thing against Starbucks, per se. I’m just not wild about any fast-food drive-thrus and their artificial ingredients that wreak havoc on our weight and health.
What’s that?
Starbucks isn’t really fast-food? It’s actually in a luxury class all its own?
Well, let’s get quick background on the subject.
Last summer the famous McD featured a Chocolatey Pretzel McSomething, but it’s been replaced.
This coming summer the king of fast-food is bringing us the Strawberry Shortcake McCalories made with vanilla ice cream, strawberry-flavored clusters (whatever those are), and shortbread cookies.
And here’s what’s important to remember, the summer McFrozen is “limited time only” so you and I need to move our caboose. Like, stat.
So back to Starbucks. Their featured summer drinks are the Chocolate Java Mint Frappiccino and the White Chocolate Macadamia Cream Cold Brew.
According to Starbucks’s press release the drinks are available starting in May in the U.S. for a limited time, while supplies last.
See what I mean?
McD’s McFlurry and Starbucks’s drinks are both “limited time only” and we need to move fast or we’ll lose out on this spectacular drink experience.
But my guess is, dig under the surface and you’ll find that the fast-food giants are actually serving “limited time only” desserts as a way to create a habit.
The fast-food peeps are aware that they have “true fans”, what I’m betting is they hope their specialty drinks will tempt on-the-fence customers and the never-evers (like myself) to drive screaming into their drive-thrus for a drink-dessert that’s the living end.
But here are the two pain-points for you and me:
1) Training our taste-buds to love a bowl of plain strawberries maybe capped with a swish of whipped cream is our life-long plan. If our mouths are having a party with the high-sugar and/or high-fat desserts like the McFlurry, the humble strawberry doesn’t stand a chance.
2) Eliminating our habit of stopping at any fast-food is the whole idea. Big Fast-Food wants to obliterate our good habit of cutting them out of our lives entirely.
How to get around the fast-food in your life? Read on. ♥
Pearl Two
You want fun-food? I once told myself, “Hey, no problem, you can have the food, as long as you first study the nutrition count.”
My rule for myself was that if I read the nutrition labels on a product or the nutrition count online then I could have the fun-food.
But somehow that gorgeous pizza didn’t look so awesome when I realized that – holy cow — a slice of Mellow Mushroom’s meat pizza is 530 calories, 27 g fat, 1,370 mg sodium, and 48 g carbs. And who stops at one slice?
The sodium alone is crazy.
Figuring out the nutrition count on donuts, fast food burgers and ice cream is life-changing.
Do you see what’s actually happening? It’s your cavewoman who wants to chow the pizza. But it’s your prefrontal who reads the nutrition info. leading you to make smart food choices.
Get the prefrontal involved and it becomes your decision what you’ll eat and when. ♥
Pearl Three
June’s topic for the month: what cannot be an afterthought in our smart eating lives. Every week we’ll talk activities that require hard-core planning rather than off-the-cuff moves we might normally make.
Today’s topic: we’re heading into summer vacations and planning how and what you’ll eat on the trip needs to be given serious thought.
I’ve been a travel writer for 16 years now, and I never gained weight on trips. Having a solid plan in place and not winging it moment by moment gets all the credit. Whether I was traveling by car or plane, I knew exactly how the food-situation would go down.
Bottom line: Know before you go. ♥
Pearl Four
Books love us and want us to be at our preferred weight.
You are owed an apology. And the Mountains Echoed by one of my favorite authors, Khaled Hosseini, should have been one of the first book-desserts I shared. The book’s genre falls under both “historical fiction” and “domestic fiction.”
Total honesty: if I’d read a description about this title’s plot I’d have thought, “hard pass.” But I’d read Hosseini’s other two masterpieces — The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns – so I was 100-percent in. When I came up with the idea of book-dessert it was because of books like And the Mountains Echoed.
So, that’s my review: 100-percent. ♥
Pearl Five
Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” C.G. Jung ♥
We can access our subconscious when we pick up our journal and allow our subconscious to talk with us through the pen. ♥
Have a fantastic weekend, all!
♥, Wendy
P.S. Are you new to the Inspired Eater? Welcome!! This blog won’t make much sense until you first read the Aunt Bea post (and you’ll find Aunt Bea on this page to the right under my short bio). On your cell you’ll see it immediately following the first post. After you enter your email address, the Aunt Bea article will be sent to your email’s inbox. If it’s not there, you might check the spam folder. And always feel free to email me at Wendy@TheInspiredEater.com and I’ll get Aunt Bea right to you!
You know the scoop: I’m an Amazon affiliate. If you buy from a link in my post, I’ll receive money, but the arrangement won’t cost you a dime.
