Challenges

I've been cafeteria free for over a week now! Last week I ate downstairs every day with my students and watched them pack away the carbs and calories, but it wasn't all bad. We ended up having some very good conversations about sugar, calories, fat grams, etc. Turns out kids are really interested in that stuff! Hooray!

My sandwiches and leftovers have sufficed for lunch each day and I even turned down a donut last Friday morning from another teacher. I saw that as a small success, but it was trumped by the chocolate I ate for a snack that afternoon. (Someone gave it to me as a gift and I just couldn't throw it away! It sat in my desk drawer until I was so hungry I had to eat it.)

Today was another tiny triumph. It was the first day they served taco nachos for lunch in the cafeteria. I know I've said before that chicken nuggets and cheeseburgers were my weakness, but I was wrong. Those are easy to ignore because, even though they smell good, when you look at them you remember why they're bad for you. But the taco nachos not only smell good, they LOOK good, with all that cheese oozing over the top and the crispy tater tots right next door. Yipes! I had to get out of there! I don't think a teacher has ever dropped her kids off for lunch so fast. I didn't even wait for them to sit down before I bolted upstairs and out of the line of fire. It was a close one!

So, the cafeteria boycott is going well. Lots of other teachers are working on the same thing, which is good. I eat lunch with six other ladies and we try to support each other. Yesterday one of us showed up with cafeteria food and we all harrassed her for it. I decided that if she walked in today with taco nachos I would politely ask her to eat that lunch elsewhere! (Not really, but I'd joke about it.) I'm worried that later in the year we won't all be as gung-ho in our collaborative quest and I might be left in the cold. That's fine, though. I think, for now, I should try my best to be the last teacher to give in to the lure of cafeteria cuisine!