Shop Hungry

They say you shouldn't go to the grocery store when you're hungry.  Whoever 'they' are... I think they're the same people who determine what colors are 'in' each year.  Yes, 'they' are Pantone.  Possibly.
   Back on track... I say that you should go grocery shopping when you're hungry.  When you're starving, in fact.  When you're so famished that you could eat the ass end out of a rhino.  That's when you need to go shopping.
   Because then you'll see what your bad habits really are.
   When you go grocery shopping on a full stomach, it's easy for your rational mind to overcome your reptile brain.  'Eskimo Pie?  I couldn't possibly.  Besides, you're not supposed to call them Eskimos.'  You actually consider buying tofu and making something of it on your own.  You buy tiny carrots.  You check labels and consider nutritional content seriously.  You skirt the edges of the store just like they tell you to, avoiding the center aisles and their sinful, shameful products.
   But when you're hungry?  Straight to the Circus Peanuts and Yoo Hoo.
   Grocery shopping while you're hungry you can't avoid the siren call of the Stouffer's Macaroni and Cheese, you seek out the Manwich and the Pringles.  You stalk the ice cream aisle just in case Ben and Jerry come to visit in person.  You forget that they actually stock produce, that they have raw meat just steps away waiting for you to buy and prepare.  Your world becomes a Hungry Man entree.
   Once you've shopped hungry - and I mean REALLY hungry - you'll know your triggers.  If you make a list of everything you wanted to devour right there in the store, you'll find most of it contains enormous amounts of preservatives, which are, I'm convinced with no scientific evidence, the reason we crave bad stuff. 
    When you've let your reptile brain satisfy its need to consume mass quantities, take a break, sit back, and don't buy all that garbage.  You really are better than that.  When you recognize what junk you crave you're halfway towards eliminating the craving.

Can you tell that I just got back from the grocery store myself?  An exercise in self control if there ever was one...