Junk Food, the Foul Temptress

Former NHL'er Dan McGillis, now playing in Germany, gave me some simple, yet excellent advice on adhering to your meal plan.

McGillis said, "The key for me has been getting the junk food out of the house. I just cleaned out the pantry. I mean, if you come home and you're hungry, you'll grab the potato chips if they're sitting there on the shelf. I just decided to throw all the junk out and replace it with good healthy alternatives. Now I just grab an apple that's sitting there where the chips used to be."

That seems pretty basic but it's been some of the best advice I've gotten during "the quest". Chips and ice cream are almost impossible to ignore. If I open the pantry and see a big, beautiful bag of Doritos there, I might resist once, maybe twice. But I will eventually pounce on it like a lion on a gimpy wildebeest.

If you're into healthy eating, maybe you convince yourself you're buying the stuff in good faith for someone else - for your kids, guests or an upcoming party...whatever. Don't do it. Your kids and parties will do just fine without it. They don't need a belly full of grease, salt and sugar any more than you do.

It's out of sight, out of mind. If it's in sight, you'll go out of your mind. Like McGillis said, keep the junk food out of your house completely and apples will always be the victim of your snack attack.