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Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States

Diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in April of 1980. I recognize the incredible mental struggle of living with diabetes. I hope to share my struggles, my successes, and everything in between.

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Because Packaged Food Is Easy To Bolus For

Is it just laziness? Lack of planning - causing runs to the vending machines through the day? Unpolished and unpracticed carb counting by eyeball? Falling victim to the clever marketing schemes that have me addicted to things like Diet Coke & Peanut M&M's? Combination of all of these things? Who knows.

What I do know is that packaged food is usually very easy to bolus for. There is little to no thought involved. You have the package, with the number of servings per package, and amount of carbs per serving. It's still math, unless the servings per package is 1. At least it's usually simple addition, none of that "fancy" division or multiplication. Have I mentioned I don't like math?

The nutritional content of these packaged food is generally very poor, and it's often even more expensive than buying a bigger package of the exact same thing at the grocery store! But I'm buying the convenience of it aren't I? And while that convenience is easy to bolus for, I don't think it's worth the negative trade offs - such as the nutritional content of a pack of pretzels and peanut M&M's for lunch... which are pretty responsible choices given the other things to pick from!

Not to mention the satiety factor, or feeling satisfied with what has been eaten. This rarely ever happens with junk food. In fact, I think that it is designed to make you crave more - I mean, can you really ever eat just one piece of something treaty?

I think that in my case, it boils down to lack of planning, and not prioritizing that planning into my day. If I bring my lunches and snacks, I will eat those, and be satisfied with them. And I will in fact feel good about eating good stuff, rather than junk. But I often let life get in the way, and that planning and prioritizing self care take a back seat.

The thing is, life is really not that busy - I just make it seem that way...

1 Comments:

Blogger Melissa said...

Scott,
I too, rely heavily on packaged foods. Lunch is either soup or Lean Cuisine of some sort. The individually packaged snacks are my favorite for snacks. I am bad at measuring portions. Maybe not bad, so much as I just don't. That is probably why I have been running high at bedtime through until morning: I don't really measure my dinner portions. The crazy thing is that I go through all the trouble of meal planning and cooking from diabetic recipes that have exchanges, then I don't measure my protions. I mean how hard would that one last step be? I'm thinking that C's thought that your eating habits may be like a last form of rebellion could be true for me as well. Now I'm craving peanut M&M's and pretzels - thanks Scott.
~Melissa

3:16 PM  

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