danzarth's Journal, 10 Jan 12

I slipped a little bit last night, but I think I'm OK with it.

Being from a large Italian-American family, we have a lot of food-related traditions, especially around the holidays. One of these is almond nougat candy called Torrone. My grandmother always used to have it in the house at Christmas time, before she passed away. My GF knows that I get nostalgic about it, so she got me a little bit of it for Christmas. I had been saving it, intending to eat a little each day for about a week, to minimize the amount of sugar I eat in a day. That didn't work out so well, and I polished off the entire thing in one sitting last night.

I'm OK with it because it really wasn't all that bad. It's almost pure sugar, so I went way over my self-imposed carb limit, but it wasn't horribly calorie-dense, and there were only about 3 servings in the package. And, although I went over my RDI and carb limit, I was still at a calorie deficit for the day without having to do extra exercise to "burn off" the candy.

And, while I'm slightly disappointed with my lack of self control, anyone who has eaten Torrone will know how hard it is to eat 1/3 of a piece.

We have another tradition in the family, as well. My mother gives each of her children a Whitman's Sampler (a large-ish box of chocolates) every year for Christmas as a gift. This also comes from my grandmother, who used to give one to each of her children (I'm starting to see a pattern). I get nostalgic about this one, too, and I love chocolate. I love chocolate so much that I worked briefly as a chocolatier after I finished culinary school. But, I resisted the urge to dig in to the Whitman's, and I donated it to the group at large in my office.

Possibly, one reason I was able to pass up the chocolate is the fact that I have become a bit of a "chocolate snob" through working with very high-end product; I now consider Whitman's chocolate to be "not bad" rather than "good", while Hershey's has been deemed unfit for human consumption. Snobbery does have a benefit, after all.

So, one small slip, and one small victory. The scale continues to move, slowly, in the right direction, and I feel a little bit more fit each day.

On a side note, I have realized that the side of my family with lots of nostalgia around food-related traditions is also the same side that has a history of diabetes and obesity. Maybe they are related, or maybe not. And, correlation does not necessarily indicate a causal link. It does make me stop and think, though.

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2113 kcal

Fat: 139.55g | Prot: 174.60g | Carbs: 39.25g.   Breakfast: frank's red hot, bacon, american cheese, fried egg, splenda, half & half, coffee, splenda, half & half, coffee. Lunch: splenda, half & half, coffee, White Turkey (Deli Cut Rotisserie), egg boiled. Dinner: Ham Steak, Portobello Sausage. Snacks/Other: Giant Beef Stick. more...

3413 kcal

Exercise: Walking (brisk) - 6.5/kph - 30 minutes, Wii Fit - 31 minutes, Driving - 1 hour and 40 minutes, Desk Work - 7 hours and 30 minutes, Sleeping - 7 hours and 59 minutes, Resting - 5 hours and 50 minutes. more...