Gotta Have Faith

The husband made me a completely delicious dinner for Easter yesterday. We started with an appetizer of my request…sliced apple topped with dabs of goat cheese, a few toasted walnuts, and a drizzle of honey. I had something like that in a restaurant once and fell in love with the concept. You can use just about any kind of nut or good cheese, and you can substitute pears or figs for the fruit. It’s fun and decadent, but basically healthy. Next, I had a cup of the husband’s lemony white bean soup…very light and springy. For the main course, I had a small portion of herb rubbed lamb served with a big helping of crunchy vegetables marinated in balsamic vinegar. I also had a glass of nice red wine. For dessert, I had two juicy chocolate dipped strawberries. Whoever invented the chocolate covered strawberry was genius…they are sexy and decadent and delicious, but they are actually quite reasonably healthy….just berries and a small amount of dark chocolate.

I am proud of my healthy, tasty Easter dinner, and I’m pretty proud of my healthy breakfast and lunch. I am less proud of my afternoon snack. I am really embarassed, but I am going to share my folly with all of you. As I’ve mentioned, I’m working on a really big paper right now and I’ve been hiding away in Starbucks to get away from my husband and other attractive nuisances in my studio apartment. For the most part, I haven’t been getting any sustenance other than the occasional nonfat latte, but yesterday I got pretty hungry. Hunger got the better of me and I turned to the pastry counter. (I know, I know.) I picked the smallest thing I could find that still looked edible, a whole grain zucchini walnut mini muffin. Granted, Starbucks has odd notions of what standard size and miniature are, but I thought it might not be too bad.

All I can say is that I’m proud of myself that I got up the courage (after having downed the muffin) to look up the nutritional information. 390 calories, 24g fat, and 42 g carbs!!! For a MINI muffin! The full size pastries were much worse! Are you kidding me??? I won’t be doing THAT again. When I was at my heaviest, Starbucks pastries were a pretty regular treat for me. I didn’t eat them every day, but eating something that caloric on a regular basis really adds up. I’m not proud that I ate that stupid thing, but I am proud that I owned up to my denial.

Food:
–2/3 cup high fiber cereal with skim milk
–A couple spoonfuls of nonfat fage yogurt
–Coffee with cream

–Seared ahi tuna with fresh salsa
–Steamed broccoli with olive oil
–Nibbles of husband’s food (two bites of chicken with tomato cream sauce and two bites of breadstick dipped in olive oil)

–Nonfat iced latte
–orange
–Mini zucchini muffin

–Glass of red wine
–Apple slices topped with goat cheese, toasted walnuts and a drizzle of honey
–Cup of simple lemon white bean soup
–Grilled lamb with balsamic zucchini and bell pepper salad
–Two chocolate covered strawberries

Exercise: I lost my pedometer I am looking for it, but this may put a dent in my step recording. I walked a fair amount yesterday, but probably not 10,000 steps. Maybe 7,000? I also lifted weights for 40 minutes.