Thursday 22 March 2007

The Eating Out

Last night I met up with a friend whose schedule is almost as packed as mine; we have to book ourselves months in advance. She is currently renting a fantastic flat, right on the river just down from Greenwich Palace, on the north side. We sat in her darkened living room, with its wall of glass facing onto the river, drinking sauvignon blanc and watching the play of lights and reflections on the water, and in the air as the planes came in on their approach routes to Heathrow. It was totally stunning. I wish I had been able to take pictures.

She is Canadian and says living in such a place is the only way she can handle living in London. I can certainly appreciate that; it was very quiet and peaceful and yet wonderfully dramatic. I'm jealous!

Then we went to the Thai restaurant which is part of her apartment complex and had the most delicious meal which just had to be almost perfect for CR. We had lettuce wraps as appetizers (the best use I can imagine for iceberg, really!), and I had Tom Yum Hed (clear ginger and lemongrass soup with mushrooms and chilli), and then a few bites of Morning Glory with green beans (yes, the name made me giggle like a loon). I took the rest home for P. Fantastic evening. I do love Thai food.

Tonight we are meeting friends and eating here. Oh dear. Not good for CR. Last time we went they had a wonderful dish of steamed purple sprouting broccoli with chilli and garlic and the freshest buffalo mozzarella (but I wasn't CR-ing then). I guess I will have the salad, and hope the soup is reasonably CR-friendly and vegetarian. Or maybe I could have the peppers without the anchovies and hide the bread under the table. :-) Or perhaps today's menu will be totally different and perfect for me. I am saving my calories up for it, which is going to make for some tricky lunchtime eating... Maybe today, I won't be getting the near perfect nutrition I've been managing recently.

Or think I am managing... I'm not sure I am doing the fats right. I am still very fat phobic, and 1tsp of flax oil is about all I can manage in terms of straight oil a day. I've got my almonds and pumpkin seeds down pat though. Any suggestions for improvement? I've been thinking about it because the skin on my hands is getting very very dry. In fact so much so yesterday, they looked like the hands of someone in their sixties or seventies (it was very cold) and this is not good! Hands age faster than any other part of the body, I know, but even so; I'm not ready to go there yet!

6 comments:

Deborah said...

I'm in the same quandary. As a result of taking the EFA gel tabs instead of the two teaspoons of Flax I was taking, my skin is drying out. But I didn't like having so many calories in my fat. UGH! So I'm thinking of going back to the oil, and yet, as an older person (if your hands look like 60..what do you suppose mine look like and I've go 10 years on you?) I'm learning that I may not convert the fats in the flax oil as well as you younger ladies do, so I'm going for a mixture. I need to read up some more on this myself to be certain.

Obviously no sage words for you, but probably someone will chime in with some direction for you soon.

In the meantime, I think you need to go out to your restaurant and enjoy whatever meal you like. Saving up is good, perhaps going a bit lower tomorrow will help, but enjoy your time out with your friends I say. Hopefully this reaches you in time. It's mid-afternoon for you now. Have a wonderful time.

Wish I had that view. When I lived in Sweden, we were on an island east of the city of Stockholm, and we watched the large boats going back and forth each day. What a lovely site.

Cheers!
;-D

Sara said...

I think I read somewhere that mixing the contents of Vit E capsules into regular handcream really helped the crone hand problem! I could also have been dehydrated. I quite often am, I think. Surprise! Maybe it's worth starting to make a real effort to drink lots and lots of water (calorie-free!) and see if that helps skin hydration...

I do not understand the whole blood lipid thing. I feel so dim!

Anonymous said...

Oh, but pink fir apples. If you're going to blow your calories, do it on those!

April said...

If I go more than a day or so without my flax, my hands go back to being dry and flaky. If I eat my flax, I'm fine. Really, it works.

Sara, you'll appreciate this... my lawyer friend the wine wonk (who needs a blog name: let's call him "Jim") has already made reservations to take me and Luke to some great restaurant up near Scranton on Sunday night and he's bringing wine. And we're calling cabs so that no one has to drive... I am absolutely psycho about not driving after I've had a drop and not riding with anyone who's been drinking. So you can imagine that there will be food and wine. What am I going to do for three days and three nights in Scranton with all my bad kid friends??? I can take the once a month event, and it's lovely, but lately it's been happening a lot. Tonight I'm going out to another great restaurant to celebrate another victory. These things are piling up! MR would "just say no," but there's no way I'm passing up such opportunities... I just wish they could come a little more spaced out!

a

Sara said...

April - I just need to open that chain of CR restaurants. Nothing else for it! :-)

Caroline said...

I have been known to pop a vit E capsule and just rub THAT on chafed skin. Mixing it with hand cream would make it go farther.

I hope you have a delicious dinner!!