#4 - Buying food your mom would disapprove of

Today's post is, by necessity, short. The test is TWO DAYS AWAY and since I'm cutting my self off (study-wise) at 3 o'clock on Friday afternoon, I'm taking every opportunity to study. I'm currently sitting on my couch with my GRE book, a brand new pack of pencils, and, unfortunately, a very serious stomach ache. I've never been one of those people who starves themselves when stressed. I'm don't eat my feelings (thank God), but I do, occasionally, eat my stress. The past few days have been particularly bad for my health. I've been indulging in cheap, quick food, and that rarely translates to low-fat, nutritious fare. But in shopping for study food recently (Helloooo calories!), I've found a new Thing To Be Happy About: buying food your mom would disapprove of.

My mother is a wonderful, brilliant woman who has always supported me and my siblings through everything we've done. She's also a bit of a food Nazi. She recently accused me of only writing bad things about her in this blog, so let me be clear: my mom would never call me fat, or tell me not to eat something, or suggest that I go on a diet. She's not that kind of food Nazi. But she is, traditionally, very particular about the kind of food she buys. Going home to Texas is a wonderful experience for many reasons, and my parent's fridge - full of fresh produce, tasty meats, and, invariably, a big bowl full of red seedless grapes - is one of them. But you'd never find Coco Puffs in my parent's pantry. Or Pop Tarts. Or Wonderbread, or beef jerky, or any number of delicious yet wholly unhealthy foods. My mom's most recent crusade was against high fructose corn syrup, and let me tell you - that stuff is in everything.

Going to the grocery store on my own, then, has become a bit of a challenge. On the one hand, I'm a bit of a hippy, and I've become my mother's daughter. I love buying organic vegetables, and low-fat m ilk, and healthy things. But I also have these impulses to buy things I know she'd hate. And in times of stress, those impulses become even stronger. Case in point: last night, my roommate and I went to Walgreens to buy lots of Diet Coke in order to stay up late and study. We came home with Diet Coke, Fruity Pebbles, Ruffles potato chips (and not the low-fat kind), and Pop Tarts. My breakfast today? A bowl of Fruity Pebbles washed down with some Diet Coke. For Lunch? Pop Tarts. My mother, I'm sure would be horrified. But they were quick, cheap meals, and I got some twisted satisfaction out of imagining my mom's face.

I have to admit, she has good reason to be horrified. All that sugar caused a serious energy crash in the late afternoon, and I've got a wicked stomach ache at the moment. So there's another Thing to Be Happy About, I suppose. Moms being right. They usually are.