Doritos - maybe those weren't in the plan by the name... but they were definitely in the thought process. And it's a much more controlled thought process than before. And by before - I mean as early as 3 weeks ago.

I admitted to my sister just the other night that what I've spent on fast food (not dining out mind you, just fast food) would have paid for a nice vacation or two (I'm a cheap traveler but still!). I talked about how I need to make provisions for eating in the car, on the run, on the go, etc.

You know how they say the road to hell is paved with good intentions? In my case the road to obesity (which some might consider hell) is just as easily paved.

I had a work function tonight. It was held at a Denny's restaurant. I wasn't sure about the protocol and it would have been awkward to ask, so I didn't. I wasn't sure if we were eating dinner or if it was a coffee and pie event. By the time I made it out to my destination - I didn't have time to go to a grocery store to pick up a whole food, and the one fast food place that wasn't out of the way was Taco Bell. Not ideal - but after my Serving Size incident www.sparkpeople.com/mypa
ge_public_journal_individu
al.asp?blog_id=4679444 with Taco Bell, I at least knew what I was working with. Knowledge is power people.

I ordered one of their tiny meals. In my case it was a gordita supreme, a 1 oz. bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos and a soda. Here's what I found to be true this evening while eating my 'meal' - Fast Food is not a meal. For the 460 calories and the 24 grams of fat, I think I would have rather eaten an avocado and called it a night. In any case - I checked my Spark People App (which I wish said Spark instead of Diet & Nutrition - just saying in case someone from SparkPeople is actually reading!) I kind of knew where I was with what I ordered. The plan was to eat the gordita and save the chips. But we all know that lasted about 10 very short seconds and I was tearing into the bag and eating the chips.

I wasn't very satisfied, especially given that I'm had many days of whole food eating - I went from eating fast food 8 or so times a week to 2 times in the last 2 weeks. It's amazing how quickly the palate changes.

Which gets me to my point of planning a safety net of car friendly foods that I can eat without binging on (@#)$(# nuts.

For example, I actually ate a hot can of pears just the other night because I was driving home late - they were in the car, and I knew I needed to eat something or I was setting myself up for disaster later.

Also - duly noted that it was a coffee and pie event. I didn't order pie, but everyone at the table (save for one dude) ordered a slice of lemon meringue pie - and since the pie was at the end, she brought me the last sliver. I should have declined anyway - but it would have seemed really rude. I *could* have just eaten a few bites and put it aside (and I'll probably do that next time?) but again - I knew that I had room in the calorie budget (over on fat again by just 5 grams this time) - but over all under on calories - which is monumental.

So dear readers - my faithful 3-4 - what are your suggestions for food friendly for the front seat of a car??? Thoughts? Suggestions?