Movie night means too much food.

Coffee.Yogourt and blueberries. Not much of either.
A lovely cold plate. Carrot, baby cucumber, celery, turkey breast, pastrami, dry cured ham, a tiny bite of Paillot de chevre cheese, edam cheese, cheddar cheese, two radishes and up on the right a red plum.
Four green beans and 90g of the left-over short ribs. Half a zucchini, sauted and a side salad. All in white bowls - how boring.
Since our friends had just called us to remind us that it was movie in the park night I should have known better than to have dessert but I'd been thinking about it for awhile and...
Lucerne frozen dessert bar.
The perfect movie snack for a dieter (assuming that you haven't already just had dessert!) Power Pop single serving bags sweetened with isomalt and maltitol with added whey protein powder so it's not just empty calories!
Frozen through and through after sitting in a breezy 15 degrees (celsius) park for a couple of hours we headed to the Moka House after a slight detour to check out which cruise ships were in. (The Noordam, The Sun Princess and The Norweigan Pearl) I had a small decaf and the two bites you see broken off the nanaimo bar that Doug chose while I was in the ladies room.
Even counting 20g of nanaimo bar as well as everything else that's just 1,509 calories (but 79g of carbs.) for the day. Could have been a lot worse!

Must have more veg...

Coffee.Half a cup of yogourt with blueberries and strawberries.
Two slices of the dry cured ham, two slices of dijon turkey, a selection of fine cheeses (85g total), radishes and celery.
And still more veg for dinner. Chef Salad with lettuce, cucumber, tomato, mushrooms, a slice each of pastrami, roast beef and that turkey from lunch, about 25g of shredded cheese, one hard-boiled egg and ranch dressing on top.
My new favorite - the Lucerne dessert bar.
Counted twice in case I forgot something, but only 1,174 calories today and 47g of carbohydrates.

Coming along slowly

Coffee.Two eggs and two strips of bacon (more brunch than breakfast).
A Lucerne "ice cream" bar.
Iced coffee.
Short ribs braised in ale (110g meat and some jus) over 60g green beans and the usual side salad.
This is a splenda-sweetened Powerflax cookie from Red Square Bakery in Vancouver. While they are quite high in fat it's the good fat that occurs in flax seed. This little chunk of cookie has over 200 calories but 8 grams of fibre. Unfortunately I need fibre right now - so I might as well enjoy it!
1,496 calories and 34g of usable carbohydrates. Just about exactly on goal.

Trying to get back to normal

Coffee.
Wrap with 115g chicken, 20g cheese, 20g tomatoes, 15g onions and cucumber. Oh yeah, and mayo.
Taco salad for dinner. Big pile of lettuce, 140g lean ground beef, 40g cheese, tomatoes and two big dollops of sour cream.
Dessert by way of nsa Frozen Dessert Bars (cuz you can't call them ice cream) 120 calories each but worth it now and again.
Totals for today: 1,336 calories and 30g carbohydrates. That's more like it.

Tuesday - My birthday and hopefully an end to this sort of eating...

Good breakfast. Coffee, half a cup of yogourt and about a quarter cup each of strawberries and blueberries.A very light lunch - three slices of dry cured ham, 45g of camenbert and a fistful of celery sticks.
Birthday dinner at Mom's place. Not the restaurant - my actual mother's cooking! Braised lamb shank (a favorite), little green peas and mashed turnip. Also a side salad. Delish!
Instead of cake just a Skinny Cow brand fudge pop - only 90 calories.
After pestering all my friends about the fact that Doug would be working late on my birthday I ended up at Spinnaker's Brewpub with a couple of couples. Andrew ordered a pitcher of their Iceberg Ale and poured me a pint.
While the boys went off to play pool (Rob 3, Andrew zip) the girls order a couple of desserts and extra cutlery. I fondly remember the Mile High Apple Pie from years ago at this place and they didn't let me down. I ate about half.
Kama was really jonesing for something chocolate and ordered the dark chocolate creme brulee. I had two spoonfuls. Carol had a "When Harry Met Sally" moment on tasting this one.
More beer.
Rob was designated driver and the first stop was Andrew and Carol's where we admired the view and Andrew's skill as mixologist. He presented me with a peach martini - very tasty and way too easy to drink!
So that's it for birthday season this year. I'm sure there will be other parties but the flurry of eating and drinking is over now until the Christmas season rolls around. I hope.

