You would think that having just started this blog a few days ago, I’d have plenty to post about and wouldn’t yet start missing updates. Unfortunately, you would be wrong. Yesterday was a busy day and I just didn’t get around to posting during the day. I planned to make up for it at night by posting an awesome dinner. We’re talking gourmet here, people. I invited my friend Barry over with promises of deliciousness, and I even stopped at Whole Foods on the way home and bought all kinds of special ingredients. We made plans to meet up at 8 PM, which I figured would give me a chance to get a good run in before cooking. I walked in my door, took the groceries out of the bag… and my phone rang. Three of my friends put forth a pretty tempting offer to come out for dinner, and to bring Barry along. So… bye-bye gym, bye-bye special home-cooked dinner. Hello, overindulging and derailing my diet!
Now, that really wasn’t my plan when I agreed to go out. I knew I had about 700 cals left for the day, so I figured I’d eat dinner, have ONE glass of wine with dinner, and skip the drinking after. Knowing just the title of the blog, you can probably guess how this is going to go.
So first at dinner… they put out this basket of yummy-looking rolls and a dish of olive oil. I used all the diet tricks: I put them on the other side of the table, I even put the little drink special card in between so I couldn’t see the basket. Unfortunately, I was hungry, and what I COULD see was everyone else munching away contentedly. And then I made a critical error. I thought, “well, I have 700 cals… eating bread won’t really put me over as long as I’m good the rest of the night.” It was those last ten words that were the key part of that sentence. Basically, one roll became two. Oops. Still not the end of the world, but the snowball had started rolling down the hill from healthy to fatville.
There was a short bout of healthy decisions before the snowball really got going. I got this awesome seafood linguine with marinara – totally awesome. And really not THAT unhealthy, at least as far as eating out goes. I also had a small glass of white wine, which was perfect, because it gave me a little buzz but not too many cals. Then we stopped at a bar that had beer pong, and I rocked it! I made the first four cups on my first four shots in a row, and then adding one more to make probably my best game ever. Really fun, and totally calorie-free since I had Barry drink for me. I wonder how many calories you burn playing beer pong? It’s not listed in Daily Plate… 🙂
And now, direct from me to you, a completely original and all-new diet tip. When going to a bar, ALWAYS have cash. Better still, always have a specific amount of cash: enough for two drinks, plus a cab home. Of course the cash you have for the cab will turn into one more drink and then walking/subway/bus, but three drinks is still not that bad. The key is really just not trying to use a credit card.
Having only $3 in my wallet, I threw mine down, and there was a $20 minimum, so I opened a tab. Bad, bad, bad idea. I had a pint of cider, bought a drink for Barry, and then people started leaving so I couldn’t buy any of my other friends drinks. Drinks were about $6 for a pint, which was a great price, but it meant that the $20 minimum was just over three drinks. So I got another pint, and still hadn’t hit the minimum. And then I met a cute guy… who happened to be the bartender’s roommate. Hello, free drinks!
Now we all know the cardinal rule of alcohol: it is not to be wasted. Under any circumstances. So when there is a free drink sitting there, meant for you, you really have no choice but to drink it. So I had a couple, and it started getting late. Guess who still had a tab open??? Barry was gone, the guys I had met at the bar weren’t really fun enough for me to buy them a drink, so I bought one more pint for myself. All in all, that’s 1120 cals from alcohol, when I intended to have about 200 (80 for wine, 120 for one cider). Mission: failed.
Plan for today is to eat as few calories as possible, because I think I’m going for dinner and drinking again tonight. This time hopefully I’ll be a bit more prepared!
PS – Last night’s awesome meal will be cooked and posted on Sunday night, which is when Barry and I rescheduled.