My Sneaky Subconscious

Part of my Very Active Day schedule included a trip to the mall.  The purpose of this visit was three-fold: 1. Keep my on my feet for a couple hours, 2. Give me something to do besides eat, and 3. Use my Neiman Marcus gift card.  So after an excellent workout at the gym (awesome treadmill session and swam 350 yards!), I showered and drove off to the mothership, the King of Prussia Mall.  Prior to my arrival, I worked out my parking and walking route (park at the opposite end of the mall from the stores I wanted to visit), and gave myself stern instructions that no food would be purchased aside from a tall non-fat latte at Starbucks.

I entered the mall and walked virtuously by the Cheesecake Factory, California Pizza Kitchen and Godiva with nary a sideways glance, even though I was a bit hungry.  I told myself "I don't need high-fat comfort food to fulfill me", picked up my non-fat latte and started shopping.  Stopped at a few stores, used my NM gift card and then.....I found myself in Louis Vuitton, hand on my wallet, about to hand over an obscene amount of money for a messenger bag that I did NOT need.  Nope, not at all.  Furthermore, I wasn't even sure how much I liked said bag!!  Fortunately I came to my senses in time to utter a lame excuse that it was too small for my laptop and made my escape.  Fast forward another 10 minutes, and I found myself in Williams-Sonoma about to plunk down my credit card for a pasta maker.  Came to my senses just in time (uh....I think I'll put it on my Christmas list...) and walked out of the store.  Then it hit me right between the eyes: my sneaky subconscious wasn't getting what it wanted (comfort food) so it was trying to trick me into another instantly gratifying activity - buying things I don't need just for the momentary thrill of the purchase.  Damn you, tricky brain!  At that point, I decided that right now, the mall was just as dangerous to me as a department Christmas lunch at Maggiano's.  Time to go home.

On a side note, I stopped at Genuardi's on the way home to pick up some essentials and found that cauliflower was on sale, 2/$5.  Normally I would have bought two - but check out the picture below and you'll see why I only bought one:

No, that isn't a trick ruler - this cauliflower is a foot wide!

OK, break is over, off to finish the remainder of my chores and make dinner (which will of course include cauliflower).