I’m treating myself in advance of going on a more restricted phase of my diet. This is not to be confused with cheating on my diet. I haven’t done that. I’m eating reasonably for a dieting person.
This is what I ate today.
Breakfast burrito at about 7 am. Made with scrambled egg beaters and a small, low carb tortilla.
Banana around mid-morning.
Black-eyed pea salad at about 11 am. Made with black-eyed peas, green salsa, and cilantro.
A few grapes at some point either before or after the salad.
Vegetable sushi at about 5:30 pm.
I don’t have a clue how many calories that adds up to. It’s been a long day. I don’t have the energy to add the ingredients one-by-one into an online diet log to add up the nutritional values. I think it’s at least possible that I’ve stayed under my target goal of 1300 calories for the day, though.
If I didn’t, I’m not sure I care. Did I mention the part about it being a long day?
That’s what I told myself when I ate the banana. I didn’t plan to snack. It just happened. The banana was there, and I ate it. I didn’t, however, eat the muffins or the cheese pinwheels that were also there. The school set out snacks in my office suite today for everyone working at registration. We were the break room for the building. If all I did was eat a banana and a few grapes outside of my day’s intentions while everyone else was eating heartily all around me, I probably deserve some sort of prize.
In fact, I chose a prize for myself. That’s where the vegetable sushi comes in. It isn’t technically on my diet. The rice is not whole grain, you see. But sometimes you just have to untechnically diet.
Today was a particularly tiring day in that special way that registration days always are. I needed more than something to ease my hunger at quitting time. I needed little bites of comfort, and that’s exactly what vegetable sushi is. Heaven on a chop stick.
I have a theory too that even if you consume fewer calories and less substantive foods, you’ll feel full longer if you enjoy your food. Something in your basic human psychology tells you that everything is okay because you feel satisfied with what you’ve eaten.
Possibly, this is the secret of being skinny and Japanese. Or skinny and French. Eat things that please you, that give you a sense of having been rewarded by life. Eat only until you are no longer hungry, and move on with your day.
That’s probably the best diet plan, but I’m going to try Phase I of South Beach starting on Monday anyway.
Details to follow.
