How's everyone today? I feel a bit like a beached whale. Overdid the food over the weekend. I was adhering to the CALP plan, but stretched my hour a bit on both Sunday and Monday and I'm feeling lousy today. My belly feels all distended, but yesterday was the first time in a week that I've been able to get my rings off. Weird.

The pantry and fridge are both about empty, so grocery shopping needs to be on my list today.

On Sunday, we went out for my birthday dinner (I toasted yours, too, Lissette!). We started out with the most wonderful French bread. I don't know what they do differently at this restaurant (which is just in the next town over), but it's soft and warm on the inside and light and crispy, but not hard, on the outside. Slathered with butter, and I was in heaven!

Then the entree was a blackened swordfish steak -- maybe 3/4" thick, but about the size of 2 or 3 decks of cards. Over top was a clear light sauce made from Mandarin oranges. YOu know how they often come in those small cans in the store? They must have used 2 cans. I didn't eat any of the oranges, but the sauce over the blackened fish was amazingly good. When I put the first bite into my mouth, I couldn't help it but I moaned out loud. The people at the next table both looked over and laughed! Kind of a "When Harry Met Sally" kind of moment!

It was accompanied by fresh green beans. The only other side dishes they have are potatoes au gratin (too thick for me) and rice pilaf, which is bland, so I just had the beans. And strangely enough, this restaurant doesn't have regular dinner salads. It's a French restaurant, and if you ask for a salad, they give you a humungous bowl of just Romaine lettuce, but AFTER your main course. So, I do without.

Then for dessert I had a slice of a wonderful cheesecake with blackberry glaze over top. Strangely enough, nothing was too overly sweet. After LCing for so many years, things tend to taste really sweet, but not this.

So that was my "reward" meal of the week. I think I'll shoot for one over-the-top meal a week, and the rest of the week stick with good, natural foods.

Elaine, are you around? How are you feeling?