December 10, 2004 - 2:49 p.m.
I'm so excited for my diet! It's weird. It sure is expensive though, just eating fresh vegetables and premium meat and fish? Although I did scrimp on the fish, since "orange roughy" costs $14.99/lb and I don't think it's mission-critical. I ordered what I hope will amount to one week's worth of food, and it cost over $100. Then I realized that if I have to eat salad twice a day I'd better have a salad spinner, which cost another $20. I have an ambivalent relationship with salad. If it's already made and sitting in front of me, I enjoy it. Especially if it's small and in anticipation of a larger meal to come. But I rarely seek them out. I find it hard to have the lettuce and keep it from freezing and wash and dry it and chop the other stuff and make up the dressing. It's just too much for something that's not filling anyway. But I'm hell-bent on following the diet as closely as I can without eating cheese or peppers. For example, on Monday I could eat almonds for snacks and get Salade Nicoise at the deli. But I'm supposed to be having turkey roll-ups and Chopped Salad With Tuna. So I have to get up early in the morning and make them. It's a good thing I'm feeling so motivated. Well I feel really motivated today, but I haven't started dieting yet.
For the first two weeks of South Beach you can't have any alcohol at all. It has something to do with insulin. I'm already anticipating problems here. I already plan to spend Sunday evening in a bar playing cards for several hours, and on Monday will be sitting in a bar for hours playing trivia. Seltzer with lime? Although I just realized: if I can drink V-8 and eat horseradish and celery, then I can have a Virgin Mary, right? Hooray!
The next problem will be Christmas dinner. There's little hope of compliance when I generally drink to excess and gorge on duck, duck gravy, and two types of stuffing. I don't know about your family, but we always have two stuffings; one goes in the bird and one is made into cakes and baked. It goes great with the duck gravy! Oh and then there's the pie or whatever. I guess I'll be taking a little break that day.
