Straight and Narrow, Days 2 and 3

Day 2

Well, today I'm sleepy, is it a lack of coffee? Or is it that I've been sitting on my butt in the same spot for several hours at a riveting Institute of Medicine Conference? It's certainly not a lack of sleep, I went to bed at 11, woke up with a start at 7:30 and had some bizarre dreams, the last of which included Beyonce asking to borrow my deodorant and I was embarrassed to tell her mine was down to the little nubby pieces stuck in the plastic.

Back to the conference. I initially kicked myself for choosing this week to be on the straight and narrow since I'd be at a conference downtown for two days. Not only did that mean I'd have to plan, pack and lug around food all day but I'd have to forgo the ubiquitous continental breakfast pastries. Actually, these didn't tempt me too much and I sipped on lukewarm green tea and nibbled on cherries and slices of sweet potato all morning. For lunch, I had soba noodles with teriyaki tofu and potato salad with a tarragon-shallot vinaigrette. After that, I took a walk and passed by Starbucks, man, did it smell enticing! Even a post-lunch walk could not keep my head from drooping as I listened to presentations on genotoxicity, industrial effluents, renal excretion levels and anaploidistic sperm. Weird, huh? This is usually when I'd hit the coffee or sweets to give me a little rush.

The conference ended at 4:30, I quickly changed into my penguin costume (that's the black and whites worn in the restaurant, I think it makes me look like a penguin) and headed over to the Foundry for my evening shift. I got there with a few minutes to spare, shoveling potato salad in my mouth for my "dinner." It was one thing to turn down slightly stale doughnuts in the morning but I knew I was really crazy when I started turning down PECAN-BREADED OYSTERS that the kitchen blithely nibbled on from a huge mound in the back or the ENORMOUS slabs of King Cake everyone took home with them. I started feeling a little light-headed halfway through the shift but fortunately the party ended early, I was out by 9.

Day 3

Still sleeping long and hard, which is fine, less time to be tempted by food. This morning at the conference, they had BEIGNETS! I didn't even look at those sugar-dusted, golden pillows of deliciousness, I'm getting better at this! I told my co-worker nonchalantly "It's not as if these are the last beignets on earth, who needs them?" She responded "Won't you be sorry when tomorrow is Armageddon?" Damn her. Today was much better because I could go home after the conference instead of to another shift. Hit the gym, hit the grocery store, came home and made dahl and Bryant Terry's collard greens redux from his excellent Vegan Soul Kitchen cookbook. (As a sidenote, I am no vegan but I do like my vegetables and new, innovative recipes are always welcome, pro-biotic, raw, whatever). By the time I was done with that, it was almost 10, which is around bedtime for me, read a few pages of my book and was out.

I'm not finding this too difficult yet actually, I mean, sure, passing the oysters, the beignets, eating my black beans while watching my boyfriend dig into some sopressata, Cotswald and fresh bread wasn't EASY but doable. The hardest part for me at this point is all the work it's taking to make sure I have an endless stream of appropriate foods, every night when I am done with work and the gym, I'm cooking for a couple hours to get ready for the next day. But it feels good for once to say, hey, I don't need that, because self-control is not something I've ever been very good at it. We'll see if that's how I'm feeling in a few days!