«Tuesday Weigh-in: 204.4»

A couple of months ago, when I was a week or so into the program and Sparky hadn’t started yet, I heard about a cooking class at a local restaurant for Cinco de Mayo. We decided it would be a good date night activity because we would know exactly what went in the food we were eating and would be able to control some of the ingredients. Well, we were half right. Turned out to be an exhibition cooking class rather than a hands-on one. They started out by offering us sour orange margaritas with a habanero sugar rim. Thank goodness Sparky had the presence of mind to say no because I really wanted a taste of that margarita. While it was being offered, I was positive that I could try one sip and leave it at that. As I watched other people sipping throughout the class, though, I wondered who I thought I was kidding. I love margaritas (as my college roommate/best friend can certainly attest) and was dying to check out the habanero sugar rim. I would have taken a sip, paused (probably), and sucked the whole thing down with the second try. Sparky is a very smart man. And apparently knows me well. So I got that going for me, which is nice.

The first thing they gave us was a plate with a jicama, orange, & cilantro salad. If it had stopped there, I would have been fine. You know it didn’t stop there, though, right? No, the chef was making panuchos. A panucho is a corn tortilla that’s puffed up on a griddle, slit open, filled with refried black beans, resealed, and fried. It’s then topped with spiced roasted chicken, salsa, lettuce, and pickled onions. But it’s the fried corn tortilla that’s the kicker. Let me tell you something, it was delicious. I ate the whole thing. The rest of the meal was good and not too hard to separate the things I couldn’t eat. We asked them in advance to box the flan up for my mom, so no trouble there. Wouldn’t have been trouble for me anyway because I hate flan, but that panucho…yum.

We decided in advance that no matter how it went, we would just go back to the regular plan the next day. No trying to make up for the extra fat we ate by restricting fat the next day. No feeling guilty about what we ate and beating ourselves up about it. I think it worked pretty well. I didn’t lose much weight this week, neither one of us did actually, but I don’t think it’s because of the cooking class. No, I’m pretty sure it was other stuff, but I’m still glad that we decided in advance not to feel guilty because…did I mention the fried corn tortilla?

My mom’s been in town (she actually left yesterday) and wanted to go get some pictures taken with the boys. We went after the party* on Sunday. I was pretty pleased with some of the results. Here’s one of the family where my face is jutted out rather awkwardly, but it looks thinner:

We’re planning to have some more taken with my brother’s family this summer, so I’m excited to see how different those look.

Thanks for the support!

*Edit: Okay, see, I posted this and then realized I mentioned the party without telling you anything about it. The daughter (for the moment I will call her “The Future Mrs. BeBop”) of some very dear friends of ours turned three last week and had a picnic on Sunday to celebrate. It was a lovely party at a fabulous playground. My favorite part was the dance The Future Mrs. BeBop did for BeBop, after which they joined hands and walked behind the nearest tree, followed at a good clip by their fathers, TFMBB’s father leading the way. Ahhhh, young love.