Nuts!

I'm always thinking of improving my diet. Thinking being the operative word. As in "While loading her shopping barrow with crisps and double cream, Mwa contemplated making some healthier choices next time she came to the shop."

I now buy "baked" crisps instead of normal ones, because they are advertised as having fewer calories. This is probably a cynical marketing ploy, but it's working on me, so I'm not complaining. Maybe it's a bit like that time I switched to low fat yoghurts because they were advertised as a diet option because of the reduced fat content, and then I found out that they're basically all sugar instead.

Actually I have to go and look up the calorie content of those crisps now. For your very own edification, dear internet. You will thank me afterwards. Be right back.


Shoot - of course I went and put them in a bowl. Couldn't just check the calorie content. Bugger. Nevermind. Please disregard the crunchy background noises.

Anyway - the pack says 101 calories per 25 gram serving. Who do they think they make these for? Squirrels? Fuck that. So. 405 calories per 100 grams. (Their maths, not mine.) They claim to contain 70% less fat than other crisps, so I'm curious how that would translate into calorie content. Of course, potatoes aren't exactly calorie-light things. (Who's anal enough to keep reading the next paragraph? I would be. D'oh!)

Aha! 552 calories per 100 grams in the non-baked variety, versus 405 for the baked variety. See? Marginally more virtuous. Maybe not entirely warranting my devil-may-care attitude when greedily scoffing them. At least now I'm eating my "just in case snack around the house" (you never know when you will have an unexpected visitor) and I won't be able to eat it tomorrow. I'm really doing tomorrow's me a huge favour.

Okay. Now I'm slightly in trouble, because the main point of this post was going to be my new-found virtue in the matter of snacking. I shall have to phrase it slightly differently now.

Here goes. Whenever I read about healthy eating, I get discouraged by the nuts part. I've never particularly liked nuts. Or dried fruits. Anything dried and healthy, really. I often buy nuts in an attempt to get a healthier diet, and then they either get eaten by Babes, or I throw them out after a couple of months because they're just not for me.

A few days ago, I decided to have one last go. I bought myself a whole pot of mixed nuts with raisins and put it on the kitchen counter, where it was strategically placed to snap me into health on a regular basis. The pot is sitting right underneath the snacks cupboard, so every time I open that, I have a healthier choice staring at me, daring me to be good. ... and it worked! I must be getting old, because I love the stuff just now.


How ridiculously healthy is that looking? I'm refusing to think of the calories in there. I know it's a lot. But it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make for the sake of my health.
(Tinman, I swear I was planning to write this post before you invited me to show you my nuts.)

My palate is doing weird things the last couple of years. I have learned to eat pickles, raw onions, goat's cheese (so far, only the mild stuff), and now nuts. Freaky.

So, for a whole day I ate my three meals, and in between I snacked only on the odd nut. This was going to be my ONLY SNACK FOREVER AND EVER AMEN. And then today I bought this:


(Yes, food comes in plastic. It grows like that these days. It makes picking chocolate cake a far speedier and more hygienic process for the farmer.)
Luckily most of that cake will be eaten by the rest of the family. I'm a savoury girl, me. If you lick me, you can tell. Not so sweet, all savoury.

But I also bought this:


And now I'm eating a bowl of crisps. Babysteps. Babysteps. At least I like nuts now.