
With a few notable exceptions, I've stayed faithful to the Let's Do Lunch eating program. My only real issue is only a matter of time management. When I don't force myself to stop what I'm doing and eat at specific times, I get into the bad habit of eating the right foods, but at the wrong times, which interferes with my weight loss. When I don't do the [glow=green,2,300]FOUR P's-- Planning, Preparation, Pre-cooking, and Packaging,[/glow] I get into the rut of grabbing the first, fastest LDL thing that tastes good to me, which is usually popcorn. When I find myself eating 6 to 8 batches of popcorn a day, I have to stop eating popcorn for a few days and force myself to make another choice. I run into trouble when I run out of canned beans, frozen veg and CORN (planning), don't have fruit & veg washed & cut up, ready to eat (preparation), I get low on soups, beans, and already cooked chicken (pre-cooking and packaging) in the fridge & freezer.
It may be a gross rationalization on my part, but I have chosen to place the notable exceptions mentioned above into the category of "eating the least fattening thing you can find that still tastes good to you". For example, over the past 8 weeks, I CHOSE to eat three slivers of fruitcake, the filling from a small slice of regular pumpkin pie, a piece of bacon, a marshmallow, a 3-gram square of Ghiradelli chocolate, and 4 halves of Grands biscuits. I also chose to eat at Sonny's BBQ on my birthday because I CRAVE that smokehouse flavor that I can't replicate at home. I had the salad bar, sliced beef (visible fat pulled off), smoked chicken (skin removed), one pork rib, corn on the cob and green beans, drained on napkins. I'm sure the meat was loaded with fat and the green beans still contained a significant amount of bacon grease. Next time I'm going to skip the beef, rib, corn and green beans (they didn't taste very good) and just have the smoked chicken and salad bar.
I was really happy to learn that a couple of things I absent-mindedly tossed into my mouth tasted TERRIBLE and I had to spit them out: 1) one of Neil's McDonald's french fries and 2) three chocolate chips. The fry tasted rancid and dry, the chips were like chewing on candle wax.
Another reason I've been away is really two-fold. I AM stressed and tired, my legs have been swollen from spending all day long every day in the wheelchair and the cold snap we've been having is killing most of my arthritic body parts. I thought it would help to spend more time with my legs elevated, so I put away the computer (I can't type lying down) and checked out a few dozen books from the library, which has been very enjoyable. So, I have been refreshing body and spirit during my three weeks away from the boards.








Once I had cajun seafood pasta at Shells and had been trying to recreate the spicy seasoning ever since but had never mastered it. 
), Iced Tea w/Lemon