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Foiled

Even when I'm not being particularly healthy, diet is usually the last of my worries. The Mild Wife and I meal prep our food, so I more or less know in advance what I'm going to eat. That makes it easier to portion out the meal, as well as to plan out the content of said meal. It takes no real willpower to simply eat what's in the Tupperware, and if you make sure that the contents of the Tupperware are relatively healthy, you're basically set.

It's also worth noting that the Mild Wife and I try to keep the vegetable content in our meals steady, if not high. I mean, "vegetable forward" is a thing in our household. Trips to the grocery store pretty much always involve going through the produce section, so we're no strangers to cooking with greens.

However, the exception to this, at least in my case, seems to be when I travel. There are no Tupperware portions then, so my food tends to lean more towards the unhealthy end of the scale. Generally speaking, eating out leads to more calories and less nutritional content, and traveling tends to mean eating out more often. Heck, even when it's well-intentioned, you can ending up indulging a tad more than you'd expected (if you're not familiar with the free champagne we got during the Mild Honeymoon, that's worth a chuckle).

So, when I was on a business trip recently, I tried to be a bit more mindful of my diet. I still had to go out for dinner, but I could usually control lunch and snacks a bit more. I intentionally avoided eating too much during lunch, and I bypassed the sweets that were often out as an afternoon snack. Along those lines, I also tried to limit the intake of coffee and soda. I figured that if I drank more water, it would help balance things out a bit.

By about the second or third day, I had a routine down. After lunch, grab a water bottle or sparkling water thing to help limit any extra sugar or caffeine intake. Ultimately, that led to me drinking one of these:
It's called "Fresca" so it must be good for you
When I tasted it, I realized that there was flavoring in it. Well, that wasn't quite what I expected, but I've definitely had flavored waters before. Curious, I took a closer look at the can. That's when I discovered that this can was actually "flavored soda" (link). In fact, here's what that can looks like without my hand in the way:
Courtesy of the Target website

Yup it says "soda" right on the can. Now, it's written in small enough writing that you might miss it, but it's there. I can't help but think that this was a very intentional marketing ploy. I mean, look at the can. It's got all that blue in it, and the design looks like waves for crying out loud. If someone wanted to evoke the image of water, they're doing a good job of it.

So, to conclude, I tried to be healthy by drinking more water and less sugary drinks. Instead, I ended up drinking soda water because the can practically lied to me. I was foiled by the marketing department. Foiled, I say.

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