Lunching with Colleagues

Maybe the most difficult part of a diet is to socialize and still keep dieting. Living in a country where we socialize around the dinner table and not on the pub as in some other countries makes the dieting-socializing process a huge impact in the social relationship.

Today is Friday and people from work always celebrate Friday bringing a huge brunch to the office. And guess what: 90% of the food and drink they bring is full of carbs.

I had my omelet breakfast in addition to my café latte and went to the office to face the carbs at work. I could survive and even being tempted all the time by the carb lovers I managed to wait till lunchtime.

For lunch my colleagues were planning to go to a Japanese restaurant. It was ok I could go and have only sashimi (Raw Fish) but the 12 thin slices of Raw Tuna were more expensive than an endless barbecue feast. I don’t think it is worthwhile.

I did a pretty good job convincing them to go to an Arabic restaurant instead of a Japanese. The Arabic restaurants in Brazil work mostly with beef and not Lamb (Have I told you I hate Lamb?). So I could eat lots of pieces of beef in a very traditional restaurant in Sao Paulo.

In the very end of the lunch my colleagues asked for a delicious desert I can’t remember the name, but it is a pasty filled with almond and covered in honey. They tried again to convince me to eat “just a small piece” but I am like an Alcoholic in rehab: the first drop leads to others… so if I fall in this small issue, I could fail in others.

The First Day

Everybody knows that Monday is the official day for starting a diet. Once every single diet I started on a Monday I gave up it on the following Friday I decided this time to start dieting on a Thursday.

I also had no doubt in choosing the most controversial of all diets: the low-carb one.

In the last month I tried to do the low-calorie diet, the blood system one, the points one, but it was impossible to keep doing those without starving.

At the end I tried to exercise. I went to the park 2 days in a row, on the third day I decided to rest and I am resting till now.

I was thinking on how can I really go on a diet for a long term without giving up in the middle (or in the very beginning). I thought that maybe if I could write telling people how difficult it is to lose weight I would be able to persist dieting for a longer period.

I decided to start dieting last night when I was preparing to shower and I noticed how big my belly was, and I never had a belly before... This thing must be gone - I thought.

Living in a hotel does not help. Although I have someone to prepare me an omelet every morning I also have in the breakfast lounge hundreds of carb-breads, carb-cakes, carb-cereals and carb-fruits. I have to ignore all those carbs that seem to be imploring to be eaten and focus on my omelet.

The first day of a diet is not that difficult, you have a great will-power, you are so sure it will work that you really follow the diet. I am more afraid of other days on which I will have office lunches, family parties and happy hours.