Firstly, two really good snack ideas: carrot sticks with a dip made of low fat natural yoghurt mixed with sweet chilli sauce - very yum and the sweet chilli sauce is the most fattening part; the other is Peter's light and creamy individual serve icecreams (the kinda oblong ones) spread with a light layer of Weight Watchers Fruits of the Forest jam and them put between two wafers. A most excellent treat.

Secondly, I ate far too much last night. Far, far too much. You know it's a worry when you wake up still full from the night before. And how did this happen? Well I'm glad you asked. There is a resturant near my house, called the Moorocan Soup Bar. It is a policy of not allowing bookings for groups of less than six and it is extremely popular so when we got there last night, we were told there was a 2 hour wait. They had heaps of people on the wait list sitting around at the local bars already.

Normally we'd have gone somewhere else but we'd heard so much about this place and had all been meaning to go there for years so we decided to stick out the wait. We went to an absolutely fantastic bar down the street and had drinks. I decided to order something to nibble on so I wouldn't be too starved when we finally got dinner. A smart move except that I ordered a vintage cheddar platter, damnit. When we finally got back to the resturant and got our table, we decided on the banquet. The food was superb, well worth the wait, but we were so hungry we just scoffed it down. Scoffed. Like an industrial scoffing machine.

I find the hardest thing about vego food is knowing how much oil has been included. I guess with any resturant food. Vego food though is the hardest. Sometimes I think the best thing to do is to just eat it and not worry too much. But don't do it too often either. Next time I go out for a meal I must remember: to eat slowly, to drink lots of water, to savour my food.

Actally yesterday was bad eating day all day. Mostly through lack of preparation. I had a doctor's appointment at 9.00 and slept in so skipped breakfast. That ended up being most fortunitious because it meant I could go straight across the road to pathology for my fasting blood tests instead of having to do it before work. Trouble was, it was about 10.30 by the time I got finished with doctors and tests and stuff so I was starved. I couldn't even wait for brekkie at a cafe so I got an apple scroll at Brumbys bakery. I have no idea on the kjs or fat levels or anything there.

Then I went to Greensborough Plaza for some retail therapy and wardrobe restocking, forgetting that I hate shopping centres. I had my #1 pet shopping hate come up in Target. I got a cardigan, a lovely green-blue snuggle cardi off the Under $25 rack but it had no tag on it. When I got to the checkout I told the girl it had been on the under $25 rack so I had to wait around for about half hour for the price checks etc. Grrrr! Of course, it ended up that the cardi was on the wrong rack. That always happens to me at sales. ALWAYS. I am tempted to think the stores do it on purpose. Anyway, the cardi was only $28. If I had known the price checking process was going to take so long I'd have just paid the $28 and had some peace and quiet.

I seriously go into meltdown at shopping centres. I have about an hour/hour and a half window of sane time then I shut down. It is quite awful. I can't think, can't make decisions, can't focus. So half hour of my shopping time wasted is a big pain for me. So, just as I was starting to flake, I kept walking past Pretzel World with their big hot dog in a pretzel promotion. Hot dog in a pretzel. How good does that sound. No matter where I went in that shopping centre I could see it. In the end I went to Pretzel World and got a 98% fat free pretzel. Again, I don't know how much sugar or other crap was in it but it had to be better than the hot dog in a pretzel for sure.

The upshot of this rather rambling post, I guess, is that for some people dieting is about making the best choice at all times. I mean, I could have packed a salad or a healthy snack for the shopping centre. I could have pre-prepared breakfast. But, for me, I'm never going to be that person. I'm never going to live my life to diet. Bugger that. I've spent this long living my life to eat...I'm not going to replace an obsession with food with an obsession for dieting or exercising or anything like that. Sometimes real life is about making the best possible decision in the circumstances (or not even the best but the best you can live with). Make the decision then live with it. I had a great time last night, I ate, drank and enjoyed myself. I'll make sure I put in some extra time at the gym today but other than that, I feel no stress at all.

As I mentioned above, I went to the doctor's yesterday. I had my blood sugar levels and cholestrol tested for the first time since I started making chances to my diet and exercise. I'm every keen to the see how these are changed. My next appointment is on Saturday, and I'm hoping for some very good news. My doctor also gave me a referral to a diet counsellor so I'm excited about that as well.