Day Fifty-Six: Vacation Day Three, Passover Debacle

For quite a while I have not really found it that hard to be on the diet. I lived a pretty good life and pretty much ate whatever I wanted. So when it came my time to 'behave' I was ready. As a result, I have sailed through where others have reported struggling. But these few days have been a struggle, and I'm not sure I came out on top on the second day of Passover. It started with the fact that we (my brother, mom and I) were bringing the food. This was because my aunt who usually takes care of everything had broken her arm in a car accident and we were in a position to offer assistance. Between my family, we coordinated the amount of food and various locations it was coming from (some from NYC, some from the island). There was a fair bit of back and forth about the arrangements but by 5:30ish we had all arrived with our various parcels. Unlike some of your standard-issue family dinners, this promised to really have YUMMY food AND desserts. Aside from my particular weakness for this kind of meal, I have also have a weakness for a certain bakery's chocolate covered coconut macaroons which are only made at Passover. I could feel my knees weakening. Looking back in hindsight, maybe I could done have better. But that's the past.

Breakfast
2 Eggs (Trick will be written about later)
2 Strips Turkey Bacon (still applegate)
Tea

Snack
1 Cheese stick
15 Almonds (both eaten on way out the door)
~10 Dried Apricots
~10 Cashews, Ass't Unsalted Nuts

Lunch
Chop Salad with Chicken
Zinger Salad with Tuna

Dinner (it's a doozy)
3 Pieces Matzoh with Chicken Liver
1 Piece with Haroset and Horseradish
1.5 pieces of Gefilte Fish
Chicken Soup with .5 Matzoh Ball
Brisket pieces
Chicken Breast pieces
Tzimmes (tablespoon)
Ass't Olives, Asparagus, Hearts of Palm

Dessert
1 Chocolate dipped Coconut Macaroon

For those of you Gentiles or Jews who never visit New York or Florida, 'chop salad' is something that I assume began because senior citizens have bad teeth and need their delicious salad 'chopped up' into very small pieces. It is slightly disconcerting to look at, as except for the salad-ingredient colors, it looks like you have just opened a large box from Amazon.com. My mom and I split the two salads, which were bigger than either of our heads. We did not finish either.

Reviewing the dinner, it actually wasn't that the food intake was so out of control, it was just that stuff like chopped liver (which is allowed, but very high in calories) or matzoh (which is allowed, but to 'be avoided') and macaroons (which are not 'allowed' as they contain milk, sugar and white flour) can drive a SoBe dieter beyond the brink. On reflection, I was lucky to get out with one macaroon.