Oh Saint Valentine, the Tiger got me!

I don't know why I even bother to come up with some excuse as to why I succumbed to the sweet and salty pleasures of unhealthy food this weekend? It's practically a broken record at this point.

And, with the title alone, you can probably figure that I was bad diet-wise, falling for TWO holidays that came together on Sunday - St. Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year (Year of the Tiger - roar!).

But it honestly wasn't too horrible. Granted, there was a dessert during Friday night's dinner...and some wine...but the main entree of scallops balanced things out (fingers crossed).

Saturday's dim sum, on the other hand, was FAR from innocent.

The shrimp dumplings were, by far, the most innocent in a mess of fried shrimp, taro cakes, sticky rice in lotus leaf, pork dumplings and sticky buns filled with bbq pork.

We were sodiumated for sure!

And stuffed.

We did some ethnic grocery store shopping (Italian, Asian and German) afterward, but we were too full to want anything except something sweet from all the sodium. At the Italian store, she got a cookie and I got torrone. At the Asian store, I was thinking of loading up on some fun junk food. It was definitely filled with it during this festive day and tons of people.

But it was also sporting some long lines.



So I never did get this Durian Pudding I considered buying since their only fresh Durian cost 5 bucks a pound.

At the German store, we bought chocolate. Then we found more dessert for that evening in Tremont (scroll down).

We were honestly full for some time on Saturday after dim sum. When we finally did get hungry, we ended up eating burgers at a local bar/restaurant and mine came with a plump potato pirogi inside (a nice touch with the sour cream).

Then at home, the Tremont dessert awaited...

Salted caramel cupcake!!

But that's been the worst of it...really. This morning I had some grainy German bread topped with a chipotle pepper, egg white omelet, avocado and butter cheese.

Not so colorful top.



More colorful inside.

Other foods included steamed broccoli, chicken, and walnuts.

Diet food.

But, in my next entry, I'll tell you about the olive oil pancakes....

Bad Habits and Strict Dieting

I was a fat kid. Let me just let that off my chest.

So, deep in my grown-up fat kid's subconscious, there are learned eating habits that are bad bad BAD! And, once the grown up feels he is in the clear and in no danger of that fat kid coming around, the habits pick back up.

Lately, those bad habits have come into play.

And it's stupid stuff. A piece of candy here. Mindless chip eating. Perhaps a small "harmless" dessert. But they've been adding up and I feel it's been a tad out of control lately.

So today, I'm officially dieting and trying to be super-strict with things. Fingers crossed, I hope it works.

There was some dieting during the week this past week, which included a herring salad (which I don't recommend). It included German herring with the cream sauce (you can get it in cans) and roasted red peppers. Here's a pic...

This coming week will include some meat from the organic grass-fed cow recently collected and some ground lamb bought at the store. There's also lettuce, apples, egg whites, avocados, etc.

In fact, every work-day morning, I make an egg-white omelet, getting some hummus in there and avocado, if possible. It's an open omelet...so perhaps you can call it an egg-white pancake. In any case, here is how it usually looks...

This morning, it didn't come out quite like this actually. I used a different pan and it stuck in spots when I tried to flip it over. So, in the end, it was more like scrambled egg whites and mashed avocado.

And now I try to keep in line with this healthy eating through the rest of it, careful to avoid all products with sugars and syrups and things of that genre. This week also includes some 30 minute fast walking to get about 2 miles in, not including the afternoon workout where I'll be starting the P90X today. I just need to stay focused and not eat out as much as I have been.

I need to stop making excuses.

And, speaking of excuses, I don't want to weigh myself until Saturday, especially after all the sushi I've eaten as of late. But I promise I'll do it then, in case there are people who really really really want to know.

Sadists. :-)