1/22/04 3:45 PM

It never fails to amaze me what can set me off my diet, and how much havoc it can cause. Yesterday ended up being a disaster, and I couldn’t quite figure out why. I finally narrowed it down to a bastardized cup (OK – several cups) of ginger tea.

I went with a girlfriend of mine to one of my favorite restaurants. The venerable owner is Korean, and believes whole-heartedly in the BTD. I was kind of strange, the other day she came to my table to tell me about an article she was reading, and in her hand she had this beautiful magazine (the kind with really thick, glossy pages and lots of beautiful photos). She was pointing to a page that appeared to be divided into 4, and was telling me that it was talking about the 4 blood type groups and their respective diets. It was in Korean.

Anyway, needless to say she is very interested in complying with the BTD, and is very concerned that her customers get what they need. She makes me this delicious “wanton” soup, but with no wantons or noodles, just veggies floating in this amazing broth. She then makes me this delicious Mongolian stir-fry with beef. It’s all so good.

They make their own ginger tea there, starting with some sort of pre-made ginger tea, but then adding their own fresh ginger, etc. It is amazingly delicious. Unfortunately for me, it is sweetened AND I am pretty sure that I tasted vanilla in there. It was the sweet part that got me going. I think that I consumed about 4 cups of it. It was that good.

Han (the owner) doesn’t realize how sensitive I am to grains, and put a huge scoop of the yummiest brown rice with my stir-fry (it’s so nice, btw, to find someone who only uses olive oil in their stir-fry). I usually don’t eat it – I send it away, but today, I couldn’t resist. I am sure that the tea is what got me started. I ate about half of the rice. It was SO delicious. She uses some sort of short-grain, sushi type brown rice. I really miss the grains, but they are always, always a problem.

Anyway, on Wed, my daughter and I both have piano lessons at 5:15 on the other side of town. Everyone is always so shocked to hear how San Antonio is the 6th largest city in the county. Luckily, was have a really good road system, but it still isn’t fun to traverse from point A to point B around 5 PM. After our lesson, it is our tradition to go to Luby’s Cafeteria here. Dorothy loves their steamed broccoli (cheese sauce on the side, unfortunately) and I think that it is great for her to eat it. For some reason, I lost it completely when I got there – no, I know the reason: sweet tea and rice. I’m not going to get into too many details, but I had two major avoids: a piece of corn bread, and some breaded and fried fish. I hate to say it, but the fish just hit the spot. I usually am so compliant when I eat there, but I just didn’t make it this time.

Our other tradition is that we then stop at Krispy Kreme on the way home. She hounds me for KK, but we have come to a workable solution of 1X per week on Wed. nights. When you walk in, they hand you a hot, fresh doughnut. I usually resist, but was in another place last night and took one. This is the best part: I took a bite and it tasted HORRIBLE. I threw it away. I can’t believe I used to think that Krispy Kreme was one of the best things that I had ever tasted. It was so disgusting. I could taste the oldness of the fat that they fried it in. It was greasy in my mouth. The sugar was repulsive, and I could taste the vanilla. I am so happy that I no longer like them. What a relief.

The odd thing about eating those avoids last night was that I felt really good when I got home. I had lots of energy and was wondering why I didn’t feel awful. I found out.

I had to pay the piper today. It sucked. I was depressed and kept thinking about things that I have long since resolved. Even put on some music that reminded me of those times so that I could experience the full effect of the pain. I was dogged out and dragged out, and, mostly, my back and knees were killing me. I felt this way until I got some steak, broccoli and spinach in me. I then started to feel better. Basically, I paid for those avoids by being unproductive until about 3 PM. That’s a pretty steep price, in my esteem.

I don’t understand where the compulsion comes from. I am fully aware of the fact that the misery that I will suffer eating the avoids will never be worth the price I must pay.

Well, I worked out hard and towed the line today. Tomorrow I will work at it once again. I know that all of the choices are within my control. I just have to get my head and my mouth in sync. Yea, “just” have to…..

PS - notice that the calorie counting is out the door already