Why Does Fruit Suck So Much?

Let me be Frank for a minute here. I love fruit and eat it every day, but I still sometimes think it sucks. And here is why:

Since I have started my new schedule of four 10 hour days with Friday's off we have started to get our groceries done early every week and gone to Hannaford Thursday evening after I get out of work. I love doing this because it frees up time for my three day weekends I now have. Plus, we always go as a family and usually make good choices about what to get and what junk not to be tempted to get.

Anyway, I am a strong believer in having 6 small meals a day. I have been doing this routine for about a year now and let me tell you it works. I eat a small breakfast in the morning (usually cereal) and then have some kind of fruit for a snack a few hours later (back to that in a moment). Then I have a nice lunch which is usually either a sandwich, salad with chicken or left overs from the previous dinner. When I get home from work I have a small snack like crackers or something similar to keep me satisfied until dinner. I have a nice meal for dinner (usually my biggest meal of the day) and then a small snack before 9pm for dessert. (I try to stay away from too much sugar so I sleep better)

Basically I try to space out the 6 meals evenly throughout the day so I never get those hunger pains which will tend to make me eat more then I normally would. It doesn't always work out perfectly, but I tend to follow this plan 4-5 days a week which is great.

This routine has really helped my metabolism. My weight use to fluctuate 5-10 pounds easily all the time before I started eating like this. Now I can easily maintain the weight I am at as long as I don't over indulge myself on sweets or extra snacks. This is very hard at the moment since Pam is pregnant and needs to snack more frequently. I love her though and it's not her fault I can't resist temptation when she is up for something sweet.

Anyway, back to the task at hand. My morning snack, as I said is usually some kind of fruit. My problem with fruit is that it never lasts as long as it should. When I pick it up on Thursdays at the store it always looks absolutely delicious. There are also many different types of fruit I like as well. Here are some examples:

-Apples (Cortland)
-grapes (big green kind)
-pears
-bananas

I like oranges as well, but they are way too messy to eat while at work. It's also a pain in the ass to peel them. Maybe someone should sell pre-peeled oranges. Those I would buy!

But the big four listed above is what I normally get. And always by Wednesday they are already soft and mushy and bruise. It annoys me to no end. I still eat them because I need the natural sugars to keep me going (I don't drink coffee) but it's not as delicious as I imagined while picking them up at the store.

Pam suggested we go later in the week so they don't do this, but this mushy fruit is not a new trend. It has been happening for a long time. Even if I buy the fruit on Saturday or Sunday it always seems to ripen too fast.

I've tried refrigerating some, but that usually tends to speed up the process and make them bruise faster (except for grapes). Does anyone else have this problem? I don't want to have to get fresh fruit every day in order to have it at the perfect ripeness and I don't see much fruit on the shelves that look like they have past their prime anyway.

How long does fruit stay on the store shelves to make it look so tasty? A day before it's replaced? Is this some sort of trick by the grocery stores into making me think I am getting good fruit, but as soon as it's taken off their 'magic' shelves it will ripen beyond repair?

It's a mystery that bothers me because it's a vicious cycle that I can't control. I know tomorrow will come and I will look and see some fruit that will look amazingly good. But if I don't eat it the second I take it off the shelf I know I will be in for disappointment...