Phase 2, Days 38 and 39

Day 39

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Breakfast: oatmeal with strawberries and maple syrup; cantaloupe; hot coffee with half-n-half [restaurant meal]

Lunch: 2 stuffed zucchinis; tossed green salad with a some pasta in it; sm. can of V-8; espresso with 1/2 a packet of sugar [catered lunch]

Dinner: stir-fried soba (buckwheat) noodles with veggies and tofu; Israeli couscous with veggies; snap peas and broccoli; diet Snapple iced green tea [from Food Court]

Exercise: none

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I'm not eating very far below maintenance this week. I'm averaging about 1400-1500 a day. We'll see what happens tomorrow and Friday, but at this rate, I'm only going to lose about a pound this week. It's all this going out to eat! I swear I virtually *never* go out to eat when it's up to me (I don't count the Food Court, which I treat essentially as a grocery store), and part of the reason is that when you go out to eat, everything is absolutely soaked in oil to make it tasty. It's a strategy that works, mind you--but it sure is bad for the waistline. It would be horrible for my pocketbook, too, except that I have a roughly-hewn-to rule: if I go out to eat, it's because someone else is paying for it.


Day 38
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Breakfast: none

Lunch: buffet at a Thai-Vietnamese-Laotian restaurant (bits of pad thai and veggie curry dishes); hot tea

Dinner: a cosmopolitan cocktail; a glass of red wine; a glass of white wine [buuurp!!]; a large tossed green salad with vinaigrette; salmon with a small side of white beans and a mystery vegetable; 3 tiny scoops of different sorbets with a mystery fruit compote [restaurant meal]

Exercise: none

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Today my boyfriend formally received an honor/promotion, and the whole day was sort of spent celebrating it. It was a really big deal; his parents came out for it, and he gave a lecture that a couple of hundred people attended. Then there was a big dinner in his honor, and I sat at the head table with him, his parents, his current boss, and his soon-to-be-boss. It was completely overwhelming. At the dinner, we were offered a choice of three different entrees: chicken, beef or, "for the vegetarians," fish. What was I supposed to do? I wasn't going to rock the boat in that setting.

Then I felt bad about that decision. What would have happened if I had said to the server, discreetly, "Can I please just have extra salad and sides?" I dunno; would it have spoiled the "mood" at the table? Would I have looked like a fussbudget? Would I have embarrassed my boyfriend? (He's a vegetarian too, but he does eat fish like so many vegetarians do--which is why people who aren't vegetarians think fish is an all-purpose vegetarian option. Remember _My Big Fat Greek Wedding_? "What do you mean, you don't eat meat? Fine, I'll make lamb.") I'd like to say I was being paranoid, that it would have been fine to insist on a vegan (or at least vegetarian) plate. But there's always *someone* at the table who actually seems to get angry when they hear you're a vegan, isn't there?

What's the more moral thing to do: refuse the fish, or keep my mouth shut and ensure my boyfriend's special day isn't marred by an uncomfortable moment at the dinner table? I do know which is the *easier* thing to do, and that's what I did. And probably the fact that it was easier should tell me that it was the wrong choice.

Doesn't it? Ethics is *hard*!