Birthday Weekend

I had a wonderful long birthday weekend. I did go a bit crazy, food-wise, but it wasn't a full-on binge.

Friday, my wonderful boyfriend took me on a picnic in Central Park, followed by a cooling spin in a row boat. The picnic consisted of a whole grain baguette from Amy's Bread, Italian dry salami (one of my favorite indulgences), cheddar with onion, roasted garlic and herbs, fruit salad, spicy chicken and a purple cabbage salad from the Amish Market. He'd brought some tangy cranberry sauce that went beautifully with the spicy chicken. True serendipity! We also shared a split of a nice cabernet.

I was taken to Becco on Friday night, where I did indulge in their Sinfonia di Pasta. The mushroom ravioli was my favorite of the 3. I stopped short at a full stomach, though, and went for the berries and cream for dessert. My sugar was a bit elevated the next morning, but not as bad as I expected.

Saturday, the night of my actual birthday, we went to Eatery, the home to incredibly indulgent Mac and Jack, accompanied by a watermelon martini (muddled watermelon- how can that be wrong?). Wisely, I ate less than half of the entree, though I'm sure it was still nearly a day's worth of calories. I followed it up with a hot fudge banana split at Junior's (okay, about a quarter of the sundae, if that). Sadly, I've discovered there's something in the Mac and Jack I'm sensitive to (not just the richness- I had the same reaction when I had it a year ago), so it was a last hurrah, but that's probably a good thing, considering the big picture. After a night of my stomach in rebellion, the advantage was that my sugar was a healthy 88 the next morning.

Sunday night was dinner at John's Pizzeria. I love their whole wheat crust- a good balance of thin and chewy. After a large house salad, we had the margherita pizza with added roasted garlic. Mmmm. Feeling a bit cheated out of dessert the night before (since it was out of my system pretty quickly- not fun), I had a slice of chocolate cake. My blood showed it the following morning, but not to dangerous levels, just a little spike. Once more day and I was back to normal.

All in all, everything I put in my mouth was worth it. I think I crept up a couple of pounds, but I'm back on track, so hopefully that will be gone again soon.