Food, Glorious Food

This week I have overdone it a little on the junk food front. Okay, that's an understatement. I have actually been overdoing it all my life.

Everyone knows I have a passion for chocolate. An all-consuming passion. You can imagine my delight, then, when I discovered the chocolate brownies served in the DCU canteen. These brownies have been my comfort food for the past few months. I can't resist them. When I see them, I buy them. It's as simple as that. Unfortunately, this is at the expense of real food. When my friends are eating their curries and steaks and fruit salads (not all together, obviously) I'm busy tucking into my brownies, with a bottle of Club Lemon on the side. It's terrible.

I've always had what you might call a sweet tooth (more like a head full of sweet teeth) but I'm convinced I've become steadily worse over the months I've been at university. When I'm at home, there is no way I would have a fizzy drink every day of the week. When I'm here, it's another story. Take this week for example. On Monday I walked into the shop with the intention of buying toilet paper and nothing else. I walked out with my intended purchase, plus a bag of Haribo Starmix and a four-pack of Cadbury's Wispa bars. Never mind that I already had a giant Aero bar waiting for me back at the apartment. Disgraceful. As my mother is forever telling me, it's a wonder I'm not diabetic.

Seriously, I think the only reason I'm not diabetic is because I have an extremely fast metabolism. I probably expel calories from my system quicker than many people, because I seem to lose weight rather than gain it. Sure, I play football once a week, but I'm not sure that has anything to do with it.

Anyway, when the full realisation of my behaviour hit me, I decided to set myself a challenge. I would not buy a chocolate brownie this week, and I would limit myself to one bottle of Club Lemon. It was bloody hard, I can tell you, because willpower doesn't exist for me where sugar is concerned. But somehow I managed it. This afternoon after my lecture, I bypassed the brownies and fizzy drinks and headed straight for the apple juice. I also bought sausages and chips, which ain't exactly bursting with goodness, but at least it was hot food.

I worked out that buying a chocolate brownie today would have meant sacrificing my bus fare for tomorrow, so as well as the obvious health benefits of cutting down on the sweet treats, I get to save money too. And students, as we all know, are obsessed with saving pennies. How long will it last though? I'm not too sure. This time next week, all my hard work could well come undone. Meanwhile, there will be pancakes to enjoy when I go home tomorrow...