Year 2, Day 252: Poker

I have loved my Fridays at home with my family and this Friday was different because Veteran's Day meant neither child had school and we were all together. This also made it a little more challenging to get to the gym, but I did, and did my customary 6.5 miles in about 60 minutes. I was really eager to get to the gym because I desperately wanted to raise my metabolism so I wouldn't fret about the massive nut intake that I voluntarily subject myself to once a month. I also was craving a beer, and I had one, though it was at the end of the night when it didn't really help either my mood, or my poker playing. For the first time in probably four years I was totally wiped out at the card table. I lost everything. So much for my theory about working out helping the poker game. That theory needs some retooling, no doubt.

Breakfast
Kashi Go lean
heritage flakes
banana
blueberries

Lunch: Takara
Sashimi
Edamame
Salad
Miso Soup

Post-gym workout snack
6 oz. plain yogurt
3 tablespoons super chunky peanut butter


Dinner/Poker
Pistachios
Almonds/Cashews
Twice-Cooked Pork
1 Beef Teriyaki
2 Mooshi Pork pancakes
Kung Pao Chicken
UFO Beer
Popcorn

I noticed on the Chinese menu too late that they had a chicken-lettuce wrap offering as well as some other VERY South-Beach friendly choices. I was ordering off an old scan of a two-year old menu, so I got what I deserved. Between the nuts and the kung-pao chicken and the peanut butter for post-gym snack I was really fretting about the total nut intake for the day, as I will never forget reading that line in the South Beach diet book "Nuts are Diet Busters." Again, I am trying to tread lightly between staying on the diet and loosening up. But I'm finding it hard to live in the middle. People think staying on the diet is hard, but it's actually a lot easier to be a zealot than to engage in the incredible discipline required to live in a constant state of moderate living, food-wise.