Hey, those berries aren't corn chips!

Weekends are awesome. I live for them, for vacation time, public holidays and pretty much any time I don't have to go to work. It's Sunday now so the weekend is coming to a close but it's not over yet! I tend to do a lot with my weekends working on a plan determined in the week prior to the weekend arriving. This strategy gives me the ability to squeeze as much as I can out of it through deploying the plan or to plan nothing and simply wing it. Assuming a person lives for 80 years there's only 4,160 weekends and so one must get the most out of each one.

Last weekend was full on with a shooting event 500km away from home which was great, but tiring. This weekend was similar, well Saturday was. I shot a small IPSC competition at my gun club against some 50 or so shooters. We got hailed on twice, rained on and it was windy and only 8 degrees Celcius so you can say it was overall shit! I shot commensurate with the weather too. Well, stage one was terrible; I couldn't have messed it up more if I tried. The next four stages were ok. In fact I shot well in the rest. Still, it's the weekend so it's all good mate!

Saturday night was spent watching Formula One Qualifying from the Singapore track which was pretty good fun although usually I'd be there, in Singapore, watching so was also a bit of a bummer at the same time. Unfortunately circumstances kept me away this year, my recent UK/EU 6 week vacation and work commitments.

Whilst watching the qualifying session I found myself feeling a little hungry for corn chips. Nacho Cheese corn chips to be completely honest about it. Something about those crunchy little chemical covered triangles makes them the perfect snack-partner for Formula One Qualifying, well I thought so last night anyway. The problem was that the household was corn chip-less. What I did have in the fridge was berries; The one's you see in the image below.

It's pretty obvious what's the more healthy snack although after eating the berries I still wanted corn chips. What is it about highly processed snack foods like corn chips that make them so tasty and desirable? I mean, don't get me wrong, the strawberries and blueberries were awesome too but just didn't satisfy my snack food craving as well as a big bowl of nacho cheese corn chips would have. Is it marketing, habit maybe? It made me think about how hard it must be for parents to keep young kids off heavily processed snack foods. Here's me, a reasonably health-conscious guy in his late 40's and I'm pining for corn chips, what must it be like for parents who have kids doing the same.

It's easy to eat badly these days. I watched a show about nutrition and vitamins recently and a comment was made that those in a lower socio-economic demographic tend to eat more unhealthily than others. I think the premise revolved around them needing to find lower cost, more filling, food which leads them to fast food and foods high in fat, sodium and carbohydrates; Highly processed foods rather than fresh prepared-at-home meals. With fast food outlets like those assholes at McDonalds serving up breakfast, lunch and dinner (You can now buy Bigmac's at breakfast time too) and the cost of the food (aka shit) being so cheap and easy it's so simple to stop in and grab some shit, I mean food, quite cheaply and easily. So easy in fact that you can do it on a touch screen without even talking to a human. Human's don't know how to converse these days except on a phone screen anyway so no loss there.

I've eaten at McDonalds of course and probably will again, however it's a sometimes food, maybe 4-5 times a year; If even that. I know that many people eat it, and other similarly poor foods, a lot more often...Just like I wanted to with the corn chips last night. I guess it comes down to education, choice and opportunity mostly. We all have the choice to eat better but sometimes it's easier not to, or cheaper. I'm not judging people of course, I mean eat what you want really, but just maybe putting some thought into it may pay some dividends.

Last night my corn chip craving went unrequited however I made a better choice and feel better for it. Will I succumb to the corn chip at some stage? Yes of course I will, however every time I make a decision not to is a step in the right direction. Habits are easily made and almost as easily broken just as it's relatively easy to prepare a decent, healthy meal. It's as simple as a piece of fish and some steamed vegetables, a chicken breast and baked sweet potato, carrots and some minted peas...Even a home made burger is better than the food, I mean shit, purchased via touch-screen at McDonalds.

We are all going eat things we shouldn't, especially when watching TV on the couch, although making the right decisions means we might be on the planet a little longer to enjoy our weekends, and life in general. I'm 48 and 6 months old, so I've had 2,522 weekends in my life...How many have I got left? A lot if I look after my health as best I can I hope! Now...Where's that chocolate bar...