Week one

It's been a few days but: today marks the last day of the first week of the challenge.

The hardest part for me this past week has (obviously) been the lack of cigarettes. I'm pretty sure now that I've quit smoking, everyone else has started to make up for it. Seems everywhere I look someone has a smoke in hand... Seriously, it's almost commercial. Last Thursday I remember driving to ball and looking at the vehicles in the lane beside me, I'm probably sure everyone had a cigarette.

Last night at ball was the most difficult by far though. The other team all seemed to be heavy smokers, when they'd come to coach third base I'd get a whiff on the bench. The smell of it was one of the most intoxicating and beautiful aromas I've had the pleasure of inhaling. Now, for non-smokers that's the most disgusting thing in the world and I do understand that, but for a smoker it's comparative to smelling freshly baked triple chocolate fudge brownies stuffed into fresh-baked waffle cones from a bakery in the heavens... Yeah okay so it's not quite like that but it's close. 

Speaking of which. The food portion of the challenge is actually going quite well. Lindsay and I have had one accidental slip-up which we both acknowledged at the time. This happened yesterday, I had invited her to lunch with me and we went to Lonestar, seeing as it's right beside where I work. Lonestar gives you free tortilla chips and salsa just for walking in the door. After decimating the bowl of them we both kind of stopped and realized that not only are they tortilla chips, they're also deep fried. Strike one for us. Although, I think because it's so early in the challenge and it's so new to both of us, it was a learning experience. The rest of lunch was rather enjoyable.

With that said, I must admit I'm very impressed with Lindsay's willpower and fortitude. Yesterday was one of her teammates' birthdays, so we stopped in for a few minutes after baseball to wish him a happy birthday etc... His wife had purchased a red velvet birthday cake. Now, I've never actually eaten red velvet cake, but everyone knows what velvet feels like. I only imagine that same smooth, silky excellence. In cake form... and... in my mouth...

Lindsay politely declined without reserve. It was awesome. Watching her do that with ease is a pretty good motivator for me and only one of the reasons why I know we'll both share triumphant success over the next ninety-three days.

Week one? Check.
Bring it on.

Tempting...

Yesterday was somehow the worst possible day that we could've picked to start this challenge.

A co-worker of mine recently gave his letter of resignation and yesterday was his last day. As is customary with employee's last-days, work had a lunch for him at The Iron Duke pub. We get there, I'm starving, and all I can think about is how I'm going to stuff my pie-hole with more sweet potato fries than any mere mortal has ever stuffed into any pie-hole anywhere...

I had the salad.

And the salmon wrap... Which I was actually rather disappointed in to be honest. The service was also bad and very slow but that's beyond the point.

I played baseball last night as well. The team we played was Boston Pizza, and there was a deal made: If we beat them, we get free pizza from Boston Pizza. So I'm thinking okay is this actually happening right now? We won. Originally I hadn't intended on going to BP but I drove home, dropped Lindsay off (apparently Big Brother is cooler than Boston Pizza.. who knew?) and made the trek out there.

So I get there, order a beer and start chatting it up. The pizza comes out, and it's amazing how you don't realize how much people want you to eat with them until you're not eating with them. I respectfully declined the free pizza and even after multiple attempts from a myriad of teammates, I didn't cave. Chalk a 'W' on the score-card for this guy.

About 15 minutes later I see a waitress carrying two plates of obviously-succulent, entirely-too-delactable deep-fried chicken wings. Then another waitress with two plates of Thai chicken bites. Then another waitress with a plate of nachos. It's like they know...

So after respectfully declining another round of really-friggin-awesome, I explained to my baffled teammates why I hadn't eaten anything from the pizza, two plates of wings, two plates of thai chicken bites and plate of nachos. They were actually really good about it.

I was also quite happy when I got home to have Lindsay tell me (with that cute look on her face... the one that melts your heart) that she threw out everything from our snack cupboard so she wouldn't be tempted to eat any of it. She ate broccoli and cauliflower instead. Wow.

Very difficult first day for both of us, but a win nonetheless.