Oh, the cravings!

As the afternoon progressed yesterday, I noticed that the clouds were moving away and there was actual sunlight outside. Joy! I bolted out of work right at 5 o'clock, raced home to take care of a couple of things, then hopped on my bike to head for the park. My tires were a little low, I'm not a strong cyclist, it's basically all uphill to the park, but, darn it, I was going to get some hiking in. After searching all over for a place to lock up my bike (incidentally, it's past all the parking lots towards the picnic area), I finally was able to get on the trail. One mile up, dodging mud, and one mile back, dodging the same mud. Then the easy ride home. Ahhhh.

Like I've said before, I've given up refined sugars for Lent. With the exception of girly drinks last Saturday ('cause, yeah, fruity girly cocktails at mainstream Southern California restaurants tend to be sweet), I've really been sticking to it.

Yesterday evening I met up with a friend for dinner, at a little mini-mall Mediterranean place in San Bruno. It's called Cafe Grillades. I had the spinach salad, "baby spinach with sun-dried tomatoes, roasted bell pepper, goat cheese, artichokes, and toasted walnuts" in a balsamic vinagrette. Plus a pot of pear-flavored green tea. The salad was very nice: plenty of roasted peppers on mine, not too much dressing, the spinach was fresh, and all the flavors blended together quite nicely. I would go back there to try some of the other things on the menu.

(Incidentally, the table right next to ours ordered various dessert crepes, so I had to wait for my salad while sitting next to a plate of delicious sweet crepes, caramel sauce, and whipped cream.)

When I arrived home, my body decided to tell me that it really wasn't satisfied, and wanted more food. Okay, here you go, have some almonds and cacao nibs.

"No," it said, after nomming the nuts, "I want sugar."

Well, I said, you're not going to get any sugar. Even though I have a ziploc bag full of oatmeal raisin cookies in the freezer, which I am going to give away to my boyfriend so they don't tempt me further, I'm not going to give you any cookies. Or any sweet chocolate. Or even any more dried fruit.

"Wahhh!" my body cried.

Okay, I said, here's half a cup of apple cider. And that was all it took. Hopefully the desire for sugar truly will diminish over time. I'll just have to wait and see and make sure I always have healthy options for sweetness at home.