Have I Learned Nothing?!?

Just when I think I'm making some good progress on learning more about nutrition and eating healthfully, I do something really dumb...

Last week at the 5k, they were giving out these little Bagelful things at the post-race snack table. It's a Kraft product and is basically a bagel stick with a filling inside. I went for the carrots and apple slices and so didn't pick it up, but Jeremy did. He showed it to me and I glanced at the ingredients label. There are about 25 different ingredients in this tiny little thing, most of which you couldn't find in the average kitchen. "Yuck," I thought, and went back to my carrots.

Jeremy evidently thought so too and didn't eat it. Somehow the thing ended up in the fridge. This morning, I had to feed Lauren on the run to daycare and grabbed it, thinking she would like it. Of course, I should have thought at this point, "If I didn't want to eat it, why in the world would I feed it to my daughter?" I was in a rush, though, and wasn't thinking and grabbed what was easy.

Lauren is smarter than me, though, because she took one bite a refused to eat any more. I kept offereing it to her, worried that she wasn't eating, and she kept refusing. Finally, I tried it myself. Awful! It was like mushed-up strawberry Chap-stick in a crappy bagel! No wonder the poor kid didn't want to eat it!

The thing is, a lot of people would have eaten it. A lot of people would have grabbed it on the go, like I did, and would end up eating it because they don't have any other choices available. Heck, a month ago, I might have eaten it and not given it a second thought. It's incredible how little attention we pay to what we put in our bodies!

One interesting thing is that's actually pretty high in fiber and low in calories and fat. Therefore, it would be low in Weight Watchers points. Now, I love and adore Weight Watchers: it helped me change the way I was eating about 5 years ago and lose 40+ pounds. It's a great system and can actually help people learn healthier habits. The one downfall of the system, though, is that a convenience product like the Bagelful is low in points and would perhaps be preferable to something that is healthier, but more points. I know I spent too much tme eating low-fat cheese that was basically oil product in order to save myself points. Now, of course, someone could be eating only whole foods on the plan and do really well, but the convenience foods are just so easy to fall into. Too easy.

I won't be around the next couple of days: I'm running a half marathon in Eugene, Oregon. We'll see if this healthier food for the last months pays off! See you soon!