I Have Gone Psycho

Okay, it is now official. I have gone slightly loony. Let me recap my day…

I woke up at 5 A.M., got ready, and grabbed a yogurt and a Fiber One as I headed out the door. Good intentions, good start. I even felt far better than I usually do at 5 A.M. after only getting a little over four hours of sleep. I ate my yogurt right away and my Fiber One bar a little over an hour later.

I felt good. But, as it approached about 1 P.M. my stomach began to rumble as it expects to be satiated on a more regular basis throughout the day. It was time for lunch. Only one crucial decision needed to be made… where. Well, the District Advisor I was riding with decided on Golden Corral! Can you believe it? I said I would never be at a buffet after Las Vegas and here I found myself at Golden Corral for the second time in two months! I was not thrilled. I even considered the social correctness of saying that I really didn’t want to go there even though it is customary that the DA decides on the lunch spot. Unfortunately, I refrained.

I wasn’t horrible. I wasn’t great. I was better than the last time I went to Golden Corral. I still ate more than my stomach likes to eat anymore… which is far less than my stomach was willing or able to handle the last time I was there. I think I was mostly disappointed because I wanted to try a nice restaurant near the hotel for dinner and my lunch had removed any such desire.

I got back to the hotel around 5:30 and found myself eager to get to the exercise room. I stopped by on my way up just to make sure that they had what I needed. There they were… two brand spanking new and shiny Nautilus treadmills with a large flat screen Vizio television placed nicely in front of them! No weight machines. But, if I had a choice of the two, the treadmill would have been my preferred apparatus. I rushed to my room, quickly changed and headed back down to the exercise room. I went for almost an hour while watching the NBA playoffs and felt much better about my poor lunch-time decisions. I finished and walked back up the four flights of stairs while stopping at each floor to do some calf lunges.

I debated even leaving the hotel to grab dinner. Almost stayed and ate an orange and some strawberries. But, bad logic prevailed. So, I headed out. I passed the Fire Rock Grill that I was planning to try. Thought of turning in and decided to keep driving. I eventually saw a Kentucky Fried Chicken and decided to grab a piece of grilled chicken and a side and bring it back to the hotel. But, sadly, my tale of woe continues. As I pulled up I realized that this was a combo KFC and Long John Silver’s. Long John’s… my nemesis and an out-of-town destination spot.

I walked in to the KFC/LJS combo store and stood there staring at the menu for about 15 minutes. The scary part about my 15 minute wait was that nobody was in line! Just me, standing there trying to decide. My mind jumped back and forth between healthy, well maybe not “healthy”, items and fried fish and shrimp. The dark side of my mind won out and I ordered a fish and shrimp combo meal. I felt guilty, but undaunted. I got my food and decided to eat there. I ate a piece of shrimp. Good, not great. I had a bite of fish. Okay, but overcooked and not even as good as the shrimp. I had some coleslaw. Decent, but only because it seemed healthier since it wasn’t actually deep-fried! I grabbed another shrimp but decided to remove the breading from it. I did the same with one of the pieces of fish. I removed the breading from the rest of the fish and played with the broken up pieces and realized I no longer wanted any more of this saturated-fat-laden breading or food. I covered it up, walked to the trash can, and proceeded to dump the rest of my meal in the garbage.

Not sure if this is even a victory. The fact that I even ordered it concerns me and I talked to myself out loud in the car on the way back to the hotel. I muttered things about being better than that, about not letting all of this progress slip away because of a business trip, about being a different person. Yeah, it’s hard to travel. But, I do not have to act like a glutton. Shame on me for not driving to the McDonald’s around the corner and just grabbing the side salad that I should have had and that my stomach would have been happy with. Or, I should have eaten the fruit I brought just to avoid having such a moment.

As I said, slightly loony. Maybe slightly is an understatement. But, I have to get past the crazy moments like I had tonight! Here’s to the last bites of Long John Silver’s I will ever have and trying to locate the mind that I lost somewhere along this journey…