Indulgence 1

Just got back from lunch. We went to a restaurant called WOK (analogue to Wagamame). My choice was to indulge myself with a "normal" meal. I had Pad Thai with prawns. Not very salty, which was good, but a bit too sweet because of the tamarind and the palm sugar. I thought it was a healthy choice, it wasn't oily at all, though a bit lacking on the vegetables front and a bit too excessive on carbs. Rice noodles, however (or at least I hope), aren't  too unhealthy. Maria had the same out of sheer solidarity.

For dessert Maria and I shared a dough-free chocolate cake. We simply couldn't finish it.  Below some pictures taken from the menu:

What worked and what didn't work?

What worked was first and foremost that I enjoyed having lunch out for the first time in 26 days with my wife. It was what I expected: a moment of rest, a late anniversary celebration and basically a treat to ourselves. I think it helped me specially in realeasing tension and stress caused by too much work, little sleep and our son's gastroenteritis. I was happy to eat a meal I didn't cook, to be served a nice looking plate and to overcome the fear of not knowing what it weighted. I also know that I don't need to eat like this on a regular basis and that the food I've been eating over the past 25 days is tasty and good. The feeling that I'm not missing on much immediately encouraged me to appreciate even more PCP approved food. This is as far as the Pad Thai goes. By the way, a few days before starting PCP, I cooked Pad Thai at home and invited some friends. Not to brag about my cooking skills, but that one was so much better.

What didn't work: chocolate cake. I had just a few spoons of it and felt over-cloyed and ultimately palled by it. I feel regret and frustration. Had I known what was ahead of this, I'd had used this chance differently. Maybe next time I'll just have a glass of very good wine. Or, why not, a small piece of fine chocolate.

As I had anticipated in a comment to Molly's entry, the theory on the very low marginal utility of chocolate was confirmed.

Some additional thoughts

In the end, this (indulgence 1) was a very positive experience. I learned to appreciate even more what I'm doing and gained extra strength to not deviate from the long term objective by falling pray of short term pleasures and temptations. One other thing that was very important about my experience was realising that eating is not something you should do on your own. Eating together, sharing a table, sharing the same food and using this time to connect with others (in this case I was in the best possible company), is perhaps as important if not more important than the food itself. Why make of eating just an action when it can be an occasion 6 times a day? I'll try to show more reverence and pay more attention to the ritual of eating from now on. Not that I'm not generally aware of this; it is simply that thinking so much about food has heightened its importance diet-wise and perhaps bleaked its social implications.

In Spansih the word for home is "hogar", which comes from "hoguera" or fire-place. Home is were you come together to eat. "Home" is the word in my banner describing my special activity, which has also made me reflect on the importance of better fitting PCP into my normal life.