Maintenance Week Nine

Well, the treats just continued this week.  I had a tapas lunch at the ever-wonderful La Tasca Durham on Thursday, then a lovely day out in York with Jane on Friday which included the best lentil dhal I'd EVER had at El Piano.  Jane is coeliac, so I'd done some research and found out that everything in El Piano was vegan and gluten free. 

It was a cheerful, colourful little place with a bustling atmosphere, and the menu was international and unusual.  It was difficult to choose between all the very tempting options, but I ended up having the lentil dhal with rice and chickpea fritters, and Jane went Japanese with had tofu with wasabi sauce and tempura vegetables.  We were both very impressed (well, I was so impressed I thought I'd died and gone to heaven it was that good, and Jane looked quite happy too!).  My lentil dhal was made with coconut milk, and the sweetness of the coconut blended perfectly with the earthiness of the lentils, the pungent taste of the coriander and the slight kick of the chilli.  The rice was tasty too, and the fritters were little fried mouthfuls of deliciousness.  There was also a nice little bowl of sweet relish.

I tried a bit of Jane's tofu - with some trepidation - and was not unpleasantly surprised.  It was silky and tasty.

Tea/coffee and cake followed - I had chocolate cake with chocolate sauce, and Jane was very happy to have sticky toffee pudding for the first time in five years!

After all this indulgence (we patronised Betty's aswell!) I felt it appropriate to be quite abstemious for the remainder of the week.  I also got some good exercise in - Alastair and I did a good walk on Saturday, I've cycled to work every day, and I did a BRILLIANT Body Tone class.  I didn't get my run in though which was a shame.  I have so much work to do before I go away with Jules next weekend that I worked late every night.  Not.  Impressed.  It was also really cold, otherwise I might have ventured out even after getting home late.  Hopefully when the weather warms up I'll feel like running after cycling home.

Anyway, even with the relative abstemiousness - I certainly didn't deprive myself, just ate lots of fruit and veg and healthy lunches and dinners - and the exercise I was quite surprised when I weighed in at 8st 12lbs.  This wasn't entirely unplanned - not only did I feel like being healthy after all my treats this week and last week, but I'm also planning to seriously indulge myself when Jules and I go away, and thought that giving myself some room to expand would be a good thing, so I wasn't too worried.