My first triumph today came when I resisted the temptation to eat chocolate out of my coworker’s candy dish.  It’s my own private battle that I am waging and no one around me even knows it.  All day long out of the corner of my eye I catch a glimpses of the bite-size candy bars all huddled together like baby kittens.  I know that they are there.  When I turn to walk down the hallway I come face-to-face with those shiny little wrappers that twinkle in the reflection of the overhead lighting.   There are lots of things all around me that could grab my attention but I have this strange tunnel vision when I am within a certain distance of that candy dish.  I almost thought about asking it’s owner to move it to a different spot but then I realized that would be unfair to all of the other candy patrons in the office.  So I strengthen my resolve and try to ignore it’s puny existence.

I left work a half-hour early today because I started to cry at the thought of bidding farewell tonight to my son and daughter-in-law.  In my position it can be a career limiting move to be seen crying in your office for no apparent reason.  I came home and ate popcorn and drank wine; my favorite combination of comfort food.  After deriving some benefit from that indulgence, I diligently recorded my calories and found that I was still under budget on my calories for the day.   And, that’s where pizza comes in.

Much to my dismay, my husband suggested we try something new and go to the Pizza Research Institute.  It’s a pizza place that just re-opened in the bohemian neighborhood of the Blair district.   They do not serve any meat; it’s totally vegetarian.  Everyone but me was excited about it so I had no choice but to go along with the idea.

And then there they were, big delicious looking pizzas loaded with exotic toppings like eggplant, carmelized onions and goat cheese.  I stared at those suckers knowing there was no way I could scarf down even a single slice and stay within my calorie budget.  So I thought about my health, my excess belly fat, and the difficulty I have squeezing into my clothes these days.  At that point, I unregrettably ordered a spinach salad - a great big one, the biggest one they’ve got.  It must have had a pound or more of spinach, some good looking mushrooms and grape tomatoes and best of all, the dressing came on the side, so I only used half.  I had another glass of wine with dinner; probably not the best decision but given what I was up against - saying farewell to loved ones (a formidable reason to overeat) over gourmet pizza (a justifiably irresistable pleasure) - the fact that I said no to pizza -  just like Nancy Reagan taught us all to just say no to drugs - I think today was a pretty impressive dietary success.