I've been away from the blog for almost 2 weeks now, mostly because I've been in a major whirlwind, between the pace at work and suddenly moving out of my apartment. This has been a period of mostly just work and sleep - which is fine, because it's temporary.
This week, I've been going straight from work to my apartment to clean it out and clean it up, having moved to the spare bedroom in the home of some friends (the price of being released from one's lease early sometimes looks like this, but there are worse fates in life than a month with great friends, eh?) There's been more to do than time to do it, which has utterly wrecked my eating plan.
The thing about the plan I devised it that it requires a bit of planning and shopping, as well as time for prep and time to sit down and really enjoy the meal. I've lacked these elements this week, which has meant some trips through the McDonald's drive through (3 this week, actually....2 of which were my lunch and dinner yesterday).
I can remember being a child and ADORING McDonald's, primarily, I suppose, because I was raised on good, home-cooked food and this was different than that. And it was a rare treat, not an everyday occurance. And it was in the time when, I suspect, even fast food employees cared about producing a good product (an element pretty much absent today at most any Mc Donald's nationwide, I suspect).
For lunch I tried to be good in a bad setting, as I needed to eat while driving to and from an errand I was doing. I asked for the grilled chicken and the gal behind the register looked at me like I had 2 heads. I have no idea why this was so hard, but after a bit of discussion she decided I needed the chicken club. I ordered a strawberry smoothie, too, realizing it's quite likely not really all fruit and I was probably doing the big no-no....SUGAR...but was just in too much of a hurry to work it through.
Eating while driving is so un-gratifying, eh? I opened the sandwich and directed crabby thoughts at the cook, who apparently couldn't even TRY to make it look like a sandwich rather than a messy pile smooshing out the corner of its box. Quite a bit of poking and rearranging later, it was mostly edible, though pieces of it kept trying to fall in my lap. In theory it was a decent choice: grilled chicken, tomato, lettuce, onion, bun seemed to be whole wheat. The swiss and bacon were not great choices I guess, and were darn near impossible to keep out of my lap (maybe my guardian angel was shoving them off to save me calories? LOL)
Nonetheless it was highly unimpressive, and really too big (which didn't stop me from eating the whole thing - eating, driving, and focusing on portion control is apparently 1 simultaneous task too many for this blonde).
After work I drove through and gave up on good choices...lunch had been almost $8 and disappointing. I got the quarter pound cheeseburger meal with a bottle of water. Sandwich was...eh...whatever. Fine. Fries had clearly been reheated...and in old oil, to boot. I know this from my days working that Tastee Freez as a teen...there comes a time when the oil really MUST be changed, and reheated fries always are hard and tasteless.
Like the fat girl I am, I bitched to myself the whole time while I polished off every single bite.
All in all a disappointing turn of events, but you know what? It's okay. The good things are:
1. I did it only from being in a hurry (one can shove down a quarter pounder while driving in about 5 or 6 blocks' drive time, as opposed to the 25 minutes needed to make and really enjoy a good salad) and from the simple fact that there was no food, no dishes, no nothing at the apartment where I was working. IT WAS NOT A BINGE or temptation, I didn't feel compelled. Was simply a "be practical for the moment" issue, and it worked, and I'm over it.
2. If I WERE going to be tempted by McDonald's, I'd say yesterday whacked a huge dent in any such future temptation.
3. It made me absolutely glory in today's lunch at the Bistro, which was typical fare for my lunch-at-work. My own table, a good book, half a Greek salad (beautiful, gorgous, spectacular food), and the cottage cheese/fruit plate. A HUGE pile of food, all of which loves my body and makes me feel good. Tall glass o' water. Time to read, to stare out the sliding glass door at the breeze in the tree branches and the sunlight on the flowers....all of these things revive me and restore me infinitely more than crappy fast food or another hit of caffeine-loaded diet soda would.
All of which, I guess, is continued evidence that God is making what looks like a real and lasting change in my attitudes about food.
Good stuff, eh?
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