The DietChef Thing: Day 20.

Hey everyone.

My dears! I've been shoppping till I'm dropping! No don't worry, I'm not going to talk your heads off for the next half an hour like the lady in Brief encounter, or hey, perhaps I am, you never know. No, actually, I will try not to. The thing that is consuming my interest at the moment will be of zero interest to most of you and is absolutely nothing to do with my diet journey, so I will try to mention it only periferally.

I awaken still feeling bouncy. Hurray! Something very very good is going to happen this week and I have that counting down the sleeps feeling. three more sleeps. Monday night, Tuesday night, Wednesday night and then ... my brain saws into the stratosphere and I'm already awake when Karen comes to get me up.

We go through the morning routine and sort out the food. Ooh, yummers lasagna for supper, that horrible bacon and bean soup still has to be faced down, there's chocky bickies for snackies and a new breakfast to try. Pink apple and cinnamon granola, as I live and breathe! I soon have it mixed into my usual allowance of yog, and it's time to dig in the spoon.

First bite. Well, I can eat it, but it's a skip and a whistle away from birdfood! Bit healthy for me, darling, at my time of life! Oh sorry, Dolly Messiter seems to be catching! That was her name, if you're feeling fogged, the lady who's shopping till she's dropping. Anyway I seem to have her voice in my head and behind my fingers tonight, yatter yatter yatter. Back to this granola!

If there's any cinnamon in here it's hiding. I can't find it. Yes, and the apple's only popped in to say hi, then popped out again too! What I'm mostly getting is a bit of sweetness and then munch munch munch on that birdfood. Not bad birdfood, but birdfood all the same. Oh well, as Julia Child is reputed to have said when her book which had been ten years in the writing was turned down by its publisher, boo hoo!

Once I have finished my morning cup of noble husband's matchless tea and my early catch up, I have work to do, oh yes, lots of shopping. I spend all morning surfing websites, comparing prices, choosing, rejecting, choosing other things, placing orders, deciding I need more things, going back, choosing, rejecting, comparing, deciding, undeciding, and ultimately buying. Isn't it wonderful, I think, that I can now do this in the privacy of my own sofa. No more long-suffering other half trailing around shops wondering just exactly how long I'm going to take. No more rude assistants telling me they don't know do they, they've 'ad flu! No more jostling crowds, pouring rain, aching feet, missed buses, and, ultimate frustration, not being able to find what I want because "We 'aven't got any in stock." I can sit here in my corner, in the comfort of my own home, dither over deciding for as long as I want, surf the whole wide world to find the exactly right product I'm looking for, that is if Amazon don't have it, which they usually do, and have it delivered right to my door! I do absolutely bless online shopping. I'd truly be a lot worse off without it and I will never take it for granted. Never.

Anyway, before I know where I am, it's lunchtime. Oh god, that soup! I tear open the pouch and sniff.

"Ach! Sss! Smeagol doesn't like the smell, no he doesn't, precious!"

I don't like beans at the best of times, though I can cope with red beans when they're smothered in rich dark chilli, but beans in soup, with bacon, um, er, well I said I'd try it, but Smeagol doesn't like the smell, and he's hissing and spluttering in my ear. I tell him to shut up, we're not eating raw fish for lunch and that's flat! I take a teeny, tiny taste from the pouch on the end of my little finger. There's chunks of beans in there, I can feel them. It feels like, um ...

"Dust and asheses he can't eat that! Stupid, fat bear! He must starve, poor Smeagol must!"

Oh dear oh dear. How did he get in my head anyway? He sounds like a kettle about to boil over. I don't know what he's whining on about, but he is not a happy Gollum! I chuck the soup in the bin, which calms him down a bit. It'll have to be Graze box again, thank goodness I kept them in reserve. I open the second box that came before I held the boxes back to once a month and pull out a snack at random. It's some kind of flapjack but it's not thick with sugar and syrup like most naughty ones are, it's been made with very rustic oats and wholemeal flour and it has fruit in. It's also very small, going into one of those 35g punnets, there are about 3 tiny fingers of it, but it fils the hole up ok and I can last fine till dinner.

The afternoon is audio work mostly, more preparations for the end of the week, and for me, a touch more shopping. Actually I've spent a heap more time looking at things today than I've spent money on buying things, but that's the way I like it. For me, the long time sizing things up, comparing, browsing and having the freedom to choose is what I love the most. Dinner time flies up and practically bumps me on the head! Today has so flown by! Nothing new, delicious lasagna and my usual serving of crunchy greens. Just absolutely so so good.

The evening is another blur of talking to friends, net surfing, preparations, just those kinds of things. I've just had my two little cookies and my cup of tea. And now I'm tired! I won't be late to bed tonight, that's for sure!

It's been such a lovely day, I really hope I can keep on like this, I'm really due some good days after last week. Goodnight everyone.

Food eaten today.

Breakfast: Pink Apple and Cinnamon Granola, plain, no fat yogurt.

Lunch, Graze box snack to replace soup I couldn't eat.

Dinner: Lasagna, serving of sliced spring greens.

Snack, Chocolate oaties.

Drinks: tea, no milk or sugar.

Bad? no.

Are you hungry? no.

Mood: happy.

Music: Carpenters: You're the One.