152: Sweet Salty

If you've worked at a restaurant, or are close with someone who cooks, you know the dirty secret: that they add sugar, salt, flour and butter (and variations on those themes) to every recipe. What's amazing to me is that I can often now taste those things where I never could before, and even more amazing, that I don't like them. It makes me quite sad to realize that if I am going to order meatballs out, they're going to contain bread, or that the sauce they come in will contain sugar. I know that if I'm going to eat out, it's not "are you going off SoBe", but "exactly HOW are you going off SoBe?" Again, it's not that I'm eating forbidden foods—it's that forbidden foods are HIDDEN in everything. Do I ask for butter on my steak? Corn starch in my sauce? High Fructose corn syrup in my bread? Sure, I could go on, but you know the rant.

Breakfast
1 Cup All-Bran
1/2 cup blueberries
3/4 cup Fat-free Milk

Snack
1/4 cup mixed, unsalted nuts
30 almonds
1 braeburn apple

Lunch
Grilled Bass
Mescaline Green
Mango Salsa

Dinner
Antipasto: Cheeses, Olives, Roasted Green (!) Peppers, Prosciutto (!), Broccoli, Eggplant
Meatballs in Sauce

I must recommit every once in a while to making sure I'm not eating more than 1 snack per period. It's summertime, and the discussions about my niece and nephew being in camp reminded me of the old camp schedule: Breakfast, activity period, lunch, longer activity period, dinner. I know that part of the way I will gain weight is if I'm carelessly snacking—I have to pick the midpoint of the period and make that the snack time, or divvy up the snack (like 15 pistachios here, and 15 there) and break it up over the period. This is challenging, and unfun. It's the only time I ever think I"m on a diet. But it bears repeating—I love everything that comes with being on a diet, like looking good, feeling good and being 'fleet of foot.' I never ever thought I would feel BETTER at 40 than at 35. Go figure.