Campus Community

Delicious Dilemma

Written by Annie Beckmann

November 24, 2014

Organic mixed greens at Cherry Street Market

A staffer debates calories or wellness points.

It's a tough time of year for temptation. Here I sit with a complimentary tickie to the annual Thanksgiving Feast at Campion and an invite to collect 50 LiVE Wellness points at an informative nutrition seminar on the same day, at the same time, across campus.

I'm partial to what Bon Ap cooks up each year for that delectable free lunch. Then again, gathering strategies to create and maintain healthy eating habits sounds like a smart choice right before the gluttonous turkey day.

Which will it be, savoring pecan pie or exploring common nutrition and dieting myths and mistakes?  Should I fill up on turkey and mashed potatoes or identify healthy foods and healthy portions?

"We were having a similar discussion here in our office," says Denise Burns in Facilities.  "I think Thanksgiving lunch was winning at last count."    

I'm drawn to both. There's no Weight Watchers meeting this week because of the Thanksgiving holiday, so I have a hankering to cheat a little and eat a wicked lunch with my co-workers as much as I'd like to hear what a registered dietician has to say. This is the most caloric time of year, after all. If only I could get more than 50 Wellness points, I might have a tad more incentive. Do I really want to act holier than thou and eschew the stuffing and gravy with my pals?

Wait, if I hustle, I might be able to pull off both! The free Thanksgiving lunch begins at 11:30 a.m. and the dietician won't start her chat until noon.  I could have a less leisurely lunch and bust out of there in a hurry to find out why I shouldn't have eaten everything I just did. The Catholic guilt begins to sink in at the thought.

That's when I come up with an even crazier solution. Maybe I can grab my free lunch to go and hoof it over to Pigott. Hey, they're calling this Wellness session a "brown bag" talk, right? Why not feast on all that's bad for me while I listen to all that's good for me?  There goes that guilt again, dad-gummit.