Day 2: I Have Something To Confess

Yesterday had some really interesting and funny points;

·        First job of the day, after breakfast, was to find a supplier for my Meal 3 & Meal 4. The resort restaurant is a bit on the officious side and insisted that we call Room Service to organise a simple container of vegies and another of salad each morning. My mind boggles at the cost of that so I decided we should look further afield.

 Stop #1 was an Asian café. Very traditional, very ‘homely’ (hehe). I checked out the silver ‘cloches’ and found a few of them containing some nice big fat vegies. Swimming in gravy, oyster sauce, chilli sauce and some other unidentified sauces. I considered this may be a backup option whereupon I could wipe off the sauce if need be. Then I saw a big fat fly crawl out of one dish and decided we would keep walking. I knew we could do better.

Finally found a Chinese restaurant. Still homely but very clean. We looked at the menu and excitedly spotted ‘Stir Fried Vegetables’, ‘Steamed Rice’, and ‘Dry Chilli Chicken’. I called the waiter over and we had a discussion on these items to check for suitability. He informed me that the chicken is previously deep fried then dried – unsuitable. We had a discussion on the vegies as follows (can you tell I take notes for living?!):

I said: “I really want all of those beautiful vegies but really want them steamed – can you do it?”

He said: “No!”

I said: “I’m sure you can. Pretty please? Just the vegies steamed?”

He said” No! Our chefs don’t know how to do all of that fancy stuff (chortle chortle). They cook it a certain way otherwise you come back and say it’s horrible and want your money back. No!”

I said: “Ok – how about stir fry with no oil?”

He said: “No sauce?”

I said: “That’s right – no sauce, no oil, no nothing (double negative – I know!). Just vegies”

He said: “You don’t want MSG????”

I said: “You are absolutely correct. I don’t want MSG”

He said: “No. We can’t do it. You have to have sauce. Water sauce. The vegies have their own water that just comes out and we can’t get rid of that”.

I said: “Perfect! We just want the vegie ‘sauce’ – the water ‘sauce’ – that’s perfect but nothing else”.

He said (somewhat unsure of himself): “Ok - I’ll try for that one”

 We had a further discussion about the meat and the absolute best he could do was a sizzling beef. It arrived coated in glistening sauce and Rob tells me it was delicious. But can’t complain as I was served a very large platter of beautiful vegies with not a drop of sauce or oil in sight. Also a big bowl of plain salad and I mixed that with some tuna that I had brought with me. Bit of flaxseed oil, mustard and salt & pepper – voila!! 2 Meals all sorted for the day.

 

·        Then dinner came. I’m ashamed to admit something. I have to tell you in the name of honesty. But I don’t’ want to. It hurts my spirit to admit it. It went like this;

I had a bbq meat dish with some gorgeous vegies from the buffet. All good and very satisfying in a meat and veg sort of way. Again, scales whipped out meant I got the right amount of meat and Rob polished off whatever was over quota.

And then it happened. I had a brainwave. It was an ‘all you can eat’ buffet meal that we had included in the cost of the resort package. I calculated that I had probably eaten around $5 worth of food. I made a hasty decision. “Hey Rob – we should nick a piece of meat for my meals tomorrow!! You go and get it from the bbq, I’ll wrap it in something and put it in my bag”. Didn’t take any convincing and Rob was in it up to his eyeballs. He visited the bbq cookers and came back with fish hidden under a piece of decoy steak. But we didn’t have anything to wrap it in. “Toilet paper” was Rob’s idea, so off he went to the gents (explanation: cloth serviettes only – not cool to steal them..but apparantely ok to steal meat). He came back a short time later explaining that a ninja-lady (Muslim in black from head to foot) was in the gents photographing her husband doing something – not sure what. So he had to pretend to ‘go’ and walk out with a wad of paper. Then he had a brainwave and took some hand towels instead – less sticky when connecting with meat oils. 

Rob came back and assumedly placed the paper on the table. He then went to peruse the dessert stand. Meanwhile my eyes darted back and forth. Wait staff everywhere. Watching me. Trying to catch me out. But I’m too quick. Someone dropped a plate, all heads turned and I seized the moment to grab my fish and, with lightning fast speed, wrap in toilet room handy towels, and drop it cleanly into my bag. Sweat beads broke out on my forehead. I felt like I had just committed a crime. I technically had. 

We finished up dinner and headed back to our room without speaking a word. On locking our room door I felt a rush of adrenalin. Elation at what we had just pulled off!! The Great Fish Heist was complete – WOOT WOOT!!! Man - that sort of rocked!! Over 40 and still a rebel!! Took a while to come back down. Finally settled with a green tea and casein goop.

Today we hired bikes and did a nice ride around the place. And then returned to a fish, vegie and salad feast!! Haha!! I took the system on and won!! This could get dangerous – it’s almost time to head for dinner again! 

Another great day. Another day on the plan. A nice big back workout followed by some good core work and we came out of the gym dripping. Quick relax and it’s time to hit the buffet. Back tomorrow.

PS: It gets quite addictive to feel the power of not giving in. I'm on comp prep so it's a bit extreme, but if you're planning a holiday and don't want to come back bigger than when you left, you'll probably have to make a bit of a plan. Plan 60mins a day for exercise and make a decision before you leave about what you will and won't eat and maybe when. Those that say this is over the top or ridiculous are those that generally have no food or weight issues  - bully for them. In the end, who cares what others think?