Day 20a

Yesterday, I began logging my food on the Self Diet Club website. Eeek. It’s going to be horrible. I’m not ready to share what my intake actually was, but suffice it to say that I am going significantly over on fats and under on protein. Somehow, my carb balance is perfect, but I’m not eating anything that seems really good for me. This is depressing news because I felt I was doing okay, not great but okay. It’s not like I eat dessert all day long. But I do understand now why I’m hungry all of the time if I’m eating mostly fat and little long-lasting protein. We’ll work on that. . . .


Another horrifying development was my taste test of veggie bacon. OMG, it was soooo awful! I tried Lightlife’s Smart Bacon. Upon opening, I felt it smelled exactly like the dog’s Pup-eroni treat sticks, which was not a pleasant first take. To make the test fair, I did both my usual microwave heating — which I’m constantly using on real bacon because I am lazy — and a more traditional stovetop trial. In both cases, the soy product shriveled up and looked like the smooth inside of bark stripped meanly from a tree. George thought it looked like leather, and before I could stop him he tasted it. Immediately his face wrinkled into a horrified scowl. To his credit, he chewed it up thoroughly and swallowed it, but it was a lasting bad impression. Fake bacon is one of those things with an aftertaste that won’t let you forget it. Yuck. George didn’t stick around for the second test, but I was no more impressed with the pan-fried method either. Both were equally shrunken and exceptionally dry. I even melted butter in the frying pan to help it out a little, to no avail. Perhaps if I continue on as a vegetarian for another three years without smelling or tasting real bacon, I might be able to eat this as a passable substitute. Until then, skip it. (Well, unless I can find something to cut it into that won’t highlight it in any way. I feel badly tossing out $3.49 worth of soy product for a bad taste test.)