Life and Death Adventures

I went off to my San Jose meeting this morning sustained by nothing more than a bowl of rice chex and a cup of chamomile tea. By leaving the house ten minutes later than I intended, I prevented myself from stopping off at the Starbucks next to my meeting place. Of such confluences of unintended actions are diets made, methinks.

After that meeting I headed back to Palo Alto for my lunch meeting at Lavanda, on University Avenue. My host was already there, so we got straight into business and ordering. After he chose a club sandwich, I felt compelled to order from that part of the menu too - and my eye alighted on the croque monsieur. I am very partial to croque monsieur, and I was awfully hungry. It was tasty too. (For those who do not know, a croque monsieur is a grilled sandwich with ham in the middle and cheese melted on the top. A croque madam is the same, but with the addition of a soft-yolked fried egg on top. Extra yummy.) My concession to health was to reject the side of French fries in favor of mixed salad leaves. I drank fizzy water and a filter coffee sweetened with Splenda (bleugh).

Alas, Weightwatchers thinks that the average croque monsieur comes in at a hefty 12 points, so maybe it wasn't the best choice. Cheese rarely is. But it was worth it!

After lunch, I was almost run over. For real. I waited at the lights at the crossing. The lights changed, and I had the walk signal. i stepped out into the road - at the same moment that a large mom-mobile hurtled towards me, screeching its brakes, and ending up in the middle of the intersection with cars coming at it along the road that was on green. I just stood there, somewhat surprised. It literally missed me by a foot or so. If I had been walking slightly faster, I'd have been in hospital now. It turns out that a woman I know was actually in one of the other cars at the intersection, and when I saw her later in the day she commented on how impressed she was by my cool reaction: No banging on the offending car, swearing or anything. Well, it's that famous British stiff upper lip, isn't it?

More or Less Better, No Excuses Remaining

I've just finished eating a Cadbury's Creme Egg. I know I shouldn't but somehow I just don't care. I had Cheerios for breakfast and a Caesar salad for lunch; but then I got hungry and ended up eating an almond croissant with a latte in the afternoon.

I expect to be well enough to go to dance class this week, and I've arranged to go for a walk with a friend on Friday morning; so I've got some exercise in the offing this week after doing nothing at all last week. I'm finally sleeping a bit better so I don't feel so limp and washed out.

It's funny how we all swing back and forth between being "good" (i.e. depriving ourselves of the good things in life, like Cadbury's Creme Eggs) and wolfing down as much "bad" stuff as we can find. It's a disease called Lack of Willpower. I went to the grocery store and deliberately didn't buy any treat food except for Skinny Cow popsicles (which are really for Deep Thought - I don't like them). No cakes, no biscuits, no chocolate, no crisps, not even any unusual crackers. I figure that if I can resist buying them, then I'm less likely to eat them. Not buying them at the grocery store won't, of course, prevent me succumbing at a coffee shop, but should make the overall consumption fall. It's also a good thing for Deep Thought to have less sweet stuff in the house. When you're a 10 year old diabetic, it can be hard to resist.

This eating out lark is bad news

The problem with having no kitchen is that you eat out all the time. The problem with eating out is that the portions are too big. Plus the food is generally pretty calorific. Plus there is too much temptation all round. I shall be astonished if I am not fatter at the end of our four weeks sans kitchen than I was at the start.

Saturday began with Weetabix. At lunch we ate at Fresh Choice in Mountain View. Fresh Choice is a great place to take kids as there is, as the name suggests, a lot of choice. You pay one price ($4.99 for the kids) and help yourself to the salad bar, the hot food, and the dessert. The hot food includes baked potatoes, pasta, pizza, soup and other random things as the restaurant deems fit. The challenge is not to eat too much. Finding things that are healthy choices is not difficult as the calorie details are given on each item, and things which are low salt, low fat, etc are pointed out with handy little signs. I had various salads, avoided the blue cheese dressing (which is frankly the only thing that makes salad tolerable), and had a bowl of carrot soup with a piece of bread. For dessert I selected a cube of sugar free Jello, a spoonful of chocolate pudding, and a spoonful of low fat "whip". I'd have rather had one of their "decadent brownies" but I was being good.

In the afternoon I succumbed to a coffee and biscuit.

Then later in the afternoon it was Little Starlet's birthday party at a local kids' cooking center. I'd rather do parties at home, but no kitchen makes that a tough prospect. Needless to say I had to eat a scone at the end of the party as my daughter had made them. Dinner was bread and more soup with some double creme soft cheese (not the light option, but very yummy). And then, oh woe is me, crisps in the evening.

Today we ate lunch at The Fish Market on the border of Palo Alto and Mountain View. The food wasn't bad, but the service was awful. I had cajun blackened catfish with potato au gratin (instead of fries, a toss up calorie-wise, I think) and coleslaw (that's grated cabbage in mayonnaise to you). This evening we had dinner at a friends' house: chicken and rice with salad and bread...and more scones made by their children. Maybe I'd better do another walk tomorrow.

Walking Back to Happiness

...woopah, oh yeah yeah. As apparently the lyrics of said song by Helen Shapiro go. So there.

Yesterday I spent in three long meetings. I don't even work, how do I get so busy? Anyway, I had toast for breakfast as we had run out of milk. Meeting one was a quick, refreshment-free trot through our remodel status with the builders and architect (for more on which see http://remodelbox.blogspot.co). Then I went up to San Francisco for a business meeting with a nonprofit I'm involved with. It was supposed to be a lunch meeting. In typical SF fashion, we went to a salad bar and chose expensive lettuce: A carb free lunch with a tiny piece of strip steak to decorate the top. Really, can someone tell me what the point is of lettuce?

I then drove from San Francisco to San Jose in the rain. It took two and a half hours. By the time I arrived, I had consumed the emergency plain chocolate from my glove compartment (which really belongs to Deep Thought because it has little sugar in it). In San Jose, I spent three hours sifting applications for an academic enrichment program that I also support. It was interesting, but also supported by the occasional chocolate, as spread on the table by the staff.

Got home just before 9pm, starving. Ate a cheese quesadilla, which is generally calorific, but we happen to have high fibre/low carb tortillas at the moment, so it wasn't so bad. Trouble is, a little quesadilla isn't very filling (though it has a nice comforting melted cheese taste/texture which feels just right on a rainy evening), so I ended up snacking on some (baked) potato chips.

So not the most virtuous of days.

In contrast, today I just got back from my six mile walk, having had only breakfast Weetabix; and I'm hoping to persuade Deep Thought to join me at a dance class this evening.