The Art of Trail Mix

I showed self restraint and didn't rip open the bag in the parking lot.  

Last week I bought a bag of trail mix at Costco.  It was the kind that had a variety of nuts (walnuts, pumpkin seeds, almonds) and dried fruit (cranberries and mangoes).  Did I mention I bought it at Costco?  The bag was the size of a small child and contained 26 servings.  

Sadly, I am not always truthful when it comes to trail mix.  Here are some of the outrageous lies I told myself:

• When I get home, I will measure the trail mix into 1 ounce portions.  I will use snack size zip lock bags and will only eat one ounce per day.

• If I don't look at the calorie count for a one ounce serving, the calories won't count due to my intentional oblivion.

•  Sugar from dried fruit is natural and doesn't count as real sugar.  This is why so many moms give small children cunning, little boxes of raisins.  (Personally, I gave my kids raisin boxes since it took them approximately 5 minutes to fish all the raisins out with their chubby fingers.  GREAT way to use up time in the check out line.)  

• There are no M & Ms in this particular bag of trail mix - making it an extra healthy choice.

• Using 26 snack bags isn't earth friendly, so I will keep the trail mix in the van and grab a handful when I need a pick me up.  This one bag of trail mix will last me for months.  

Wanna guess how long a Costco bag of trail mix lasts a single mom driving around in a van?  Let me tell you.  Three.  Whole. Days.   Good grief.  When I realized what I had done, I told myself even more trail mix lies:

Nuts don't have that many calories.  (They do.)
Other moms are doing the same thing.  (They aren't.)
I deserve all the trail mix I can eat.  (I don't.)
Trail mix isn't crack cocaine.  (This is actually a true statement.)

Yesterday,  I was telling my friend, Julia,  about the "Misbehavin' with Trail Mix" incident.  Julia goes to Weight Watchers and understands the extreme gravity of what I had done.  

     She patiently listened to my play by play account before asking- 

"Do you know where my Weight Watcher leader says trail mix belongs?" 

"In a van? I answered weakly.

"NO.  ON THE TRAIL!"  

What?  Not in the van?  This WW leader was onto something big.

Julia said I could buy trail mix the next time I was on a trail.  (She also suggested not buying it at Costco.)  Since it is Winter in Wisconsin, I will be waiting quite a while.  

Prairie Eydie