Yah know, I gotta hand it to myself for a minute. One of my favorite bar foods...no, my very favorite bar food is the cheese stick. The fried crispy outside that gives way to the warm, gooey, stringy center. The salty, tangy marinara that pairs with it so perfectly. It's really some crazy piece of food art in my humble opinion. Well, the last two nights, John and I have been out at bars. And each time, the place offered this amazing (and underrated) appetizer. Each time, I passed them up. Now that takes some hutzpah, especially when you have a couple of beers in you.
I gotta thank my main man for not egging me on to get them. He didn't stop himself from getting smoked wings the first night or his Philly steak and cheese the second, but that's ok. This diet is not about others choosing differently or changing their habits just for me. I really don't want that at all. But had he really emphasized the fact each place offered cheese sticks or ordered them for himself and offered me a few or something like that, I would have caved.
Instead, night one I got tomato bisque soup. It was technically a cheat because it had cream in it...but I didn't know that ahead of time. NIght two I got a black bean burger without the bun along with the lettuce, tomato slice and onion that would have come on the whole sandwich. I should have taken a picture of it...it looked so pathetic sitting on that big white plate without any side dish to keep it company.
But I'm holding out for my first cheat. Friday night. We have had a date night scheduled for weeks now and I am going to have whatever I want. And I'm not going to feel guilty about it. In fact, Benny and a doctor I spoke with today both mentioned the importance of indulging when you need to. Benny mentioned the 80/20 rule; eat your diet 80% of the time and indulge the other 20%. I like that. I'm not going to do it for this diet, but in the long-run, its a good balance.
Here is my "action blog" from today. I wrote earlier today:
About to eat my first "nutrition bar" that I bought yesterday at Rainbow Blossom. It's called the "Go Take a Hike!" bar and I am praying that is not what I will want this bar to do after I taste it. Considering my total bill for that earthy grocery run was about $70, I calculate this snack cost me about $4.60. It better taste like a brownie sundae and have a small block of gold in the middle. The ingredients include: (all products organic) cashews, golden raisins, mulberries, agave, pistachios, goji berries, almonds, cacao, cinnamon, vanilla and Himalayan salt. Hummmm...maybe shipping salt all the way over here from the Himalayas had something to do with the small house payment-sized price of this here bar? Time to eat. Package open: Smells great! Like carrot cake or oatmeal cookies. Texture: dense, chewy, soft crunch. Taste: Hot damn! This is good! It's pretty sweet, so I'll eat it slow, but it's great and IT TASTES NORMAL!!! Ahhh...what a total relief; both for the money I spent on it and for the satisfaction of knowing I have another snacky thing I can lean on. I swear, if people could get all vegan stuff to taste like this, their conversion rate would finally be news worthy. I'm going to start a page in my site devoted to Food Worth Buying and this is going to be the first product on there.
Instead, night one I got tomato bisque soup. It was technically a cheat because it had cream in it...but I didn't know that ahead of time. NIght two I got a black bean burger without the bun along with the lettuce, tomato slice and onion that would have come on the whole sandwich. I should have taken a picture of it...it looked so pathetic sitting on that big white plate without any side dish to keep it company.
But I'm holding out for my first cheat. Friday night. We have had a date night scheduled for weeks now and I am going to have whatever I want. And I'm not going to feel guilty about it. In fact, Benny and a doctor I spoke with today both mentioned the importance of indulging when you need to. Benny mentioned the 80/20 rule; eat your diet 80% of the time and indulge the other 20%. I like that. I'm not going to do it for this diet, but in the long-run, its a good balance.
Here is my "action blog" from today. I wrote earlier today:
About to eat my first "nutrition bar" that I bought yesterday at Rainbow Blossom. It's called the "Go Take a Hike!" bar and I am praying that is not what I will want this bar to do after I taste it. Considering my total bill for that earthy grocery run was about $70, I calculate this snack cost me about $4.60. It better taste like a brownie sundae and have a small block of gold in the middle. The ingredients include: (all products organic) cashews, golden raisins, mulberries, agave, pistachios, goji berries, almonds, cacao, cinnamon, vanilla and Himalayan salt. Hummmm...maybe shipping salt all the way over here from the Himalayas had something to do with the small house payment-sized price of this here bar? Time to eat. Package open: Smells great! Like carrot cake or oatmeal cookies. Texture: dense, chewy, soft crunch. Taste: Hot damn! This is good! It's pretty sweet, so I'll eat it slow, but it's great and IT TASTES NORMAL!!! Ahhh...what a total relief; both for the money I spent on it and for the satisfaction of knowing I have another snacky thing I can lean on. I swear, if people could get all vegan stuff to taste like this, their conversion rate would finally be news worthy. I'm going to start a page in my site devoted to Food Worth Buying and this is going to be the first product on there.
The only other note-worthy thing today was my reaction to lunch. Remember that Southwestern Mac and "Cheese" I made on Saturday? Well I still have some of it. Actually, tons of it. No surprises there, huh? So I brought it to work today. When my hungry belly was finally satisfied, I, for the first time in my life, actually said, "Thank goodness lunch is over." How sad is that?
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