A Purim Splurge

   Today was Purim, and as I often do on holidays, I splurged.

 I STILL haven't figured out why I do this and sabotage my weight loss on holidays.**

 The good news is that it was not a week-long fress, or a two day, or even a one day. The overeating was this afternoon and evening. (But THAT was bad enough…..)

** Although, now that I think of it, lack of sleep is probably a contributing factor.

Two Good Choices

   We all have foods that "one-bite-isn't-enough", those foods that like a fire-alarm-gone-wild, just keep assaulting your consciousness. In general, it is not worthwhile having those things around…..

Victory No. 1:

     Now I love cheesecake, and allow myself a slice every Saturday night. In order to avoid cutting WAY too large a slice, I cut the cake in advance, on the day I purchase it. Then it hibernates in my freezer until I pull a slice out each Saturday evening.

    Well, I finished my cheesecake last week, so today I wanted to buy a new one. Entering the bakery I was amazed at the variety offered: with blueberries, with butterscotch, or with crumbs. The blueberry version looked like the blueberries were more jelly than fruit, so I pulled the butterscotch one out of the fridge. I headed to the cashier, and then stopped short.

    "Do you REALLY want to buy that? It has more calories than plain old regular cheesecake . That butterscotch icing cream has just got to be loaded with extra calories….."

    So I turned around and replaced that butterscotch confection with something more realistic for my eating plan.

Victory No. 2:

    In about a week and a half it will be Purim, a holiday when people traditionally send "portions" of food to friends, family, and neighbors. Most people send things like wafers, chocolate, cake, and wine. I send challot (braided bread), and containers of home-made salad. [And sometimes I pass on as well the various sweets I have received from others..…..]   

  One year I made the mistake of baking "nice and fresh" on the night before Purim.  I no longer try to do that, as I want to be awake enough on Purim to hear the scroll of Ester being read, and going to sleep at 3AM just doesn't allow for that….. So I bake in advance, and freeze. Yesterday  was the day I had chosen to accomplish the baking marathon, and  I baked about 20 small challot.

    I used a generous amount of egg yolk to glaze the top of the breads, and was pondering what to do with the egg whites which were left over. In the end, I decided to bake a coconut- chocolate-meringue cake, which not only disposed of the egg whites, but also some coconut that I wanted to finish off. I had used sweetener instead of half of the sugar, and I allowed myself a smidgen of a taste, just to see if the experiment was actually edible. It definitely was. I wanted more, but managed to curb my desire, and headed out the door for my Wednesday night swimming session. I would pack up the cooled bake goods on my return.

   Late that evening I was still short of my daily calorie allowance by 200 calories, and I contemplated having some more of the coconut cake. But in the end, I decided that it wasn't worthwhile to do so: cake should be saved for special occasions. Besides, I WANTED an apple more! Gee how my tastes have changed!

Ricki's Bed

    After Ricki died, her brother "Y" received her room. (Before that, as the only daughter at home, she had a room to herself.) He was grateful for his privacy, if not for the reasons that led to it. However, last year as Passover came close, Y and I agreed that HE would clean his room for Passover.

    This year, Y has also fled the nest, and since the room is largely unused, I decided to clean it early. Why wait until I am busy with more pressing pre-Passover chores. So for the first time since Ricki died, I cleaned her room for Passover……

   What can I say? It was boring as can be. No writing on the walls, no mounds of trash under her bed…..

   As I moved the bed and found one solitary shirt label there, I truly and sorely missed the missing trash (well, at least the "lady" who would have thrown it there…….) .

Hungry--- but under 70 K!!

   I've been hungry nearly all morning, with no real explanation.   (Well, now that I think about it, I DID get a bit less sleep than usual……) Anyway, I have nevertheless managed to restrain myself from overeating… simply because this morning instead of weighing 69.9 or 69.8, I was 69.5. Thus I feel that I can celebrate being out of the seventies, and having lost 80 kilos! And I certainly don't want to bust THAT!