Wednesday

Discovery of the Day: Surviving Chinese food

Yesterday after work we went for that haircut and ended up at the Chinese restaurant next door. I had pretty much resigned myself to falling off the wagon but managed to come out of it OK despite myself.

I ordered Veggie Delight (just stir fried vegs in a light sauce, luckily not oily.) It was a generous portion. I did eat half an egg roll, but I only ate maybe 1 or 2 bites of white rice and scarfed a few strips of my son's teriyaki chicken. And even though I usually retain a LOT of fluid the day after eating Asian food for dinner, the scale was up only ~0.5 lb this morning.

I think I dodged a bullet.

I like to use chopsticks when eating Pacific Rim-type foods, and not just to show off (I'm not that good!) It slows me down and makes it harder to eat the rice, although I can shovel in a decent amount if I try. I even use chopsticks when I'm home by myself if I'm eating a bowl of noodles or stir fry or something. I bought a 100-pack of disposable wooden ones at a restaurant supply store almost 2 years ago and I still have a bunch left. It cost me something like 5 cents. OK, maybe not 5 cents, but they were chee-eep!

The other thing that saved me last night was that I have had nary a craving. I suppose it's because I've been eating an obscene amount of plant fiber -- enough to block up my sink, but that's another story. If I had gotten on a white rice binge, I probably could have eaten both scoops on my plate as well as the remaining scoop on my son's. But even after a couple of bites, I didn't start jonesing over it.

Amazing.

As I sit here at my desk trying to eat my BAS with my little plastic fork and dropping chickpeas all over the floor, I'm wondering if I should employ chopsticks with my BAS. The little plastic fork just ain't cuttin' it.

I've already got tonight's dinner figured out (nice for a change!) Leftover white bean & kale soup, a chunk of good quality crunchy-crust bread in the oven for young son & boyfriend, and, of course, the ubiquitous BAS.

Speaking of ubiquitous, I wonder if or when I'll get to the point where I can't stand the sight of leafy greens. On one hand, sometimes I can eat the same things day after day -- same breakfast cereal, same sandwich for lunch -- because it spares me from having to make a decision. On the other hand, with some foods I hit a point where "That's alls I can stands, and I can't stands no more..." and I can't touch it again. Like eggs, lunchmeat, and low-carb bars from when I did Atkins. I can (oops, could) handle eggs again after a certain point, but lunchmeat is iffy and the bars are right out. Urp!

We'll just have to wait and see, I guess.