The rules: I will drop all the fatty, cakey, sugary, creamy things that should be rare treats.
The results: Hopefully I will also drop kilos.
The small print: Exceptions = I won’t beat myself up if I stumble. I will allow quiche, an occasional dark chocolate treat, a small slice of birthday cake (without cream), and a little something on a special outing.
The doctor’s advice: As my overall cholesterol and fasting glucose have slightly increased I should limit my consumption of bad fats and cut my alcohol consumption by quite a bit. (More on these things in other posts.)
The exercise physiologist’s advice: I need to build my muscle and lose a bit of weight by limiting the bad foods and doing regular exercise.
The progress Day 1 to Day 3:
Preparing the drink had all ritual worthy of a tea ceremony. Dripping ice water over a sugar cube which rests on a silver sugar cube holder specially designed for this purpose, the absinthe changes colour. Sip. Add more water. Nibble a sweet treat. Chat. Sip some more. The alcohol and wormwood works it’s magic.
Edited to add: I just realised I have also not eaten any of the rich, beautiful vanilla ice-cream that I bought and is sitting in the freezer. Nor have I eaten pudding. Can I convey how much I love pudding? I was going to make several this week, and bought the ice cream to go with puddings, but haven’t cooked them. Though I could murder a decadent sticky date pudding or a self-saucing chocolate pudding. Mmmmm.
lucinda sans 
Wow what a cool outing. I just nibbled some of the corner of the brownies for tomorrow’s housewarming, but yesterday I was so good! I had the last choc ball (made at home, only ‘bad’ was glucose syrup), otherwise totally healthy. Not sure I was good ‘enough’ on 1 Oct – might have had the last Tim Tam…
Yes, it was a cool outing. And then we walked around Surry Hills and up to Oxford St and finished off with Vietnamese for dinner.
One or two little treats doesn’t hurt, and you’re younger than me. Unfortunately I find it difficult to stop at one, so I have nothing.
I definitely struggle to stop at one too – so I’ll often take one or two tim tams to work (rather than the packet), so I have to stop, there are no more! And I try not to have bad stuff in the house, cause then I tend to think ‘I’ll just eat it all and it’ll be gone’ which is not good for me! Thankfully more of the housewarming food got eaten.
Good planning, Sarah. I ask my husband not to bring into the house any chocolate as I will find it and eat it! Problem at work is that there is a communal bikkie tin and a canteen with tempting things. I will need to have a supply of good stuff for when I go back to work to eat rather than eating the bad things.
Oh, my goodness, you do have glamorous outings. I hope you channelled all fin de siecle poets and quoted The Picture of Dorian Gray at length…
You are being SO restrained. I, on the other hand, really need to stop eating bread, and the yummy fair trade choc chips (but they are so small I tell myself, and wafer thin…)
Sorry to ruin the picture but our conversation was quite low-brow. And we vented about work a lot. And disappointingly most people who go to the salon do so because Marilyn Manson likes the drink. I know, just not the right back story for 1890s Paris.
Lucinda the visit to the absinthe salon sounds positively Belle Epoque – and I didn’t know there was one so close to home!
Your comment that you “find it difficult to stop after one so I have nothing” shows self-awareness (some people live more easily with the “little treat being enough” system) so I wish you all the best for Droptober.
Thanks Megan, but I hope I can get to the stage that being virtuous doesn’t feel so restrictive. And that I can have one piece of something without scoffing or inhaling handfuls, or going back and back and back for “just one more”.