Food Journal 11-21-08 – 11-22-08

11-21-08

The morning did not start with an Atkins bar – in fact, none were had this day. It was a crazy day of meetings and much mental work, which left me drained. In between meetings I ate my lunch – the chicken bacon with Brussels sprouts, and stayed an hour late to finish up some work.

Coming home, I had a generous share of the sausage and meatball dish with some wine. I also had a smallish cheese with lettuce and mayo sandwich. 

Forgot my vitamins and went to bed maybe 10pm – perhaps too tired to to be hungry (Is that possible?).

Weight: 203.6

11-22-08

Breakfast – at about 10am, was a large serving of the Italian stew. We needed to go to Ikea, the massive furniture store / Swedish cult / theme park/ restaurant / abattoir. If you look beyond their couches and cups, this is an operation obsessed with every last detail – and every detail is designed to make you see every last pie plate they make, in the best possible light, and to buy as much of their stuff as possible.

It’s like going to visit an interesting friend for a few minutes – and leaving 7 hours later. You don’t say: “I’m going to run in for a few things” at Ikea – it’s not a store as much as a presentation. 

If I had gone alone, I would have executed a quick commando attack on the needed items – a comforter and dresser – but the family came along and what could have been 1/2 hr. max shopping became 4+ hours. 

We had lunch there – and surprisingly, Swedish furniture store food ain’t half bad. The kids had Swedish meatballs and mac & cheese. The wife had smoked salmon. I had shrimp and egg with mayo on a slice of bread. I tossed the bread and ate the rest. It’s a good combo, egg and shrimp – I forgot. I’ll have to whip that one up myself some time.

I missed the exit coming home and we arrived back later than expected. We’re preparing for house guests, have a lot of work to prepare, and now wasted an entire day shopping, which kind of stressed me out.

I suppose if I was to deconstruct what happened next, due to my fighting a cold, being tired, getting lost, wasting a good part of the day shopping, and feeling the weight of all I have to do in the remaining bit of the weekend, I let my guard down and carbed out on some pasta, some leftover souffle, and some other small itsy-bitsys as I cruised the fridge. I also had an open-faced cheese and lettuce sandwich with lettuce.

To prove the notion that low carb is a ‘hack’ to your body – and to demonstrate how it allows a person to weigh far less than their body naturally wants to weight, this indiscretion made me gain close to 4 lbs. – I’m now 207.0.

It’ll peel off fast, if history is any indication – if I watch myself today. If the indiscretion continues, however, it might set me back more than a week.