FOOD

28 July 2003

I decided to talk about food today. The main reason I wanted to talk about food was that we went to Chevy's for dinner last night. I ordered a sizzling fajita platter and took two GREAT pictures of the steam rising off the platter and I just wanted to post them!!

(see the steam rising off the platter in both pictures?)

I really am serious about my commitment to lose at least 10 lbs before I leave for Australia (in 46 days). I was halfway there at last Tuesday's weigh-in. This week has had a couple of difficult moments.

God, I've been at this for a year and a half--it should be easier than this!

But staying home and being inactive (and unable to exercise much) is always difficult. On the whole, I've handled it well, I think. And I've been drinking lots and lots of water.

Yesterday we were going to San Francisco to see the latest Lamplighters production (my favorite of the Gilbert & Sullivan canon, Iolanthe). Walt suggested dinner in the city. We didn't know where we were going to go but decided to just play it by ear.

We parked the car in Orinda and took BART in (the last time we did this, when we returned to the BART station, our car had been stolen. We were relieved to see it still in the parking place when we returned last night.)

We walked from BART, looking for open restaurants. Quiznos was a tentative plan till we discovered that it was closed on a Saturday night. But there was a Chevy's across from the theatre. (I kind of hate it that it seems that most restaurants these days are part of a chain!) Mexican food is tricky. I love it. But there is so much that it dangerous to the diet.

First came the tortilla chips and salsa. Chevy's makes their own chips on the premises and the are by far my favorite tortilla chips anywhere (unless I find a place that is a mom'n'pop kind of restaurant where they also make their own and they are drenched in grease!). I am so proud of me. i had four (count 'em) chips. Usually we have a wait person come by and refill our chip basket at least once while waiting for our food, but I was able to stop myself after only four chips. If I felt very good.  There were still chips left in the basket when we left.

I allowed myself to read the dessert menu and put on 2 lbs just reading about the "ice cream baked potato," and looking at someone eating one on the way out, but nary a taste passed my lips.

First hurdle survived.

Second hurdle was this evening, when we met some friends from our college group, those who live in this area now ("the valley people"). It was a house-warming dinner of sorts and I knew that it would be difficult with the inevitable pot luck and plentiful snacks. I told someone today that I realized it's not food I'm addicted to, it's eating. The act of eating. And when you eat to ease discomfort, you naturally gravitate to the wrong things.

But I was convinced I would not fall into that trap (or that vat of clam dip). I had some veggies off the veggie platter, got a couple of crackers with smoked salmon (didn't even look at the cream cheese), and then sat down to put my leg up. In truth, my knee did need elevating, and that helped keep me away from hanging around the counter trying to fight off the temptation to have "just one." I know where that leads!

When dinner came around, I had a sensible dinner--small piece of meat, medium portion of ourzo salad, and large portion of green salad.

I did have a piece of the strawberry rhubarb pie, but I had lots of points to play around with today, so I knew that I was doing all right.