The DietChef Thing: Day 13

Hey everyone.

I have had a Migraine all day, varying from medium to absolutely horendous, but in spite of that I'm feeling light-hearted and undaunted. This room smells of toasty caramel, I'm feeling satisfied and just full enough inside and with the glow of achievement adding to my comfort. You might call this a good day.

When I open my eyes I know that the Migraine is still in place. It greets me with an unattractive leer and a Phil Rudd drum solo. "Good morning, good morning! I've ached the whole night through, good morning! Good morning, to you!" it bellows in a voice louder than Noddy Holder's! I wince. "All right, all right! You've made your point!" I whimper. It goes on giving me renditions of the Slade and ACDC back catalogue while I stagger off to get pink elephants on parade.

I more or less have a gag on it by the time Karen and I have gone through the morning routine and it's bird food time. Luxury Muisli this morning, oh no, don't say I've run through all the Granola! Boohoo! Anyway, I mix it with Yogurt and munch it down, but it doesn't make me trill, it only seems to aggrivate Mr Migraine, who starts up his performance again, this time in operatic mode, doing his impression of some aging tennor with a vibrato so wide it almost sounds like two notes. Ouch! I tell him savagely to shut up, I have things to do this morning. He just gives me a nasty smile, switches to Falcetto and goes into some piece of baroque music with so many notes and ornamentations that it leaves my head spinning!

Wearily I buckle down to work, there are some things I need to do and they get done. My head is seriously pounding. I play solitaire quietly and wait till lunch time. Mushroom soup today, my absolute favorite. A note here, if you've come into these blog entries somewhere in the middle and I don't describe things fully it's because this isn't the first time I've tried them, there will be a full description on another earlier day. Anyway, the mushroom soup is a delight, as it was the first time. I've definitely got to get lots of this in my second box.

I know I'm not going to be able to do much this afternoon. I plug in my Soundlink Mini and listen to one of my favorite Youtubers play Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, a great Playstation game I so wish I could see to play myself! Never mind, listening to Yogscast Kim play it is almost as good! During the course of the program I get an attack of the pecks. That is, I'm not really hungry but I have a little peckish hole, the kind that would dearly love to be filled by something sweet. This kind of thing is accentuated by Mr Migraine, who is now playing a prolonged solo on an Irish Bodhran in my head. When I have the kind of pain that reverberates like the deep vibrating of that thrilling Irish drum, for some weird reason, sweet things do tend to help it, or perhaps I only think they do. Anyway, as I sit and listen to Kim, and imagine myself in the beautiful Shropshire village where the game is set, I can't help but long for something little to nibble on. Ok, perhaps not chocolate, but something from my Graze Box would be good, and surely that wouldn't hurt. L and Whining Winnie both tell me that those snacks are so small, it wouldn't be too much of a slip, and this is a really nasty Migraine. Lady Willpower tells me it's the thin end of the wedge. If I slip now it'll be easier to slip the next time. It's a nasty tussle, but Lady W wins it in the end, and I'm glad. Every day I'll fight my battles, but so far Lady Willpower's winning, and every time she does I feel better about myself. I can do this. I can. Do. This. I console my weaker internal voices for the loss of a snack, give them all a hug, because they are me, as I am them, thank Lady W for her strength in keeping me on the straight and narrow, and we go on listening to the game.

By the time the last beautiful note of music fades away it's dinner time, and a new one for me tonight. Lasagna. Yum, one of my favorite things. Please please, don't let this be messed up. I cook it, heat up my serving of greens, plate up the meal and sit down. It smells good. Before sitting to the table I add a light but judicious sprinkle of salt. I've learned my lesson. I'm going to have to buy some table salt and pepper grinders, a thing I've never owned or needed before.

First bite: oh yum! Really really good! The lasagna holds together well, I hate it where there's too much sauce and it's all sloppy. The pasta's nice and thick but not stodgy, the ragu is tender and tasty, the cheese sauce is delicious, thick and creamy. You'd never know this was a low calorie meal. My serving of crunchy greens is a perfect addition. I scrape every morsel off the plate with relish.

The evening whiles away, I do a little reading, catch up on a few things, watch some tv drama on very quiet volume and it's snack time before I know where I am. Another new snack, caramel popcorn. As it microwaves it smells amazing. The popping corn and caramel combine to make a delicious toasty caramel aroma that floods my mouth with water. I grab the hot puffed up paper bag as soon as it's ready, give it a good shake. I can't wait to prize it open and dig in!

First bite: Oh my! This is definitely the best popcorn I've had. AS you bring it up to your mouth that amazing aroma hits your nose, it almost fills you up itself. Then the taste of the corn and a lovely full caramel flavour hit you, it's gorgeous. I was wondering how they'd achieve it, of course they must have used arteficial sweetener, but it doesn't taste fake to me, it's just so good! Even though the snack's long gone, that smell still fills the room. I definitely have to have lots more of this. The only tiny trouble with popcorn is that it doesn't fill me as much as the crisps or the cookies do, even though there's more of it than there are crisps or cookies. Isn't that strange? Never mind, I'll put up with being a tiny bit peckish just to enjoy that wonderful taste and heavenly smell.

So there you are, all up to date. Tomorrow will be day 14. I can hardly believe it. I had planned to take this blog up to day 28. But when I mentioned that I was going to stop there, there was an awful wail from noble husband, and a couple of other people seemed a bit disappointed too, so we'll see how I feel. The thing is though, I don't plan to end this journey soon. It's not like something I'm doing for three months or six months, if it works, which it seems like it is, I want to keep eating this way long term, but add things so that my calorie intake isn't so restricted like more fruit, more dairy, and perhaps the odd treat now and then. I can't argue with the fact that, because of this plan, I'm eating three regular meals a day, a healthy, low fat, balanced diet, which I haven't done for, well, ever. I can get my food without causing hassle to my husband or making mounds of dirty dishes, the whole thing is just fitting into our lifestyle better than I dared to hope. So, at this stage I'm feeling pleased as anything, hopeful and optemistic. Let's see if I can stay up here on the top of the see-saw, it looks nice from up here. Goodnight everyone.

Food eaten today.

Breakfast: Luxury Muisli, plain, no fat yogurt.

Lunch: Mushroom Soup.

Dinner: Beef Lasagne, serving of sliced spring greens.

Snack: Caramel Flavoured Popcorn.

Drinks: Tea, no milk or sugar.

Bad? no.

Are you hungry? no.

Mood: Hopeful, Optemistic, contented.

Music: Everybody's Gon to the Rapture Soundtrack: Clouds and Starlight.