Food Hell

Chapter 1: Six Meals A Day is Not Enough

One can't always eat extravagant meals like batter-fried cornish game hens and expect to fit into last summer's dresses. No matter how much I exercise, I always manage to consume more calories than I burn, and the "only eating fun food on weekends" approach to eating is no longer effective. Not one for "dieting" I decided to see a registered dietitian. After all, I already have a personal trainer, why not go one step closer to movie stardom and increase my entourage? It's a six-week program: during the first visit she grilled (pun pardon) me about my eating and exercise habits, what time I ate meals and times of day when I was most hungry (late afternoon for me). At the second meeting last week we worked out a structured meal plan consisting of 3 meals and 3 snacks. I'm happy to say that I've lost 3 pounds, but it hasn't been easy. Food journal (ugh!) portion control, and no chocolates.

Here's a typical day from my food journal:

7 am Breakky: 6 oz Stonyfield blueberry yogurt and 1 cup of Total cereal
10:30 Snack: Mini Babybel Cheese (It's freakin' microscopic!) and a piece of fruit
12:30 Lunchy: a piece of turkey the size of a deck of cards (I prefer roullette table size), more cheese (see above) and a head of romaine lettuce, all hacked up
3 pm Snack: another fruit and a handful of nuts (who eats a handful, I'd like to know)
5 pm Snack: a mini popcorn - they now have 100 calorie bags of microwave popcorn
8 pm Dinner: Grilled tuna with a couple tablespoons of pesto - Geoff usually makes a cool wasabi and green onion sauce, but sometimes one has to eat what's handy; Chinese broccoli, or broccolini

I also had a Dunky's latte made with skim milk.

Hopefully this will modify my behavior somewhat. The worst case is that I lose enough weight to zip up my skirt, then go back to my evil ways. After all, I'm going to New Orleans next month.....

A Seasonal Bargain at Larkspur

Last night's tasting menu at Larkspur was delicious and a fabulous value at $25! All the money we saved went to buy two bottles of Beaux Freres. After a little amuse bouche of dilled salmon, I tried the "Southern Comfort" selection, which had a tasty crabcake, followed by even tastier batter-fried cornish game hen, finishing up with a chocolate tart that I didn't really need. If you can get to Vail this time of year, Larkspur offers excellent food values as they are wrapping up the ski season; they offer less expensive, more casual food than at high season, but great quality.

A Perfect Day in Vail

I got a good tan during yesterday's bluebird weather, and ended the day with a perfect meal at Sweet Basil. Tuna Tartare tacos, roasted beet tower, rack of lamb, king salmon and kung pao tuna were all voted superb by our little group. Service was great, and the atmosphere was festive. It's Larkspur tonight, we'll see what happens.