Day Eleven - Rolling Salad Dressing

Today was the first Monday of summer vacation. Usually the children are in school on Mondays and I have an opportunity to recover from the weekend. Today it was "game on". I was balancing a work meeting, my husband being out of town and activities for the children scheduled at four different times during the day. Somewhere in the there I also fit it exercising and a trip to the supermarket.

Needless to say my aim to have a civilized lunch did not hit its mark. By 1PM I was starving and settled for a supermarket salad bar salad with chicken, krab and hardboiled eggs. Before I made it to the car I dropped the small container of salad dressing in the parking lot and it rolled quite a distance before I caught up with it. Luckily the little disposable container stayed in tact. I was so hungry that I ate some of the salad with my fingers while waiting in the Starbuck's drive through line.

Not a winner of a day but it was reasonably healthy so I guess I get to count that as a victory.

Day Nine - Busy, busy, busy

Today was a busy, busy day but I did manage to sit down for a few minutes to tuna salad on a bed of arugula from our garden. It was OK but eaten on the run, in the middle of chaos and was not very satisfying.

Day Ten - Applebees

Yeeesh another busy day to end a busy weekend. We went strawberry picking this morning and then did a ton of errands. We finally had lunch at 1:40PM at Applebees. My children had yummy looking grilled cheese sandwiches, fries and apple slices but I choose the more virtuous Southwestern Chicken Salad with no dressing and no tortilla strips.

First the salad arrived dressed but WITHOUT the tortilla strips so I sent it back. Then it arrived undressed but WITH the tortilla strips. I was so hungry at this point that I could not stand the idea of sending it back again (and I was a little embarrassed). At first I worked hard to fish out the strips but they were really small and mingled with the finely grated cheese. I finally gave up. It tasted good but I would have rather splurged on something more interesting.

I have been doing South Beach and since I am in phase one I am not supposed to have fruit but my other "splurge" of the day was to have some apple slices and also strawberries. I realize this is no crime but I hope I am not sabotaging myself.

Day Eight - Last Day of School

Today is the last day of school for my children. They got out early and were home by 9:45AM. We hosted a neighborhood party to celebrate. I did a good job of only drinking diet coke and coffee and ate a handful of nut. After the party was over I sat down and had a mindful lunch.

My lunch was greens from our CSA and curried chick peas salad for the co-op. I was glad I waited and didn't eat the loads of junk that brought to the party. My husband came through half-way through my lunch and sat down with me. Even though the children were home both were occupied playing with friends. It was civilized, peace and hopefully will set the tone for the summer.

Day Seven - Social Tortilla

On day seven (which was yesterday) I had a business meeting where lunch was provided. I have been doing South Beach so I did not want to eat any carbs but the lunch that was provided was a chicken wrap and potato chips. I was not sure what to do. There were no utensils so I could not gracefully pull out the chicken. I decided to suck it up and just eat it. I tried to bite the meatiest parts and discard the tortilla. It went OK and I did not eat the chips which honestly looked great.

It did make me think about the social issues involved with eating. I was a guest and my host was a prospective client. What was I supposed to do to balance my dietary restrictions with what felt like my social obligations? I think I did OK but I continue to struggle with this.

No picture today since it seemed too weird to take a picture of my food in a business meeting.

Day Six - Micky Dees

I played tennis this morning and was famished by 11AM so I ducked into McDonalds for a Southwestern Chicken salad. I read in Comsumer Reports that this is a healthy option especially if you omit the dressing. So that's what I choose. I would have rather had a Big Mac and fries but opted instead for a large diet coke mixed with sugar free lemonade. The salad was OK but there was some kind of glistening goo on the chicken breast that I found a little scary.

I read our local liberal newspaper while I ate and learned quite a bit about unpasteurized milk in the process. Although the salad was a little skeevy overall it was an OK lunch.

I will say that I was hungry again about 90 minutes later. It seems that the quality/quantity of my breakfast seems to really affect what happens at lunch. I will try to eat more for breakfast tomorrow and we'll see what happens for lunch.

Day Five - More than one

Today was a little weird. Even though I ate breakfast I was hungry again at 10AM so I decided to try having an early lunch. I figured I could have a bigger afternoon snack. I felt so civilized. I had a lovely Greek salad and an iced tea. I ate it sitting down while having a great conversation with a friend. Goal accomplished I thought.

Think again, I was STARVING by noon!! I think that since I didn't eat lunch yesterday my body was not going to let me off the hook for a mid-day meal today. I answered back with lunch number two of the day. My second lunch was turkey chili with tomatoes, scallions and cheese on top. It was yummy but I was so hungry that I forgot to take a picture.

Here is a picture of lunch #1.