It's Shopping Time at the Supermarket
My enthusiasm is boundless
Here we go then. Food Shopping.
The Diet Plan is complete.... The promises are made to oneself.... The Shopping List is Written.... The Attitude is Resolute.... What could possibly go Wrong?
The car is parked in the Supermarket car park. The trolley is chosen. I walk through the doors. I open my shopping list of required stuff. I gently smile to myself as I set off up the aisles, perusing the wares on the shelves. Deciding what is good and what is bad for a T2D
My enthusiasm melts very fast though. The very first aisle contains nothing but cakes, chocolate bars, biscuits, crisps and snacks. Mmmmm! "That's a bit unfair" I thought. But I'm strong. I study my shopping list, rather than the naughty stuff on the shelves.
I keep going forward..... Phew! The end of the first aisle is there. I see that it's newspapers and magazines. Again.... Phew!
I made it with nothing entering my trolley. At the end of this aisle I turn the corner and enter the second aisle.....
Bugger it! Dairy cakes, sponge cakes, chocolate cakes, cake bars, flapjacks and packets of biscuits. All sweet stuffs. How the hell do people stand a chance?
Luckily, the other side of the aisle was the dairy side, with the milks and creams etc. I come back down this side...... Milks, Creams, Milk Shakes, Oh thank God.... Yoghurts 'I luv Yoghurt'. A couple of packs of low fat yoghurts go into the trolley.
Small puddings, large puddings, custards, more bad stuffs are next.... Aw Jeez! Here we go again.....
The next aisle..... Breads and Pastries...... Will this never end?
I'm Strong! I'm Adament! I'm Doing This!
In front of me, I see the newspapers and magazines. Again.... Phew! I made it without putting anything into my trolley. At the end of this aisle I turn the corner and enter the second aisle.....
Small puddings, large puddings, custards, and more bad stuff are next.... Aw Jeez! Here we go again.....
I get all the way around the shop without putting anything sweet or too carby into my trolley. I'm finished now. I join the queue to checkout. I have a real sense of pride and achievement in myself. I'm doing it... I'm doing it, I mutter to myself. I hoped nobody was watching while I muttered to myself. The strange one in the shop. You know! There’s always one.
Again, I don't succumb and leave the supermarket, proud at having been really strong and not buying anything I shouldn't have.
But to other shoppers, I must have looked pretty demented, walking out chuntering and muttering obscenities, under my breath about those management swine's and their selling tactics. And the strategic positioning of very unhealthy foodstuffs before the healthy ones.
It's now I notice that there are short shelves, enclosing the tills, full of chocolate bars, sweets, chewing gum, and snacks flanking the till aisle. All stretching down low to the floor.
"You bastards," I thought. An obvious sweet trap for children to infuriate their parents even more than they already have. I have obviously seen these before. This time though... I notice. Normally, I would have already stocked up on sweet things. It's only now, when I'm cutting out the bad stuff that it screams 'Buy Me'.
To other shoppers, I must have looked pretty demented, walking around chuntering and muttering obscenities under my breath about those vicious management swines. Their immoral sales tactics and their strategic positioning of very unhealthy foodstuffs before the healthy ones.
Again I don't succumb. I pay the poor, flustered till woman who was looking at this six-foot flabby Hulk, muttering to himself. "One of those strange ones," I bet she thought?
I leave the supermarket feeling proud at having been really strong and not buying anything from the naughty shelves or freezers.
When I get back home in to my newly appointed Health Haven, I am still moaning and complaining about the general strategic positioning of unhealthy foodstuffs in supermarkets and stores.... I am still chuntering about writing a letter of complaint, to head office. I never do, but it feels good saying it.