This is no diet blog - not today, that's for sure!

A busy day today. Heading for an early matinee, then this evening Doug is taking me out to dinner with another couple at the restaurant Glo that I've been wanting to visit. I started slow...
Coffee and one serving of milk chocolate Whey Gourmet protein shake.


We're always looking for something to have during a movie. Especially when movies and their previews seem to last forever. We found this at the corner store of all places... it's a small (45g/1.6oz) bag of popcorn with a coating made of maltitol and whey protein powder. Power Pop sounds like a bit of a gimmick but it has a lot going for it and I think many people with various dietary restrictions may find it a useful occasional snack. I like the chocolate and Doug's favorite flavour is the lemon meringue.

After the movie - Hairspray - and it was fabulous! We stopped in at our favorite family run Greek place in the mall for a couple of skewers of souvlaki to keep us going until our 7pm reservation. About 50g each of seasoned pork and chicken and just enough tzatziki to dip.We started our meal with an appetizer of Brie stuffed Venison patties with a Saskatoon berry jus. I had one and Doug the other two.
I ordered one of the day's specials from the featured menu. Glo Paella. The grey muck in the top left corner is the sauted red onion from Doug's burger so please disregard. Otherwise it was a beautiful presentation. Four big mussels, four big prawns, several chunks of chicken and half a dozen large slices of chorizo all surrounded by a spicy rice with chunks of tomatoes and some barely wilted spinach. It was just about the tastiest thing I've had all year.

I also had one fry from Doug's plate. They make very good coffee too.

Now desserts. The desserts were ridiculous. Dope. Sick etc. etc. Brian ordered the Chocolate espresso torte. It was huge and the thick ganache on top was to die for!
Kathleen ordered the Creme brule. It was very rich, soft and creamy and the caramelized top was perfect.
Doug had the Lemon mousse - although I don't remember the word parfait from the menu. The presentation was great with layers of graham crumbs reminiscent of cheesecake crust and lots of whipped cream.
I ordered the Sticky toffee pudding and I think we all agreed that it was absolutely fabulous! There was a big dollop of whipped cream and a scoop of ice cream, two big pieces of a lovely dark sponge and the best toffee sauce I've ever had. The caramelized sugar flavour and the richness of it blew all of us away. I ate most of one bit of the cake, almost all the ice cream and rather a lot of the sauce. I also had a small bite of everyone else's dessert. I felt a little ill afterwards but rather than the "I shouldn't have eaten so much feeling" we both agreed that this time it really was worth it.
Calories: astronomical. Carbohydrates: astronomical + 1. One more day of birthday celebrating then back to normal.

(Sunday) Well, that didn't last long...

and by that I mean 1) staying truly low-carb and 2) posting in a timely manner. In my defense - I'm on vacation - still at home but unscheduled for the time being.

Coffee.

Two egg omelet with 1/2 a zucchini and a 1/4 cup of green onion.
Coffee at the Black Stilt.
One square inch of a Belgian Brownie (with hazelnuts) at Black Stilt.
Ran around and did some shopping for among other things, low-fat, nsa frozen treats. Mom recommended this one last week. It's very good and creamy but the serving size is a little big for a treat. I prefer the smaller bars from Breyer's or the popsicle company. Still under 100 calories for a big bar is pretty good.
Having had my treat I realized I should have had some protein first - 100g of left-over chicken breast.
and then 52g of mixed nuts and nsa chocolate chips.
Proper dinner. One chicken thigh with herbs and a spoonful of cream-based sauce with a little edam cheese and a splash of white wine. A healthy side salad.
Two more of the tiny freezie pops.
There was really no reason for me to have four items that I consider treats today. Going out should not always require a special treat (brownie), some of what I put out for company (nuts and choc.) trying something new outside of a meal setting (fudge bar) and a small sweet after dinner (freezies). One would be fine. Two is okay for an out of the ordinary day. I really must try harder to be mindful and make better choices and not to be distracted.

Totals for Sunday: 1,482 calories and 78g of carbohydrates. The amazing part is that I got to the end of the day without using fitday, counting on my photos to remind me when filling it in later and the calories are still reasonable. I guess I'm getting used to knowing how much I'm taking in which is definitely an important skill!