Diet of a YPs Wife

I am encouraged after spending yesterday and today with 10 high schoolers at LifeLight - a Christian music festival. I am also extremely tired and much too full of JUNK food.

Over the course of the last 3 years, I have asked myself many times when the day will come that Tony and I can develop super healthy eating habits? I'm still asking...

I tend to blame my over indulgence on junk food on the fact that I spend a great deal of time with high school and junior high students who love being fed donuts, chewy chips ahoy cookies, potato chips, pizza, and pop...and who have yet to become concerned about the nutritional value of their chosen food group - junk. I however, am concerned about the nutritional value of these items, but eat it right alongside of them. My Mom's constant reminder haunts me - That's going to catch up with you. uh-oh. Thank goodness for a Y membership.

Not only do high school/junior high students love eating these foods, Youth Pastors (Tony included) LOVE feeding them these foods. Why? They are cheap and they are easy, a perfect combination. (Thank goodness our events don't have the federal regulations that schools do, we'd be sunk). When packing for a weekend of camping there is nothing easier than individually wrapped chips, boxes of cookies, and crackers w/ peanut butter to snack on. Throw in some Pop-tarts, donuts, and bottles of less than 1% juice something or other for an easy breakfast. I'll admit, even though I'm embarassed, that everything I just listed has been my diet this weekend, plus a couple of hot dogs and a hamburger from the food vendors. EEEEWWW.

Tony and I had a serious discussion on the way home and decided we're dying for a more healthy diet. Our plan is to give up a few things until Thanksgiving, to kick start our healthy eating. 1. Pop - I can go long periods without drinking pop and not really miss it, but lately we've gotten in a bad habit of drinking at least a pop a day. 2. Sweets. This will be challenging for me. 3. Chips - this will be the challenge for Tony. In addition to the removal of junk, we will be attempting to spend more evenings at home so we can prepare healthy meals for ourselves rather than constantly eating on the fly. Don't ask me what we'll do if we host an event for our youth group kids. We'll be lost. Maybe we'll introduce them to healthy eating, maybe we'll learn self control, who knows.

In college, my roommate Taylor would refer to some foods as "socially unacceptable foods." I feel as if this whole blog post falls in that category. (In college it was our love for chili dogs). Now I've just publicly confessed my love for Chewy Chips Ahoy cookies and donuts. That is certainly socially unacceptable. I should be ashamed of myself. At least they never make their way to my cupboards, right? I still feel like I can blame this on our busyness with youth ministry. I better quit trying to justify and go make my grocery list. Adios.