Day 5 of My Nervous System Novelty Challenge: New Favorite Unhealthy Food from Trader Joe's

The path of awakening rarely follows straight lines. Today, while the obvious choice whispered hot yoga—that 15-year pilgrimage back to the furnace of transformation where I remembered, bone-deep, my love affair with heat—something deeper called for authentic newness. The mat felt like coming home to a self I'd temporarily forgotten, every pose a carrying with it a glimmer of recognition. But true novelty? That required a different kind of surrender.

So my son and I embarked on what I now recognize as a sacred expedition through the fluorescent-lit temple that is Trader Joe's, hunting not just for snacks but for the next small pleasure that might crack open joy in unexpected ways. The nervous system, after all, craves not just challenge but also delight—those moments when pure sweetness meets the complex architecture of memory.

We gathered our offerings: crunch clusters promising textural meditation, some s'mores creation that spoke to our collective camping soul, and the unlikely contender of the day—Sour Strawberry Belts. We deliberately avoided the dark chocolate peanut butter cups, those undisputed champions of our household pantheon. Why invite comparison when you're seeking discovery? The GOAT deserves its throne undisturbed.

After honoring the body with protein and greens (yes, deliciously Southern California of us), we created ceremony around tasting. Three humans, three palates, one clear winner emerging from the symphony of sugar and synthetic strawberry that somehow—miraculously—tasted real. Not manufactured joy, but something approaching authentic sweetness.

The sour hit first, that electric shock that makes every nerve ending pay attention, followed by sours of all kiinds memories: movie theaters with sticky floors, childhood snacks when sourness was the highest form of candy sophistication, the particular intimacy of sharing something that makes you pucker and laugh simultaneously.

This is what the nervous system knows that the mind forgets: sometimes renewal comes not through the dramatic return to ancient practices, but through the simple willingness to let a piece of candy on a Monday afternoon become a doorway to presence. The heat of yoga opened my body; the sourness of strawberry belts opened something else entirely—the part of me that still believes in small magics, in the way food can become memory, memory can become connection, and connection can become the very novelty we seek.

Some days transformation wears workout clothes. Other days, it comes in a sour-sugared belts, tasting like childhood and tasting like now, all at once.

Stay tuned for Day 6, where who knows what doorway will present itself for walking through.